Layli Long Soldier and Truong Tran: March 2, 2017

Steve Dickison introduces Layli Long Soldier. Long Soldier begins by reading an email exchange between her and Truong Tran after she was his student at Naropa University. She then reads a new piece inspired by Tina Fontaine, which is made up of three parts: "Tina," "Tina, do you know how I grieve your murder...," "When I need to, I take a drive with coffee...." Long Soldier reads "Steady Summer," from Whereas. She also reads "Introduction," which begins the second half of Whereas. She then reads section "(1) Whereas Statements," which are a response to the National Apology to Native Peoples first issued in 2009: "Whereas when offered an apology...," "Whereas a friend senses what she calls cultural emptiness," "Whereas my eyes land on the shoreline...," "Whereas a new chapter in history opened with the thunderbird...." Long Soldier concludes by reading from section "(2) Resolutions": "I commend this land...."

Steve Dickison introduces Truong Tran. Tran reads a piece inspired by his present desire to write to be read versus writing to be heard: "This is a reminder to you...." He then reads a piece inspired by U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, "Often it happens when you least expect it...." The next poems have the common thread of being inspired by movies: The Shawshank Redemption, "You imagine yourself as Morgan Freeman...," and John Wick, "It's been eight years since you last wrote a book...." He reads poems inspired by blurb writing ("You read a book that begins as obligation..."), his father ("What begins as a simple conflict of scheduling..."), faculty meetings ("Sometimes it happens and you commit it to memory..."), and The Ciderhouse Rules ("You have an inventory of go-to movies...."). He reads a poem for Wanda Coleman, "You're minding your own business...." He also reads a piece inspired by social media, "Just because you've written this book...." and a piece inspired by a Claudia Rankine poem, "Both you and your friend are reading the same book...," before reading a sequence entitled "And just like that,11/09/2016."

Layli Long Soldier and Truong Tran take questions from the audience and talk about their motivations for writing. For both, it is a way to share their lived experiences instead of representing one's community. They discuss writing as a way to "take the foot off your throat" and as a means to shed that weight and live. When asked about writing on the other side of rage and anger, Long Soldier answers that her writing is already there, partly due to becoming a mother. Tran explains that his writing right now is at the place of anger due to a long distrust of language, particularly the English language. Both writers advise those who are tired of criticism due to writing about their cultural background to choose their readers and to understand that the more you run from your background, the more you come back to it.