Karen Anne C. Liquete
Oliver de la Paz was born in Manila, and raised in Ontario, Oregon.
He has a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in English from Loyola Marymount University, and a master’s in creative writing from Arizona State University. He has taught at Arizona State University, Gettysburg College, Utica College, and he currently teaches creative writing at Western Washington University.
A recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, his work has appeared in journals such as Quarterly West, The Asian Pacific American Journal, North American Review, and elsewhere. His book of prose and verse, Names Above Houses, was a winner of the Crab Orchard Award Series and published by Southern Illinois University Press. His second book, Furious Lullaby, is the editor’s selection for 2007, published by Southern Illinois University Press.
Oliver takes the time to talk to Youth and Campus Bulletin about his early forays into the world of literature through science and the passionate love for the body that finds its way to his poetry.
Youth and Campus Bulletin (YCB): Your undergraduate training leans more towards Biology. What made you shift to creative writing?
Oliver de la Paz (OP): I was always writing as far back as I can remember. When I was in elementary school, I wrote a story about the three blind mice, naming each mouse after the part of an eye. So you see, I was inclined to both the sciences and the expressive arts. I have to say, though, that my biology training is put to good use in my writing. Scientists are creative thinkers. They solve problems. They carefully analyze the world. Writers do much of the same through a different medium.
YCB: Why have you chosen poetry as your vehicle of expression? Do you see yourself writing for other genres?
OP: It wasn’t that I chose poetry . . . I think poetry chose me. I’m a big music fan and the language of poetry — the repetition of it, the syntax, and the deliberate arrangement of vowels and consonants to produce an emotional effect — that’s what attracts me to the genre. I have tried my hand at fiction and while I espouse certain characteristics of fiction writing like character development and narrative, I like the succinct qualities of the poem.
YCB: What are the qualities of good, timeless poetry?
OP: That’s a hard one. I can tell you what I like in a poem. I love poems that are sonically pleasing through syntax — poems that are musical through disruption, ambiguity, and surprise are poems that attract me. At the heart of a poem, though, there must be something at stake in the poem for me. I either must care about the speaker, or the narrative that’s taking place in the poem must reflect something I feel or know. Good poems have the ability to bring a reader into the occasion of the poem, allowing that reader to empathize with the emotional sensibilities of the poet.
YCB: Who are the Filipino poets you look up to?
OP: My first Filipino poetry mentors were Nick Carbo and Eileen Tabios. They’ve been very supportive of my early development as a writer. Slowly over time, I’ve developed relationships with several up and coming Fil-Am poets who I find to be extraordinary: Joseph Legaspi and Sarah Gambito (founders of the non-profit organization, Kundiman), Patrick Rosal, Jon Pineda, Barbara Jane Reyes, Eugene Gloria, Vince Gotera, Paolo Javier . . . there’s quite a vibrant scene in Filipino-American poetry. From the Philippines, I’ve always been interested in Eric Gamalinda’s work (though he now lives in New York) and Ricardo de Ungria’s work. Then, of course, there’s Jose Garcia Villa, one of our unsung modernist poets.
YCB: In Names Above Houses, you created a dreaming flying boy in Fidelito Recto, how much of you can we see in the character?
OP: Oh, about 70 percent of Fidelito is me. I take some of his restlessness. I also take some of his ambitions...his feelings of not quite belonging. Those characteristics are all me. I, however, cannot fly, nor do I have nubs of wings on my back.
YCB: Please tell us about your next works.
OP: My next book of poems is with Southern Illinois University Press. It’s entitled "Furious Lullaby", and it’s quite a departure from Names Above Houses.
Furious Lullaby is both a celebration of and a eulogy to the body in the 21st century. The collection, which examines the larger concepts of salvation and temptation in a world of blossoming strife, includes a series of aubades- dramatic poems culminating with the separation of lovers at dawn. The lovers suffer a metaphysical crisis, seeking to know what is good, what is evil, and how to truly know the difference.
Knowing, however, invites the terrible into their world. The Devil, a seductive trickster, haunts the landscape as a voice who dares each inquisitor to learn about mortality, morality, the beautiful, and the unspeakable through direct experience.
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