ON THE COUCH WITH ... Wena POON

Introducing Wena Poon
SANTHI GANESAN speaks to the refreshing new voice who is bringing Asian writing to a new place

WENA POON was born in Singapore, and has lived in Hong Kong and the U.S. Despite her migratory background, she would always say “Singapore” when asked where she was from. She read literature and law at Harvard University, and is currently a corporate lawyer in San Francisco, California. She fell in love with books at the age of six and has been writing since her teenage years. Her fiction, poetry and nonfiction have been widely anthologised and published in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Lions in Winter is her first collection of stories.

Are there any characters in your book that are based on a real person?
I was inspired by real people, of course. All artists draw from real life. However, fiction is never a direct rendition of reality. Something happens when we take real-life experiences and put it on the page. It’s called Art!

Any part of your own life or personality that made it into any of the stories?
Writing a story is quite like acting. When you ask an actor “How much of that character on stage or screen is really you?,” you get a complicated answer. On one hand, it’s your face, your voice, your mannerisms. Certain life experiences help you play your role convincingly. On the other hand, you’re not actually the character you play. In fact, there might be no resemblance between the real you and the fictional you―but that doesn’t mean you cannot play the role. Because you have done your research, you understand the role and can empathise with the character.

It’s the same with the stories in Lions in Winter. The collection is very character-driven. I created every character, but they are of different genders, ages and social backgrounds. I can empathise with their situation, but they’re not me.

What is your attraction to the migration theme that runs through your book?
Everybody knows of a relative, a colleague, or a friend who has emigrated to the West. Yet we don’t see many stories that deal with contemporary emigration. What happens to those people who left? What are their lives like? Aren’t we curious about whether they got a better or worse deal after they left home? Do they regret their decisions? That’s what Lions in Winter is all about.

You’re a migratory bird yourself, having moved from Singapore to Hong Kong and then to the U.S. What are you searching for in your own life?
Actually, I didn’t move from Singapore to Hong Kong. If you would like to trace my migration sequence, it went something like this: Singapore, New York, Boston, Vancouver, New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Austin, Hong Kong, San Francisco. A lot of back and forth.
What am I searching for in my own life? I realise that I have such wide-ranging interests and curiosity about the world that one place would not satisfy them all. That is why I have to live in several places at the same time.

However, whenever people ask me where I am from, I still say, “I’m from Singapore.” It’s the simplest answer, because it’s true. I just had laksa last night. You can take the kid out of Singapore, but not Singapore out of the kid!

When did you first discover you had a flair for writing?
I think I discovered I had a flair for reading first. As Stephen King says, “Being swept away by a combination of great story and great writing is part of every writer’s necessary formation ... You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” Although I don’t write his kind of fiction, I agree with his observation. You do start as a reader first. Usually the enchantment begins at an early age.

I was six when I first read Enid Blyton. To encounter somebody with that kind of imagination as a child is like being hit by a freight train. That was the first discovery.

The second milestone was when I was 14 and completed my first full-length novel. It was terrible―but at least I finished writing it. It’s quite important to actually finish writing a book. I wrote many novels in my teens and even took my manuscripts to editors in Singapore. I would go after school in my school uniform to meet publishers. No luck, but that didn’t stop me. I remember being 15 or 16, and writing for 12-hour stretches non-stop, without meals. I think that experience helped me in later years.

The third milestone, I remember distinctly, happened on New Year’s Eve in 1989. I was about to turn 17. I had casually picked up E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View, an old copy that someone left around the house. I had never heard of Forster or this book. I thought it was one of those boring books assigned for ‘O’ level exams.

I read the first page, couldn’t put it down, and read through the night. The clock struck twelve and it was January 1, 1990. I remember distinctly finishing the book in the early hours of the morning and thinking, “If I can write just one book like that, I can die happy.” I didn’t know a book could have such power. I had begun the decade with one book that would change my perception of writing for ever.

In what ways does writing balance out your other career as a corporate lawyer?
My day job gives me the energy to write. I’m a deal lawyer―I don’t go to court; I don’t spend a lot of time doing legal research. I work with deal teams in different cities and countries. People are dreaming up crazier deals and demanding shorter execution times. Sometimes we are given mere seconds to “push the button.” This kind of law requires physical endurance and huge amounts of energy. When I get home, it’s hard to sleep sometimes. I stay up writing and let the adrenalin burn off.

I don’t believe that my legal job actually has any direct influence on my writing, other than the energy level. I never write about lawyers or law. I’m currently writing the third book of a space trilogy I started a few years ago. Talking animals and spaceships. No law.

Any chance of going into writing full-time and giving up your career as a corporate lawyer?
I love my day job—it gives me the energy to write. It took me a long time to build up my skills, and now I’m practising at a high level and having tremendous fun. No reason to give up. Besides, if I don’t work, I probably wouldn’t spend the extra time I have writing. I would be bored!

Think you might return to Singapore to settle down one day or maybe give Malaysia a shot? Yes, I would like to spend more time in Singapore and Malaysia. I miss the food! My ideal situation would be to have an apartment in every major city and stay at each place for three months each. Unfortunately, although I don’t have kids, I have two cats and they have already flown internationally a few times. I don’t think they can take it if I have to move again!

Interview courtesy of CLEO Malaysia
Photographs by Kim of Avenue8 Photographers, Singapore