Annie Trinh

Oyster River Pages: How is your art or writing informed by current social and/or political issues?

Annie Trinh: A lot, actually. For example, “To the King of Fruit,” is based on my experience of growing up in a male-dominated culture and how being different could lead an individual to be ostracized. Therefore, my writing is a response to what is occurring in the world.

ORP: How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your relationship to art and writing, either in the creation of it or the consumption of it?

AT: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed my relationship with art, especially the creation of it. Because, currently, we live in a time of uncertainty, and the stories that I wanted to write now become more urgent. Before, I was just waiting for the right time to write it or finish my current project, but now, since the future isn’t clear, I want to write the stories I always wanted to tell—regardless of if they get published or not. I realized that my narratives are important and individuals like me or who have similar experiences should not be afraid to take up space in a white society.

ORP: Do you believe that hope is a luxury, a responsibility, a danger, or something else? Why?

AT: This reminds me of the story of Pandora’s box where hope was the last thing that came out of the jar. To me, hope is everything that you’ve mention in the question. It is a luxury, it is a responsibility, it is a danger, or it can be a survival mechanism for others. Hence, hope depends on the person and their experience. If I give a set definition of hope or place it into a category, then I’m not considering individuals’ experiences or their interpretation of them. By avoiding categorizing hope, it will lead to different interpretations of the term and present different narratives of one’s experience.

ORP: If you could choose one writer or artist, living or dead, as a best friend or mentor, who would it be? Why?

AT: There are so many. Octavia Butler. Philip Pullman. Chimamanda Adichie. Charles Yu. Craig Santos Perez. However, currently, I would choose Banana Yoshimoto as a best friend. I’ve recently read her novel, Kitchen, and novella Moonlight Shadow. The way she tells her stories are wonderful because it seems like the narrator is directly talking to the reader and as if they are old friends that haven’t seen one another for years. It’s thoughtful and soothing, but it’s also reflective at the same time. I feel like she’s giving me a hug when I’m reading her work.

ORP: What do you think is the most essential advice that most writers and artists ignore?

AT: The most essential advice that most writers and artists ignore is experimenting with their work. I write literary fiction, speculative, flash, nonfiction, hybrid, and many more. I’ve seen writers experiment their work, but after that they either stick with it or go back to the original form. That’s fine because we all have something that we are good at, but I think experimentation leads to a writer’s own voice and style. I’ll be honest, I have experimented with my work a lot, and I fail one hundred percent of the time. There are some stories that I haven’t even looked at in years, but those failures made me a better writer. And when I’m talking about experimentation, I’m not just talking about point of view changes, but a completely different approach to writing a narrative. Write in different genres, write a story backwards, write a story entirely one sentence long, write from the point of a rock, or write an entire story in a recipe format. Yes, those experiments are hard, but it helps a writer to see the nuances in craft and when they go back to revise a story, it will be an easier process.

Annie Trinh is an MFA fiction candidate at the University of Kansas. A VONA and Kundiman fellow, she has been published in the A3 Literary Review, Litro Magazine Online, Emrys Journal Online, and Gravel. Read her story “To the King of Fruits” from Issue 4.1.