A Conversation With Bea Bolongaita
Bea Bolongaita is a Filipina American poet. Her poetry appears in Whale Road Review, Good River Review, Rogue Agent Journal, and elsewhere. Bea's debut chapbook, The Tomato Woman (Sunset Press, May 2023) received advance praise from Adam Clay, Ruth Awad, Travis Chi Wing Lau, K.E. Ogden, and Michael Leong. Bea studies political science and Chinese at Kenyon College.
By Saturn Browne
Recently, I was lucky to have the privilege to interview Bea Bolongaita for her new chapbook, The Tomato Woman (Sunset Press, 2023). We discuss multifaceted identities, the different people who influenced her writing, girlhood in the modern society, and, most importantly, the Barbie movie. You can find her online at beabolongaita.com.
Saturn Browne: What inspired you to undergo the process of writing The Tomato Woman? In what ways did you feel you were ready for your first chapbook as part of your writing?
Bea Bolongaita: I fell into writing The Tomato Woman by accident. I’ve been writing poetry since 2019. Sometimes I wrote with the aim of submitting poems to contests, and sometimes I wrote just to flex my writing muscle, but I never wrote towards a full-length project. There were very few poems that were written specifically for The Tomato Woman. Actually, the majority of poems in The Tomato Woman were not written with the chapbook in mind but poems I had written and revised over years. In that way, my chapbook writing process never had a discrete beginning. The Tomato Woman had an unceremonious genesis: I compiled a Google Doc of poems to submit to Sunset Press’ campus-wide call for manuscripts. I was in a Panera. (My Panera order is a cup of the chicken & wild rice soup with lemonade, always. Sometimes with brownies.)
Sunset Press is the student-run press at my college. I’m biased, but it’s an incredible organization with an insane amount of creative talent. We publish 3-4 chapbooks each spring, taking the writers from their original manuscripts all the way to publication. We have social media and design & layout teams in-house, and the press editors spend the better part of an academic year workshopping the manuscript. In my experience, students running a professional literary press is absolutely unheard of at the undergraduate level and it’s literally a school club.
I spent my first year with Sunset on a team editing a poetry chapbook which was published May 2022. At the end of that year, I hadn’t been sure of what role to apply to for the next academic year. What made the most sense, and what made me most comfortable, was to apply to be the head editor for a poetry project. It made sense to go from press editor to head editor and then to study abroad junior year before returning to write my chapbook as a senior. Still, I was hesitant. My friends at Sunset thought I should write a chapbook that year, including one of the incoming Sunset editors-in-chief, Edward Moreta, Jr. He was the person who ultimately convinced me, especially since he was graduating in the spring. Edward is one of my best friends and possesses perhaps the greatest editorial talent I’ve ever seen—I wanted him to edit my book. That’s what compelled me to submit my manuscript and throw my hat in the ring. Luckily, it all worked out.
SB: How did your background impact your writing? Did you find that other factors in your life (love, grief, etc.) also affect your pieces? (E.g. “Econ Major Tries to Fuck My Boyfriend”)
BB: My background plays a key role in my writing. So many different and disparate things influence my poetry: I’m a Filipina American, first-gen American, native Ohioan, the eldest daughter of immigrants, high school academic achiever, lover of coming-of-age movies, and Midwestern girl. I draw equally from all of my experiences when I write. Very rarely do I pick specific elements of my identity and experience to explore in a poem. Rather, I just sit down to write and whatever is pertinent comes out, like I’ve just mixed a hundred sodas from a fountain drink machine into one cup and now they’re all coming out through the straw.
How would a Midwestern girl experience jealousy? And how would that Midwestern girl experience that jealousy if she also happened to be Filipina American? What if she was an eldest daughter, or an academic achiever, or a chronic people pleaser?
One of the best things I discovered while writing The Tomato Woman is that the poems in the chapbook exist together. It seemed kind of obvious at first—of course publishing a collection is different from publishing a poem or two in a journal here and there—but it was an absolute gamechanger. Now, the subtle references in a poem to one aspect of my identity were in conversation with subtle references in another poem in the chapbook. Maybe these poems could be facing each other on opposite pages. Maybe one poem could open the book and one could close it. Maybe these poems are perfect to bookend a section. I was in editorial heaven!
