Three Questions for Tanya

What inspired your choice of genre and/or form for your work?

This particular form (a lottery scratcher) felt right because, like a lottery scratcher, life is a gamble. You have chances of gaining wins, experiencing losses, but you're always provided unlimited opportunities to try again.

What was your creative process?

For this piece, I tinkered with many versions of this visual poem, and eventually this form, the lottery scratcher, became my favorite iteration. At the time of creating this piece, I experienced a few big, abrupt life events that seemed to pile upon one another, and that made me start thinking about how much of a gamble life can be. I thought about the good old lottery scratcher and how that fit just right for the form this visual poem was going to take on. The form evoked the feelings and sentiment I was seeking.

What is the significance of this work to you?

This piece is a personal daily reminder that, yes, life can be a big gamble, but in order to gain wins and opportunities, I have to take all of the chances presented to me, even if some of those chances turn into losses. This piece reminds me that I must always try again, every day.

Tanya Sangpun Thamkruphat is a Thai-Vietnamese American visual poet and essayist. She’s the author of Em(body)ment of Wonder (Raine Publishing, 2021), It Wasn’t a Dream (Fahmidan Publishing & Co., 2022), and CARE INSTRUCTIONS (Finishing Line Press, 2024). Her writing appears in The Orange County Register, Button Poetry, Zócalo Public Square, Diagram, Honey Literary, The Cincinnati Review, Inlandia, diaCritics, and elsewhere. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @madamewritelyso.