Dynamic Love: A Conversation on the Craft of Writing Family Stories
Join Serena Chopra and Jane Wong in conversation about writing complex family stories, including those contending with trauma, immigration, loss, absence, and erasure. Both Wong's and Chopra's books approach writing about family via poetry and memoir, employing dynamic formal methods that aptly attend to the needs of dynamic familial narratives. In this conversation, the authors will discuss the relationship between craft and content by articulating their approaches to and sentiments about writing through the diaspora and exploring how their families grapple with the grief, mystery, and beauty of the intimate distance that often characterizes complex family narratives.
Serena Chopra
Serena Chopra is a writer, dancer, filmmaker, and performance artist. She is a recipient of an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship and is a MacDowell Fellow, a Kundiman Fellow, a RedLine Artist In-Residence and a Fulbright Scholar. Her third book, A Catalog of Future Mercies (Graywolf Press, 2026) is a sensual poetic memoir that explores the complexities of mercy in an immigrant family haunted by generational violence. Dr. Chopra is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Seattle University. You can find out more at SerenaChopra.com
Jane Wong
Jane Wong is the author of the memoir Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City (Tin House, 2023). She also wrote two poetry collections: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James, 2021) and Overpour (Action Books, 2016). Her poetry installations which engage haunting and nourishment have been exhibited at the Frye Art Museum, the Richmond Art Gallery, and the Asian Art Museum.
