A&E

Poet duo share writing lives

Koo, de la Paz continue Visiting Writer Series

Julia Bakewell

Oliver de la Paz read first. He is an award-winning poet who currently teaches at Western Washington University. He proved to be a veteran reader, not missing a beat when all the lights went out in the University Center. 

De la Paz is a 2009 recipient of a GAP Grant from the Artist Trust. His forthcoming third book “Requiem for an Orchard,” which explores growing up in small-town Oregon, has won the 2009 Akron Poetry Prize. 

However, during the Writer’s Story at Garfield Book Company de la Paz expressed, along with Koo, that the road to becoming a successful poet is not an easy one. 

“He no longer tells me to go to law school,” said de la Paz of his father. “But he does tell me to get a Ph.D.” 

Both poets expressed that at least one of their respective parent had been less than thrilled with their sons’ choices to become poets. 

Koo chose selections from his upcoming book, “Man on Extremely Small Island,” which won the 2008 De Novo Poetry Prize. The title poem is from the perspective of a man on an island, which he believes to be the knee of an enormous woman. His delivery of much of his work was sarcastic and humorous, which inspired giggles amongst the audience members. 

Although Koo is a young writer, Barot said “he was suave, and very confident with a good presence.” 

Barot originally met the young poet when Koo was an audience member at one of Barot’s own readings.  

“It’s nice to give young writers an audience,” Barot said, “because they don’t usually get one.” 

Both poets answered questions about their writing processes, and what it means to be an “ethnic artist.” De la Paz commented that he had initially felt obligated to write American-Asian poetry, although much of his later work seeks to “undo” everything he has done before. Nevertheless, he maintains “ethnic artists have the responsibility to add something to the dialogue. But we are not only the political poem. We can be the quiet poem, the poem about food. If anything, we are impossible to define.” 

Koo’s first book does explore  issues surrounding being an Asian-American male, although its scope reaches beyond this topic. The last poem of Koo’s collection narrates a pilgrimage to the Baseball Hall of Fame with his father. This brings up political issues about ethnicity, the identity of an immigrant and about the stereotype of Asians with cameras. “Baseball is the American pastime,” Koo said. “But believe me, it doesn’t feel like that as a Korean-American when you go to Cooperstown.”

The students seemed quite interested in all that the poets had to say and asked many provocative questions.

“I think they got a wonderful glimpse of what it means to be a writer,” Barot said. 

The next Visiting Writers Series will be held Feb. 25 when PLU will welcome poet Lucia Perillo. 

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