In this episode we spoke with Vietnamese-American artist and writer Morgan Võ, who generously agreed to be our first guest. We met Morgan while studying art at the Cooper Union and discuss growing up in our respective suburbs, the significance of names, the challenges of seeking information from our immigrant parents, and “the yearning.” We also discuss a short essay by Kimberly Alidio called “My Native Language is Noise,” which we link to below.

Guest Bio:

Morgan Võ (b. 1989) is a poet and librarian concerned with resonance, contingency, difficulty understanding, and the presence of the dead among the living. He is the author of The Selkie (The Song Cave, 2024) and the chapbooks Lights of Earth (2019) and Eat Pamphlet (2014). His poems were anthologized in Pathetic Literature, edited by Eileen Myles, and have most recently appeared in Changes Review and Footnotes. He organized G-L-O-S-S, a mutual aid-based poetry press, from 2020-21, and is a current member of the Poetry Project Newsletter editorial collective. Originally from coastal Virginia, he lives now in Bedstuy, Brooklyn.

Show notes:

• “My Native Language Is Noise” by Kimberly Alidio – We discuss this short essay that was published in 2020 by The Poetry Foundation.
• The following books and writers were mentioned:
  • “The Past” by Wendy Xu 
  • Vi Khi Nao
  • Diana Khoi Nguyen
  • Victoria Chang 
• PEN15 – We briefly discuss this comedy series created by Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, and Sam Zvibleman

Credits:

• Produced in consultation with Ursula Sommer and mastered by Cedric Wilson.
• Theme music by The Necklace, a project by Taylor Shields and Morgan Võ.

Sound effects courtesy of freesound.org:

• 030912 fx002 revelation.aiff by martian — https://freesound.org/s/178512/ — License: Creative Commons 0
• Footsteps on Grass by harrietniamh — https://freesound.org/s/400123/ — License: Attribution 4.0
• Peaceful seascape by Ladies’ Window, near Boscastle by Philip_Goddard — https://freesound.org/s/705985/ — License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0