Entfalten, Louie Van Patten
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Q&A
Tell us about the conception of this poem.
This poem is part of a larger series that came about after coming to terms with my immediate home and growing up in an abusive household. I've never been able to write about how my father physically abused my mother and after finally seeing him for the first time ten years this December, I saw that something changed in him. I knew I could write about it because he was no longer that same person.
Which season is best for writing?
Summer has always been the time when I get the most writing done because I step out of the same state of mind and slow down.
What or who has transformed your work?
Nicki Minaj has tremendously transformed my work over the last few years. I am anxiously waiting for her album to drop in November. Also, I feel those who are closest to me have done more to my work than anything I could have read. My good friends who I can share my stories, poems, and a drink with.
What are you currently working on?
I am finishing up my first manuscript La Virgen which questions the fluidity of gender and the possibility of relational modes between people. I'm also working on the third season of American Horror Story, Coven. But a lot of my time is occupied looking for what I'm going to do next after grad school.
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Marcelo Hernandez Castillo was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, and is a Canto Mundo fellow, a Zell post-graduate fellow and the first undocumented student to graduate from the University of Michigan’s MFA program. He’s a Pushcart nominee and has received fellowships to attend the Squaw Valley Writer’s Workshop, The Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. His poems and essays can be found in Huizache, Indiana Review, Jubilat, New England Review, The Paris American and Buzzfeed, among others..