Episode 60 with the Immensely Cerebral and Passionate Poet Andrew Liu, Creator of California Metaphysics

On Episode 60 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete has the pleasure to speak with the talented writer Andrew Liu. The two talk about Andrew’s poetry, which is multifaceted and inspired by so many disparate people and art and experiences and traditions. Andrew speaks to both the cerebral and emotional in his poetry and its connections to the idea of the muse, the Kaguya tradition, writing about paradox, and so much more.  

 

Andrew Liu is a 2020 MFA graduate of CSU Long Beach’s Creative Writing - Poetry program. He is published in two student magazines: East Los Angeles City College’s Milestone and CSU Long Beach’s Riprap. You can read his MFA thesis, California Metaphysics, which collects some of his best poems, on CSULB’s thesis database (https://www.proquest.com/docview/2455809945/C36DDE5A65C748F1PQ/1). You can also view a recording of a virtual reading of selected poems organized by Andrew Liu and his friend Jesse Tovar on Youtube: https://youtu.be/duw83IwH5fk. 

Show Notes and Links to Andrew Liu’s Work

 

Andrew Liu’s Cal State Long Beach Thesis-California Metaphysics

 

Andrew performs on Jan 8, 2021: My Place Cafe Events

 

At about 3:15, Andrew talks about growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, learning English as a second language, and the eventual eclipsing of Taiwanese by English; he also talks about his “contentious” relationship with languages and the precarious Taiwanese 

 

At about 9:45, Andrew talks about his linguistic history and how it might affect his writing; in addition, this leads to his discussion of language as a barrier and an enhancer of imagery

 

At about 12:00, Andrew hones in on how he saw himself as a poet through his varied interests as a child, as well as through help from Ms. Burkhart and the YAWP (Young Aspiring Writers Program)

 

At about 13:30, Andrew discusses writers who have given him “chills at will,” including Edgar Lee Masters, whose work connected to Andrew’s ruminations on identity

 

At about 17:30, Andrew comments on the times at which when he saw himself apply the form to the imagination, including community college as an freeing and formative experience 

 

At about 22:00, Andrew talks about the hierarchy of “manly” vs. “unmanly,” gay vs. straight, childhish vs. “grown up” and how his work plays on these opposites

 

At about 27:00, Andrew talks about the tropes of the “manchild” and the patriarchal control that shrugs and says, “boys will be boys” and how he writes to combat these as forms of protest

 

At about 30:00, Andrew talks about writing in the “surreal” time of Trumpism

 

At about 31:00, Andrews draws connections between childhood and adulthood, and his view of the fluidity of the two

 

At about 32:25, Andrew talks about the search for his writer’s autonomy and a transformational experience in hearing a high school classmate’s commanding performance, as well as his response poem in 12th grade in a “classics slam” to Ha Jin’s poem, “Ways of Talking”

 

At about 36:00, Andrew discusses inspirations for his thesis poetry collection-”California Metaphysics”

 

At about 39:00, Andrew talks about muses in his writing, particularly the problematic ways in which it is often used

 

At about 41:00, Andrew talks about his appreciation of Kaguya, particularly The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and the triumphs, resolve, and tragedies of Princess Kaguya; he connects the passivity and activity of the princess and its connection to his view of the muse 

 

At about 44:15, Andrews reads an excerpt from “Ossified Landscape w/ Faceless Girl, alt. Kaguya”

 

At about 46:30, Pete and Andrew discuss the idea of Takahata and others “interpreting” the traditional and ancient Kaguya storyline, and Andrew talks about his concerted use of parentheses in his poem

 

At about 52:05, Pete and Andrew discuss The Eternal Sunshine of the Mind, and its role as one of Andrew’s favorite movies and connections to Andrew’s work, specifically “Ossified Landscape…”

 

At about 54:40, Pete details craft successes from Andrew and asks Andrew for feedback; Andrew discusses erasure and identity and the ephemerality, with regard to the two movies mentioned above, as well as Jeremy Renner’s Arrival, based on Ted Chiang’s short story “Story of your Life”

 

At about 1:03:00, Andrew talks about ephemerality as seen in art, as well as his use of the moon as a symbol in his work

 

At about 1:07:55, Andrew connects the “paradise myth” to Danez Smith’s epic poem, “summer, somewhere”

 

At about 1:09:00, Pete and Andrew discuss Andrew’s poem “ ‘C’ for California” after Andrew reads it; Andrew talks about the poem as part of the academic tradition of poetry and the influence of Stand Up Poetry, pioneered by Andrew’s Cal State Long Beach mentor, Charles Harper Webb; the conversation then delves into nature’s connections to Andrew’s and other literature

 

At about 1:22:15, Andrew talks about future projects and the potential for his thesis

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