12 or 20 (second series) questions with Amy Ching-Yan Lam
Amy Ching-Yan Lam
is an artist and writer. Her debutcollection of poetry
Baby Book
, was published by Brick Books in spring 2023.Also available is
Looty Goes to Heaven
(2022, Eastside Projects). From2006-2020 she was part of the artist duo Life of a Craphead.1 - How did your first book change your life? How does yourmost recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
This book, whichis my first, both came out of major changes in my life and also changed my lifein major ways. I began writing it during a period of transformation, in my workand in my relationships, and I couldn’t have anticipated how much the act of writingwould also help that transformation along. This was my first time writingpoetry, and there’s something about figuring out how to work in the form ofpoems that changed my brain and my capacity for feeling. It made me moresensitive.
2 - How did you come to visual art first, as opposed to,say, fiction, poetry or non-fiction?
Actually, Ialways wanted to be a writer, throughout my childhood. So when I went touniversity I studied literature and writing. But I was so disappointed andrepelled by my graduate program in creative writing (at Concordia, FYI) that Isought escape from it and wanted to find other outlets. So I stumbled into thevisual arts through the world of zines and DIY publishing and performance, andat the time, I found it so much more free than what I was encountering at gradschool. I put aside writing and literature for basically a decade, to doperformance and film and visual arts projects, and then finally came back to itin 2018.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writingproject? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Dofirst drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work comeout of copious notes?
I think I’m aslow writer in the sense that I need lots of time to receive and gather ideasand images, and then fast in the sense that composing the drafts can happenpretty quickly. But then I need a lot of time again, to let the drafts sit andcome back to them later to edit, and then time to repeat this editing phasewith multiple poems in relation to each other for as many times as possible.
4 - Where does a poem or work of fiction usually begin foryou? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a largerproject, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
For poems, Icollect notes, and I start from there.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creativeprocess? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I think there’ssomething important about speaking the poems out loud, and having people listento them. The speaking and listening creates a special space. I don’t want totake that for granted.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind yourwriting? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? Whatdo you even think the current questions are?
Writing seemslike one of the few tools that makes sharing or expressing an interior worldpossible. It’s a way of representing lived reality. And lived reality—actuallives—are so repressed all the time.
I also thinkthat any use of language is at least a little bit magical, in the sense of thespeech act, like the act of naming, or the act of promising. It’s a way to makespells.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being inlarger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writershould be?
I’d like to behumble and not have an exaggerated sense of my importance. I also can’t standwriters who claim not to have political positions. So I guess I am of twominds: I don’t think writers have roles, but I also think that some writers arevery bad at their roles.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outsideeditor difficult or essential (or both)?
I always needother people to read my work and help me figure out what’s going on. I reallyvalue having other artist friends read my work and sharing the process withthem. As a triple Virgo, I love a good critical eye.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (notnecessarily given to you directly)?
I once heardJohn Giorno respond to the question of “How to make it as an artist” with theanswer “You have to ruin your life,” and it comes to mind often. I think it’strue in the sense that your life will no longer make sense to most people (ie.ruined) but it will also be a lot better (ie. ruined in the romantic sense, ofhaving a more full relationship to the forces of change).
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres(poetry to fiction to visual art)? What do you see as the appeal?
Sometimes Iwonder why I work in so many different genres and if it would be simpler andmaybe more financially intelligent just to do one thing, but I enjoy thesolitary work of writing as well as the collaboration inherent in other artforms.
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or doyou even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
No comment.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn orreturn for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I findinspiration in other artists’ work and lives. And I also like to read abouthistory, because I always find it so strange and interesting how people havelived and how transformation happens.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Carpet.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for yourwork, or simply your life outside of your work?
Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Bob Flanagan, Donald Rodney… so many other artists who havewholeheartedly expressed their lives and struggles through their work, and thework of my friends.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Go on a reallylong hike.
17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, whatwould it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doinghad you not been a writer?
Unfortunately, Ithink I could enjoy being a lawyer.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was thelast great film?
I just watched The World is Family, a beautifuldocumentary by Anand Patwardhan about his parents and their lives and colonialrule and nationalism in India, and it made me cry all the way out of thetheatre.
20 - What are you currently working on?
I’mworking on a book called Property Journal,where I kept a diary for a year writing down every time the topics of realestate or housing came up in conversation or in my life. It’s being publishedby Book Works in 2024.
