BEHIND THE BOOK
Bitter Creek: An Epic Poem
A CONVERSATION WITH TEOW LIM GOH
We sat down with author Teow Lim Goh to talk about the inspiration for her latest work Bitter Creek and her ongoing project to recover the stories of Chinese immigrants in the American West.
Torrey House Press: Hi Teow! We’re so excited about Bitter Creek and are so grateful to help bring this epic poem to the world. Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind Bitter Creek? What are your hopes and dreams for Bitter Creek once it’s published?
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Teow Lim Goh: As a writer, I look for human stories. I’m also interested in place and landscape, as well as stories hidden or elided in the culture, the truths beneath the surfaces of things. I learned about the Rock Springs Massacre when I was researching Chinese exclusion for my first book Islanders, which is about detention at the Angel Island Immigration Station. I wanted to explore the human dimensions of this bloodshed.
It is easy to peg Bitter Creek as a timely book, given the current political climate. But the issues it raises are always relevant—there is a long history of xenophobia and mass hysteria about immigration in the US. I hope that Bitter Creek is received in this context. At the same time, it is not just a political tome—I hope it also generates discussions about form and craft. I call it an epic poem for many reasons.
THP: We think that this is a timely book in a lot of ways, but it also roots the present moment in histories of xenophobia, mass hysteria, and reactionary politics. We adore the entanglements of subject matter, form, and craft that the book embodies. Bitter Creek sits at the heart of the intersections between literary art and literature as a tool for advocacy. Why did you choose to publish this collection with Torrey House Press?
Teow: Torrey House has an incredible list that focuses on the stories and issues of the American West, and I wanted to be part of the conversation. I worked with Torrey House on a couple of book events with Ana Maria Spagna for the Utah Book Fest a couple of years ago, and I was impressed by the press’s dedication to cultivating community and connections. I knew that I could work with Torrey House to bring this book to readers.​
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THP: We are so grateful to be bringing this work to our readers! What do you hope readers will come away with after reading Bitter Creek?
Teow: Say what you wish about the current US president, but he knew how to weaponize xenophobia to win votes. The questions I hope readers will consider after reading Bitter Creek are: What is the emotional appeal of xenophobic rhetoric? Why is it such an effective way to fire up people? Is it possible to create a society that welcomes the strange and the foreign?
"As a writer, I look for human stories. I’m also interested in place and landscape, as well as stories hidden or elided in the culture, and the truths beneath the surfaces of things."
—TEOW LIM GOH
THP: If you could put a copy of Bitter Creek into the hands of anybody in the world, who would it be, and why?
Teow: Oprah. So that she can select it for her book club. Does Barack Obama still make his annual reading lists?
I would not turn away fame, but I would rather have my books passed into the hands of readers who feel less alone, who feel that they might have a voice and stories worth telling after reading them.
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THP: We are always so grateful for poetry that embodies a kind of advocacy. What is your relationship with poetry like?
Teow: I also write essays. Essays came first, actually. I have come to see that the genre I choose usually depends on the intentions. I tend to explore the dimensions of a subject first in essays and turn to poetry when I want to delve into its emotional terrain. I don’t set out to write with advocacy in mind—like I said, I look for human stories—but given that I write about the Chinese in the American West, it comes with the territory.
I don’t write a lot of poetry. I find it much more vulnerable than writing essays, and it takes me a while to find the headspace. After I completed the manuscript of Bitter Creek, I did not write poetry for more than three years. Granted, I was working on a nonfiction project, but I also felt I had to protect myself emotionally for a while.
THP: Your books Islanders, Faraway Places, and Western Journeys are all really powerful bodies of work that experiment with form and narrative (we would highly recommend that our readers check them out!). Why is Bitter Creek’s narrative best embodied through poetry?
Teow: I start with story, not form. I actually attempted the earliest draft as a novel, and it did not work, because my brain is not wired to write fiction. I knew I wanted to explore the emotional terrain of this history, so I turned to the tools that I have, which is poetry.
Once I knew I was writing poetry, I looked to the English poetic traditions. In particular, I was drawn to the epic as a stage to tell origin stories. At the heart of the Rock Springs Massacre is a profound conflict in origin myths. The Chinese belonged to the underbelly of industrial capitalism in the West, which contradicted the optimism of Manifest Destiny. Their presence was a slap in the face of the myth of American progress.
And once I understood the story, I was trying to tell it in terms of the epic. I could make formal choices to shape the narrative.
THP: Could you expand on the process of writing Bitter Creek? Is there any advice that you would like to share with aspiring poets?
Teow: It took seven years of research and writing. After I finished the manuscript of Islanders, I was casting around for another project. There isn’t a lot written about the Rock Springs Massacre. So I drove to the archives in Cheyenne, Laramie, Rock Springs, Green River, and Evanston to see what I could find. I also wanted to experience the place for myself, the stark high desert that both white and Chinese cultures see as apocalyptic.
I put the project aside for a few years when I realized I did not have the life experience and craft knowledge to write the book. I was a math major and had not formally studied literature or poetry since middle school. I enrolled in the MFA program at Western Colorado University. Back then, the focus was on formalism. I’m not much of a formalist, but I needed a crash course in prosody, the history and tradition of English poetics. I also needed time to think through the questions of the story. I finished Bitter Creek as my thesis project.
As for advice, every writer is different. For me, I need time to live with the questions that arise from the writing. It is not a process that can be rushed.
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THP: And lastly, if we could ask every reader to do one thing after reading your book, what should we ask of them?
Teow: Call your Congressional representatives and demand humane immigration policies. Xenophobia is rooted in the fear of the stranger, but it is an effective electoral weapon as immigrants cannot vote.
Policy is not the be-all and end-all, but it sets the tone for the country. The Rock Springs Massacre occurred three years after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The exclusion laws emboldened the anti-Chinese movement.
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THP: Thank you so much, Teow. We hope Bitter Creek helps inspire action and change for humane immigration policies at all levels.
A note to our readers: we would like to encourage you to explore the Immigration Policy Tracking Project and call your representatives about specific bills, and/or use a script to demand action from elected officials. 5calls.org is also an incredible resource for people to organize campaigns around specific issues, bills, and policies.