Cold Snaps and Downpours, Brief Bursts of Joy and Promise: an Interview with Star Su by Rita Mookerjee
Our latest tenth anniversary interview is with Star Su, a flash fiction reader at Split Lip. Star is a writer and engineer, currently living in Brooklyn. Star wants to adopt three cats in the near future and name them 南瓜 (pumpkin, though translated more literally it would be southern melon), 西瓜 (watermelon), and 冬瓜 (winter melon). Her fiction appears or is forthcoming in The Offing, Black Warrior Review, Porter House Review, and elsewhere. Find them at starcsu.com.
We spoke over Slack about balancing work with writing, Middlemarch, and the high cost of applying to some literary contests and fellowships.
Rita Mookerjee: What is a favorite work of literature you read during Covid times?
Star Su: I read mostly contemporary, but I’ve been making an effort to even out the divide between the living and the dead. My most recent favorite is Crime and Punishment. Smarter people than me have written convincing arguments on why it’s a great work of literature. It startled me and touched me in a way that I haven’t been able to feel in a long time. The pandemic has jaded me, more than I’d like to admit, but this book restored some of my faith in the generosity and kindness that humans are capable of, in the most deplorable and unforgiving of circumstances.
RM: What is your go-to snack/drink while you’re writing?
SS: Water—which inevitably gives me the excuse to go to the bathroom often. I don’t really snack while I write because then I would snack and simply not write.
RM: Which published work are you proudest of and why?
SS: Secret Skin published in Waxwing. It was at once the hardest and the easiest story to write.
RM: Do you have any rituals or good luck charms you keep around you when writing?
SS: I would say my ritual is to take care of myself before I write. I try not to be too precious about other conditions so I can write anywhere. Being really generous with myself allows me to be emotionally ready to travel to hard truths. Writing is torture enough; why torture yourself more?
RM: How do you balance your job as an engineer with your creative work? Is there a balance?
SS: I’m screeching at the second question—I haven’t found one yet! When I first started my job, I felt like I was hit by a bus. Still do sometimes. My engineering job is pretty demanding—at the end of the day, all I’m capable of is cooking myself dinner and collapsing into bed. Usually, I read a ton on weeknights and perhaps that restores some of my spirit enough to write on the weekends. I’ve become much gentler with myself and with the pace of my practice. I read once in an interview that writing—and really art in general—comes in seasons. Which I find so beautiful and true. Right now, I think I’m in spring. Immense growing pains, cold snaps and downpours, brief bursts of joy and promise.
RM: What is your writing philosophy?
SS: I don’t have one! Maybe it’s because I’m a baby writer or maybe my philosophy is to not have one. Part of the joy of writing for me is to try and do something different than whatever I’ve done before and challenging my tastes and ideologies. For instance, literary fiction is really allergic to dialogue. I’m guilty of this too! But I’m reading Middlemarch right now and there are whole chapters of people talking to each other that are as full-bodied and complex as any block of narrative prose. Maybe my philosophy is to read everything, especially outside of your wheelhouse. It will make your writing different than everyone else’s.
RM: Congrats on being accepted to the Tin House Workshop for Winter 2022! What project do you plan to work on?
SS: Thank you! I am working on a short story collection that is in its wobbliest and sweatiest form right now. Limbs are being hacked off at an alarming rate. But mostly, I’m trying to make it as fun as possible for me to write. It’s inspired by some of my favorite Chinese animations I watched as a kid, but make it queer. Lots of magic, mischievous deities, and girls wrestling with their mothers, identity, and duties.
RM: What is one change you want to see in the literary sphere?
SS: This is a tough and great question. I’d probably give you a different answer in private. I’d probably give you a different answer if I wasn’t on Twitter. My answer right now is I wish literary magazines and fellowship applications didn’t charge twenty dollars for competitions. I understand covering the costs, paying the judge, etc, but with some established organizations, who must receive hundreds of submissions, there is no way of justifying that barrier. Create a fee waiver option no questions asked, allow others who are in the position to contribute to someone else’s fee, or be more transparent about the fee.
Rita Mookerjee is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Worcester State University. She is the author of False Offering (JackLeg Press 2023). Her poems can be found in the Baltimore Review, Hobart Pulp, Lantern Review, New Orleans Review, and the Offing.