Each semester, the Writing University hosts the 5Q Interview series with authors from the University of Iowa Press. We sit down with UI Press authors to ask about their work, their process, their reading lists and events. Today we are speaking with Melody S. Gee, author of We Carry Smoke and Paper (University of Iowa Press, 2024).
Melody S. Gee is the author of three books of poetry. Born in Taiwan and raised in California, she now lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
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1. Can you tell us a little bit about your new book We Carry Smoke and Paper? What was the inspiration for this work?
I became a Catholic in 2016 at the age of 35, with no religious background from my childhood. It was both a surprise and something that felt like coming home. For three years before my conversion, I attended Mass, had my daughters baptized, and lived the life of a person of faith. But I hesitated to receive my own sacraments. All the reasons for my hesitation, struggle, and uncertainty are the topics of this book’s essays. Each essay examines some aspect of my identity or cultural upbringing that needed to be reconciled as I developed my faith. The first essay, for example, took shape as I struggled with religious language that was sometimes vague, contradictory, or inaccessible. Language acquisition is something I’ve thought about a great deal in my life—my parents learning English, my navigating English and Cantonese, and various language extinctions in my life. The book doesn’t try to resolve any of these contradictions or difficulties, but rather just wrestles with them.
2. Do you have any plans for readings or events for this book, either in person or virtual?
My book launch is in St. Louis, Missouri, on October 24. I’m excited to be at my favorite bookstore and in conversation with my spiritual director, who appears in one of the essays. I’ll be at AWP in Los Angeles next year, and I’ll be doing readings throughout the Midwest in late fall 2024 and spring 2025. When it’s finalized, you can find the schedule here: https://melodygee.com
3. What are you reading right now? Any books from other university or independent presses?
Many of my wonderful friends have published books this year, and I’m enjoying them so much. Some of them are: Their Divine Fires by Wendy Chen, Five Star Stranger by Kat Tang, Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms by Joan Kwon Glass, and Thanks for This Riot by Janelle Basset (University of Nebraska Press).
4. What is your writing routine? Do you have a daily routine?
Right now, I’m not actively writing, at least not at the pace you need to finish a manuscript any time soon. I have lots of poem drafts for another collection, but I’m letting them develop as slowly as they want. In this developing phase, I read and annotate every day, I listen to the news and rich podcasts, and just try to make connections and find inspiration from anywhere. I’m trying to find a direction for the poems, to figure out what they want to be. The more I can be in the world, engaged in stories and emotions, the better the poems will be.
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Thank you!