How does our excavation of ancestral history shape our understanding of ourselves and how can writing guide us through this process? On this episode, Derek Chan discusses the role of family stories in his poetry and life, the magic of bewilderment in art, and the dissonance between our external language and our internal being. Plus, as a first-generation and international student, he offers advice for others moving to the United States to pursue higher education.

Derek Chan is a writer and educator from Melbourne, Australia. He holds a First-Class Honours in Literary Studies from Monash University, where he received the Arthur Brown Thesis Prize. His writing has appeared in journals and anthologies such asBest of Australian Poems,Australian Poetry Anthology,Cordite Poetry Review,Meanjin,The Margins,Juked, and elsewhere. He has been a finalist for awards by Frontier Poetry and Palette Poetry. He is currently an MFA candidate at Cornell University, where he is an Editorial Associate for EPOCH and a university fellow. Find him at his websitederekchanarts.com and on Instagram@derek_chan_.

MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers atMFAwriters.com.

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Derek Chan — Cornell University Rerelease