Questionnaire 2: Rosanna Young Oh

Site co-founder Rosanna Young Oh on opening up the conversation.

Rosanna Young Oh

Name

Rosanna Young Oh

What was your experience navigating academia? What factors impacted your journey? 

I experienced the highest of highs and the heartbreakingly lowest of lows while in academia. Meeting important teachers who saw me through my writing and taught me to “see art” was the greatest privilege of my life. But I also felt like I had to learn how to talk to professors, who did not look or talk as I did.

What advice do you have/what do you wish you knew?

I wish I hadn’t beaten myself up for not having achieved certain “milestones” by a certain age or winning certain prizes. Like a good student, I thought there was a clear progression to “making it” as a poet. 

Has being a first-gen student had any advantages to your journey and/or your art?

I’m the eldest daughter of a Korean immigrant working class family as well as a first-gen student. I had to be self-reliant and self-directed since I didn’t have the benefit of elder siblings or parents who had navigated academia. In a way, I became an autodidact, which has served me well as a life skill.

Can you share an anecdote of a time when you especially felt your background impacted your experience in academia?

When I was a senior in college, all I wanted was a chance to write after graduation. I had no idea where to start. I asked a professor for a recommendation letter for a prestigious fellowship. (I had done well in his class.) And he wrote back, “You are not worthy.” Not “You are not ready,” but “You are not worthy.” I couldn’t help thinking whether he would have been a little more tactful had I been the child of an established academic or writer.

How would you like to see the creative writing world change?

I’d like to see more open conversations about non-academic post-graduation plans for college students who want to be writers. I want us to talk very concretely and honestly about money instead of Capitalism as a concept. Not everyone can afford or wants to pursue a career in academia, and yet writers who work in industry seem to be at a disadvantage when applying to fellowships, awards, etc. Perhaps we can also build a more inclusive literary culture by making the path to publication and the process for writing awards more transparent.

Your own publications/projects you'd like to share

I’m currently working on a book of poems. 

Other writers/artists you'd like to highlight

There are so many! Recently, I enjoyed Rosanna Warren’s new book of poems, Hindsight, David Gorin’s new chapbook To a Distant Country, and Hua Xi’s brilliant poem, “A Table,” in The New Yorker. Also love Samantha Harvey’s Orbital.

Bio

Rosanna Young Oh is the author of The Corrected Version, which won the North American Poetry Book Award judged by Lisa Russ Spaar.

Her writing has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Oxford Poetry, Birmingham Poetry Review, The Yale Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Beloit Poetry Journal, Graywolf Lab, among other publications. She has received support and residencies from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation, the Hudson Valley Writing Center, the Vermont Studio Center, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the New York State Writers Institute. Her poetry was also the subject of a solo exhibition at the Queens Historical Society, where she was an artist-in-residence.

A graduate of Yale (B.A.), the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins (M.F.A.), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (M.A.), Rosanna lives on Long Island. She is currently The Bill & Doris Lippman Visiting Poet at the City College of New York, CUNY.

Identify as a first-gen (student/and or American) or as a writer interested in exploring academic access? Interested in taking the questionnaire or appearing on our podcast? Contact us on our website for more information!