THE WWPH TOP 5 INTERVIEWS…WITH OUR 2024 WWPH AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS

CHANLEE LUU, winner of the 2024 Jean Feldman Poetry Award for THE MACHINE AUTOCORRECTS CODE TO I .

Chanlee Luu is a Vietnamese-Chinese American writer from Virginia. She received her MFA in creative writing from Hollins University, and BS in chemical engineering from UVA, where she competed in poetry slams. She writes about identity, pop culture, science, politics, and everything in between. She can be found on Twitter @ChanleeLuu, and her work in Snowflake Magazine, the gamut mag, Cutbow Quarterly, Tint Journal, Honey Lit, The Offing, and diaCRITICS, among others, all at chanleeluu.weebly.com. The Machine Autocorrects Code to I is her debut collection.

Join Chanlee Luu and our other award-winning authors, Varun Gauri and Megan Doney, at Politics & Prose (Connecticut Avenue, main store) on Sunday, October 13th at 5 pm for the launch of her wild new collection.

“RADIANT, WITTY, SURPRISING, FIERCELY COMMITTED & IMAGINATIVE…” –Anne Boyer, author of The Undying

WWPH TOP 5 INTERVIEW: CHANLEE LUU ON HER DEBUT COLLECTION THE MACHINE AUTOCORRECTS CODE TO I , ON HER WRITING PROCESS, and INSPIRATIONS

1.  The title comes from my Taylor Swift Golden Shovel about the process of healing, which we tend to think of as an individual process, but is actually communal. The title is open to multiple interpretations, but for me, the breakdown is: “The Machine” is late-stage American capitalism or any institution that oppresses its people; “Autocorrects” means we’re forced to go against our human nature; “I” refers to individualism. A colleague read the “I” as “one” and that works too! Overall, the book is about fighting these forces.

2.  I think it was a very natural process, incorporating my multiple interests and backgrounds, which is the great thing about poetry— you’re able to seamlessly create connections between seemingly unrelated things. I think the biggest challenge was the murky area between scientific accuracy and creative liberties. For example, is coffee in our veins? No, but it is a common exaggeration for a person who drinks a lot of coffee.

3. I don’t really have a daily writing practice right now with a full-time job and going to school, but when inspiration hits, I’ll write! I’ll usually use the structure of a form (or Excel!) to help me. I think rhyme gets a bad rap in contemporary poetry, but as Ange Mlinko says, “I let the rhyme have its way with me, because a more interesting stanza will come about that way, one I could never have planned with my rational brain. I believe in pattern, if nothing else, as an antidote to garrulousness.” I don’t write in rhyme as much as I used to, but I still think the constraints of a form force me to be more creative.  

4. I loved “Nate the Great” books; I wanted to be a detective and solve mysteries and eat potato pancakes. My mom tried her best to find me a long coat that looked like his so I could dress up as him for school, and I did eventually use my detective skills to solve the case of “The Missing Homework.” No, a dog did not eat it; a classmate had erased my name and put his over it!

5.  How are we defining literary figures? There are 2 obvious answers. One is Taylor Swift, who I have been a huge fan of since 2006, and I would ask her how she Masterminds all the Easter Eggs. The other would be Ocean Vuong, who inspired me to pursue poetry further than just as a hobby. If we expand it to anyone who has ever written, I would pick my paternal grandparents, my Ông Bà Nội. I met my Bà Nội once when I went to Vietnam in the 2nd grade, and she was so full of humor and joy; I never got to meet my Ông Nội. When people tell me fond stories of their grandparents, I think “that must be nice.” So yeah, I’d like to cook with them, learn their recipes, and eat/laugh with them.  

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