E-mail a friendLan Samantha Chang
original airdate April 18, 2005
Lan Samantha Chang was recently named director of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. She's the first woman and first Asian American ever to head the preeminent writers program. Chang published her first story in The Atlantic Monthly at age 28 and is the author of the novel Inheritance and the acclaimed fiction collection Hunger. Harvard's Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in creative writing, Chang's work has been translated into more than a half-dozen languages. Her Iowa tenure will begin in January '06.
Lan Samantha Chang
Tavis: Lan Samantha Chang is an acclaimed writer and creative-writing lecturer at Harvard University. Last week, she was named the Director of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, the most prestigious writing program in the U.S. Notable alumni include Flannery O'Connor, John Irving, and Jane Smiley. Love that name. Professor Chang is the first woman and the first Asian American to head this famed workshop. She is the author of two works of fiction, including her latest called 'Inheritance.' Her previous book, 'Hunger,' was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Award, and she joins us tonight from Boston. Professor Chang, congratulations. Nice to have you on the program.
Lan Samantha Chang: It's lovely to be here. Thanks so much.
Tavis: I'm glad to have you. Big day for you. New York Times by day. PBS by night. Uh, you tired of talking about this wonderful opportunity yet?
Chang: No. Not at all.
Tavis: Yeah.
Chang: It's a big treat.
Tavis: It is a big treat, I suspect. As my grandmother would say, this is high cotton. I mean, this is-- this is heady stuff. Tell me where you were when you learned that you had been selected and how you processed it when you heard the news?
Chang: I was standing in my kitchen. My husband and I were about to go out to dinner, and I received a phone call from the dean, and I thought, 'Hmm, I wonder why she's calling me?' And then I thought, 'Wait a minute. Perhaps you got this job.' It was a huge surprise. I was thrilled. The other finalists are very accomplished, and so I know it's an enormous honor to be chosen.
Tavis: You are the daughter of Chinese immigrants. Tell me what--there are so many things you bring to this position that are unique, as I intimated a moment ago. I want to break them down one at a time, if I might. Others might think that there's nothing to this, but it is very significant for me and, I suspect, for other people of color that you've received this wonderful and prestigious honor. So let me start with your being the child, the daughter of Chinese immigrants. What does it mean to one who is a member of the Asian-American community to have an honor like this bestowed upon you?
Chang: I'm thrilled. And one of the reasons I'm so excited about it is that it gives my parents the opportunity to understand that they've succeeded in their quest to come to this country and provide their children with opportunities and education.
Tavis: Tell me more about your upbringing. You grew up in, where, Appleton, Wisconsin?
Chang: Yeah, Appleton, near Green Bay, Packer country.
Tavis: Yeah. So you a Packers fan?
Chang: Yeah.
Tavis: All right. Tell me--I suspect in Appleton, Wisconsin, there weren't a lot of Chinese families in town.
Chang: No. We were one of three.
Tavis: Right.
Chang: When we first came.
Tavis: One of three when you first arrived in Appleton?
Chang: Mm-mmm.
Tavis: Yeah. Tell me when you developed a love of writing?
Chang: I always wanted to be a writer. Perhaps before I could read, I wanted to write. And I think part of one of the reasons I was interested in writing was that I felt, like many writers, that I was from a position of an outside observer. You know, I was slightly outside of the culture in which I grew up, and so I was always watching.
Tavis: Mm-hmm. What most fascinated you as a kid growing up, watching as an observer from the outside?
Chang: I knew there were enormous cultural differences between my family and the families of the kids I went to school with. And so, for the large part, I felt like I was simply decoding and trying to understand the way that people relate to each other and how different it was at home and at school.
Tavis: You are--Let me move from the Chinese part of your heritage to the fact that you, uh, happen to be a woman. You are the first woman to head this prestigious writers' workshop. This is notoriously-- Notoriously these workshops are overburdened with men. Tell me what distinction you think that difference will make.
Chang: That remains to be seen. When I was a student at the Workshop, I was aware of the reputation of the place for being a boys club, but I never experienced it myself. I was able to sort of get a really strong education and learn a lot about writing. I had some wonderful teachers, female mentors, and wonderful male mentors. The great professor, the great writer James Alan McPherson is there. The writer Marilynne Robinson is there. They were all wonderful teachers for me, as well as Margot Livesey. I think, though, that being a woman and walking into that place is going to change it. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.
Tavis: Yeah. How--Let me ask you this. How do you hope to change it, given your gender?
