Frederick Tran (Photo by ThaninPhoto)
Reading rainbows
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
This month, Frederick Tran (they/them/chanh), executive director of the nonprofit publishing company Four Palaces Publishing (FPP), presents the first Foreword Literary Festival, a four-day celebration of Vietnamese American literature and the arts.
Tran is both protective of and an advocate for the written word which is evident in their company and festival. For this new event though, they are hoping people will attend Foreword to hear new viewpoints by the authors, the coordinators and other booklovers.
“I hope they experience different viewpoints on some things they never thought about before or that are expressed in a whole new way,” they said. “I also hope they walk away with some of the books.”
The Foreword Literary Festival launches Wednesday, Oct. 8, and runs through Oct. 11. It is being staged across three different venues, and all events are free with registration.
Tran sees this not only as a literary festival but also an opportunity for representation which all began in 2020. Tran and managing editor Emily Townsend began the idea of Four Palaces Publishing before its official launch in 2021. The idea for the press stemmed from the viral 2020 hashtag #WhatPublishingPaidMe that exposed inequities in publishing, particularly for BIPOC writers and those from marginalized communities.
To recognize these voices who face challenging barriers, the two took the initiative to do their part to remedy the problem of the lack of diversity in major houses by publishing marginalized authors and empowering writers beyond the page.
“That inequity infuriated me. Not only do we have to prove that our words matter, but when we do, then we’re not paid enough,” Tran expressed. “So we founded Four Palaces, and we’re slowly working on our mission. We just published our third book.”
Coinciding with the festival is the launch of When Home Hurts: Solastalgia, a nonfiction anthology by FPP. Edited by Townsend with a foreword by Erica Hoffmeister, this collection embodies FPP’s mission to nurture talent and build bridges.
As Tran was organizing the event, they landed on two authors to headline the festival that also happened to identify as queer. Not their intention, but definitely a happy accident.
Truong Tran and Andrew Lam both head to Foreword as Vietnamese-American voices in contemporary literature. Both are also family. Call it a queer coincidence.
“I selected them first to tie the festival in with the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. They are also Vietnamese-American authors who happened to be queer,” Frederick Tran said. “So there is this unintended intersectionality, and I am loving it.”
The Bountiful Harvest Reading Series kicks off the Festival on Wednesday at UT Arlington. Presented in partnership with UTA’s Department of English, this evening features readings by Lam and Truong Tran, followed by a Q&A moderated by Creative Writing professor Laura Kopchick, followed by book sales and signings.
Each author will also host his own workshop specific to their own writing on Saturday, Oct. 10.
Lam will begin with his workshop Letter Writing as Personal Essay. He taught creative writing at San Jose State University and has authored three books, and he is now working on a novel and a memoir about his childhood in Vietnam during the war.
As a journalist, Lam has contributed to NPR and Huffington Post, among other media outlets.
“Writing a letter to someone you know and admire or love is the best way to introduce a beginning essayist to his or her own literary voice, which can be both at once intimate and profound,” Lam told Dallas Voice via email. “Not knowing how to write a good letter is not knowing how to access your intimate voice, and that voice is necessary to connect hearts and minds.”
Lam will guide attendees through the process of crafting letters that serve as personal essays and read works aloud for feedback.
In today’s world of texting, tweeting and DMing, little is actually said, Lam observed. And the handwritten letter is becoming a lost art. This workshop could reopen the idea of writing as communication over just a text.
“We substitute human emotions with punctuations and emojis and emoticons, hoping somehow they could substitute our sensibility and taste and convey the nuances of our lives,” he said. “In this fast-paced age, there simply isn’t any time for such a thing as a long, flowing, hand-written letter as it requires time, observations that often are embedded in meditation, a slowing down of thoughts. This is also where literature begins.”
Following Lam, Truong Tran’s class leans into a similar vein of writing exploration with his memoir workshop The Imagination of Memories, or How To Exit(s) which invites participants to confront their personal histories and ask the difficult questions that shape our narratives.
Tran is the author of seven poetry collections, a children’s book, and multiple works of visual and literary art. He currently teaches creative writing and visual art at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland.
“I hope to inspire someone to activate their voice. I have no illusion a one-day workshop will get you to that great American novel, but we can work to maybe dislodge ideas or memories for easier access to them,” the author said.
Both also talked about how their own queerness factored into their writing and even heritage.
Truong Tran declared first that he doesn’t make an effort to write a queer book — or a Vietnamese-American book. These are just aspects of who he is as an author. What he sees is the boxing of him by publishers.
He did find his introduction to queerness in the library — only as a youngster, it was, perhaps, awkward?
“I credit my awakening as a writer to my discovery of queer erotica. That would lead me to my love of writing,” Truong Tran said. “I discovered Anne Rice, who wrote under a different name with many queer elements, and I would read in the corner of the library until I finally checked out the book. But erotica was a form of discovery for me. That was how I grew to love language.”
For Lam, queerness appeared way later in his works after he had worked through far more difficult times. His early works focused more on post-war trauma and life as a refugee adjusting to life in America. He said that took a while.
“Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, my first book, was mostly about post-war traumas and how my own families nearly fell apart in America, having survived the war but struggling to deal with the losses. In Birds of Paradise Lost, my first collection of short stories, LGBT characters began to show up. But that was 35 years later in America, and I had enough strength to get more personal.
“Now with Stories from the Edge of the Sea, I let go of my sense of social duty to my community and… queerness would play a central role.”
These queer voices will bring a specific representation to DFW through a whole new literary festival. Frederick Tran initially started this as a mere string of events but was advised to fashion them into a festival. Now, they’ve found a welcoming scene here.
“Dallas is very literary, and it feels alive and thriving. But I also found it to be very engaging and open,” they said. “When it comes to books and stories and writing, there’s room for everybody here.”
For more information or to register, visit ForeWordLitFest.com.
