Interview: Rodrigo Dela Peña, Jr.
Stephanie Chan You post a poem nearly every day on SingPoWriMo. How do you manage to produce so many excellent poems so quickly? What keeps you motivated to write nearly every day?
Rodrigo Dela Peña, Jr. This might sound bullshit, but I’m truly inspired by all the poets and all the works in SingPoWriMo — which is also the reason why I keep on coming back, year after year. The energy in the group is quite intense and contagious, with a lot of humor going around. With this environment, I find it very encouraging to write something almost every day. It makes the otherwise solitary act of writing more bearable, if not fun.
SC You have been a moderator for SPWM for two years now. What has the experience taught you? Has it impacted your craft in any way?
RDPJ Being a moderator has made me more conscious about the diversity of voices in SingPoWriMo. When I post a prompt, I’m always thrilled to read a vast range of responses. Each opens a window for me on how a poem can be written, so I’ve definitely learned a lot about the expansive possibilities of poetry.
SC Which of your SingPoWriMo prompts have produced your favourite poems?
RDPJ Because I’m fond of self-portraits, having written a number of them for a personal project, I was excited to read the poems that came out of the Mirror Prompt from SPWM 2018. I was fascinated with how the responses were written to construct and deconstruct identities. I’ve been moved by many poems from this prompt, notably Andy Winter’s “Self-Portrait as a Lipsync for Your Life”, Ang Shuang’s “Personal Statement” and Jared Ho’s “self-portrait of a self-loather”, which are all included in the SingPoWriMo 2018: The Anthology.
SC Tell us more about your latest poetry collection, Aria and Trumpet Flourish. What motivated you to publish this particular collection?
RDPJ Aria and Trumpet Flourish is about loss and the search for the divine in the everyday. There are many reasons why I wanted to publish this collection, but the chief reason is that I wanted a way to remember my father, who died in 2014 due to cancer.
SC What advice do you have for emerging poets hoping to publish their first collection?
RDPJ Be wary of Facebook and Instagram. Read promiscuously. Cultivate a rich inner life. And don’t take yourself too seriously — you are not your poem!
SC Has moving to Singapore impacted your writing in any way? If so, how?
RDPJ To echo Gia Gunn from RuPaul’s Drag Race, absolutely. Moving to Singapore has given me the necessary distance from which to write about home and family. It was only in Singapore when I felt that I found my poetic voice and really stuck with the discipline of writing.
SC What are some things you think the Singapore literary scene can learn from the literary scene in the Philippines?
RDPJ Because creative writing is very much an institutionalised practice in the Philippines, major universities offer it as a bachelor’s degree course, as well as organise week-long writers’ workshops for emerging writers. I feel that universities in Singapore (and not just the National Arts Council or Sing Lit Station) have to do their part in nurturing talent, especially those who are just beginning to find their voice.
SC What’s your next project?
RDPJ I’ve written a lot of ekphrastic poems (maybe too much) in the past year or so, and thus I’m putting a stop to it by writing more personal poems that dwell on memory and trauma. Let’s see if a collection will come out of it!