Chang: Well, I'm a really serious teacher.
Tavis: Mm-hmm.
Chang: I'd like to be a teacher who is inclusive of all styles. I think that, at this point, the Workshop is a marvelous place. There's so many things going on that are good, that there are a lot of things I'm not going to change, frankly. But I know that just being me and being a different person--And I have perhaps a more open, inclusive style, probably a more feminine style in the classroom.
Tavis: I hear you--As you stress and share your style of leadership and the style that you think that you'll bring to this position, let me talk about another style, specifically as it relates to writing. There are critics, as you well know, who say that what these writers' workshops tend to do is to strip away, to destroy the individuality in the writing process. To that, you say what?
Chang: I say that that's not true. For example, Iowa has graduated students who became the writers, T.C. Boyle, Denis Johnson, John Irving, Jane Smiley, Flannery O'Connor, and many other people whose work is so different from each other's work that it's really difficult to say, to make a blanket statement like that about the Iowa style.
Tavis: So--
Chang: I think some people feel that way. They're looking for a way to try to criticize the place.
Tavis: Yeah. For those who are not as familiar as some of us are with these writers' workshops, tell me--Let me ask the flip side of that. Tell me what you think these writers' workshops do. What's the value of these workshops even today?
Chang: I can speak about Iowa. I think Iowa provides a haven for young writers who are looking to escape the pressures of the market. Right now, I think in the U.S., most young writers are treated like entertainment personalities, but what they really need is a place to nourish themselves as writers, to grow, a place where all they have to worry about is focusing on developing their own style, finding their voice, becoming the writer that they most want to be. And I think that that's what Iowa provides. And other writing workshops in the country as well.
Tavis: What are the characteristics of a good writer, or is that an impossible question to answer?
Chang: Oh, that's such an interesting question. I mean, we could sit and talk about that for a long time. What I look for, when I'm looking at different student manuscripts, is a sense of passion and tension in the prose, a sense that the writer cares about words and that the prose is alive. It could be any style. It could be highly experimental or street-psychological realism. It could be international fiction. It could be a family saga. But whatever it is, I have to have that sense that the narrator of the story cares, that there's something at stake; that the prose is charged with passion on some level.
Tavis: Let me ask you, to that point, what you think is wrong with the way we treat--or I guess the word would be 'maltreat' literature today? Do you think literature does not get the respect it deserves? I mean, there are all kinds of other genres that are blowing up, so to speak, but literature, in some circles, just doesn't get the respect that it once did in America. You agree with that, and if you do, what do we do about that?
Chang: That's a really good point. I think I do agree to some extent. I think right now the arts in general in this country are suffering, and literature, poetry and fiction in particular, particularly poetry. I feel that people today are looking for what they can quantify. They're looking for something that comes out in terms of numbers. So everybody's focusing on the G.D.P. as a sign of our national health, for example. But where the health of our country really lies is in the spirit and souls of the people who live here. And I think that literature is what feeds that part of us. And in that way, I think Iowa, the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop is at the heart of our country.
Tavis: All right, so for all those young writers right now who are watching the program and would love in a perfect world to be you one day, what advice do you give them right now where they are to improve on what they're doing even as we speak, with regard to their writing?
Chang: Read a lot. Read everything you can. And take your own opinions, your own perceptions of the world seriously. Do not get sucked in by sort of what people are telling you to think and believe. Question things. Think hard. And believe in yourself.
Tavis: Is there a particular genre of literature right now that you think the world or the U.S. needs to push more people into?
Chang: I--No. I don't usually think about things in those terms. I have noticed, though, teaching undergraduates and graduate students, that I think literature is deepening and broadening in this country. Sometimes when I'm teaching, I get the feeling that I'm looking at what literature in this country is going to be like in five or ten years, and it seems to me that American literature's growing in all directions. I see more international stories. I see more innovative forms. I see greater depth and richness in psychological realism. So I think there's a lot of great writing out there.
Tavis: I'm glad to hear that. She is now at Harvard. She joins us tonight, as you know, from Boston, but in just a few months from now, January of '06, to be exact, she will take over as Director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and we're awfully proud of her and delighted to have her on the program tonight. Her name is Lan Samantha Chang. Her most recent book, if you want to run out and get it, is called 'Inheritance.' Professor, again, congratulations. All the best to you. Nice to you have on the program.
Chang: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure.
Tavis: My pleasure to have you.
Tavis: Up next on this program, Eric Idle of 'Monty Python' fame. Stay with us.
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