Hey everyone. I hope you are doing well. I have had a lot of things on my mind lately, the future of this podcast being one of them, not to mention the futures of the myriad of other responsibilities in life. I have been taking some amazing zoom classes lately and reading some dense theory stuff that I probably understand only a small portion. Also, China opened up its visa process to Europe and parts of Asia, so maybe I’ll be able to go back before classes start and can avoid the whole remote teaching while in a 12 hour time zone difference. Of course it is hard to predict the future right now and I am grateful I even have a job. I will keep you updated.
For today, I have the wonderful Emily Lu, a poet I met in Vermont last January. Emily was born in Nanjing, China before she and her family moved to Canada. Emily got her B.Sc. at the University of Toronto and her M.D. at Queen’s University. She is currently finishing up her residency training in psychiatry while she continues to write poetry. This tension of being both a psychiatrist and poet is one we talk about in our discussion, along with Emily’s thoughts on translations, her experiences growing up in Canada, and finding confidence in the unknown. Emily ends our chat with a lovely reading of one of her poems. As always, stay safe and healthy and I hope you enjoy this.