Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: Essays and Interviews

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In this enchanting collection of essays and interviews, poet Adrienne Su reflectson her journey as a creative writer and avid home cook, beginning at aneighbor's dinner table in 1980s Atlanta--lingering over poems, poets, andconnections between food and literature--and ending in her 2023 kitchen incentral Pennsylvania.In Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, Adrienne Su contemplates her own use of foodas a recurring metaphor, influential teachers and peers, the push and pullbetween cooking and writing, changing expectations around English usage, andcraft questions such as: Why does some subject matter refuse to cooperate inthe creative process, even when it appears close to home? How does one write agood poem about being happy? Why write in rhyme when it's time-consuming andmostly out of style? What is a poem's responsibility to the literal truth?Su's essays are driven by the tensions between worlds thatoverlap and collide: social conventions of the northern and southern UnitedStates, notions of what's American and what's Asian American, the demands of thepage and the demands of the home, the solitariness of writing and themeaningful connection a poem can create between writer and reader. Ininterviews, often with fellow poets, she discusses a range of topics, from herearly days in the Nuyorican poetry-slam scene to the solace of poetry and cookingduring Covid-19 lockdown.While Su's previous books are all collections of poetry, shehas been publishing individual essays for many years. Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet gathers the best of them into one volume for the first time.