Take “Econ Major Tries to Fuck My Boyfriend,” for example. The poem is very heavily influenced by my emotions at the time of writing. My poems are usually a push and pull between my emotions and my background, experiences, and identity. I’m fascinated with how my specific experiences originate and affect certain feelings. How would a Midwestern girl experience jealousy? And how would that Midwestern girl experience that jealousy if she also happened to be Filipina American? What if she was an eldest daughter, or an academic achiever, or a chronic people pleaser? I love shifting different aspects of my identity over each other like stained glass.
“Econ Major” does just this. I wrote this poem after someone tried to sleep with my partner. That story is interesting, but it’s also been told a thousand times. Jealousy and anger are powerful feelings, but I find their emotional undercurrents to be much more interesting. I tried to explore the root of that jealousy and anger in this poem while also pulling in references to greater themes in The Tomato Woman. The line “I ache in the tradition of every person / who came before me…” is out-of-place for the scope of this poem. It widens the poem’s setting and the breadth of knowledge informing the reader while also linking “Econ Major” with the other poems in the greater work. At least, that’s what I tried to do.
As a daughter, I think aspects of matrilineal relationships come out in all of my poems, especially concerning maternal obligation and responsibility.
SB: Matrilineal relations seem to play a large part in your writing. How were you able to take these relationships into context when you write? How did they inform your work? (E.g. “Passenger”)
BB: In my experience, motherhood and daughterhood are some of the most emotionally charged narratives that can be portrayed in media. Lady Bird is a classic example. A few days ago, I watched Greta Gerwig’s most recent movie, Barbie. I was SOBBING in the stands. Like full body, wracking sobs with my head in my hands. The line that really got me was, “We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back and see how far they have come.” I wrote the poem “Passenger” trying to get at this exact idea. As a daughter, I think aspects of matrilineal relationships come out in all of my poems, especially concerning maternal obligation and responsibility. The poems in the chapbook that are more specifically geared towards motherhood/daughterhood, however, are “Passenger,” “Feverish,” and “Sestina in Stained Glass.”
SB: I noticed that through your process, you had a lot of editing/revision aid from many Kenyon Review Writers House editors as well as other poets. How have other writers influenced you to change or format your book and perhaps your writing more broadly?
BB: I was so lucky to have an incredible editorial team at Sunset and to have so many loved ones supporting me during the writing process. And I needed the support! I kind of lost my mind for nine months, I was that stressed out. ilan magnani was the head editor for The Tomato Woman, and they had such an unrelenting faith in me and my vision. I also had the best editorial team: Prarthana Aggarwal, Hanu Bugg, Julián Clivellés, Ella Kim, Rosa Kwon, Will Madden, and Carlos Lopez Martinez. ilan and my team met with me for at least three hours every week to help me workshop the material. It was ilan and my team who encouraged me to include “The Tomato Woman” poem in the chapbook, when I had absolutely no intention of doing so. Edward is probably my other biggest editorial influence at Sunset. I gave Edward an early draft of what ended up—thanks to him—being my favorite poem in the chapbook, “Walmart with the Men who Wanted You.” He tore the original version to shreds. He didn’t like the first line, told me to change my most potent metaphor into a simile, and re-edited the poem into couplets. Couplets???!? I hated it, but he was right, and “Walmart” became sharper.
SB: For me, writing a book means constant reckoning with yourself and your writing. In my experience also putting together a collection, I felt like my writing changed a lot by the time I finished my book. Do you feel that your poetry has changed throughout writing this book? In other words, how have your poems grown with the creation of The Tomato Woman?
BB: I grew a lot as a poet and person throughout the editorial process. Writing a book is hard! I loved my editorial team, but being the sole recipient of critique for three hours every week could be a lot at times. I fought my editors tooth and nail on diction and syntax and structure, without fail, each week. I think every writer struggles with critique, to an extent. My poems detail my most intimate and vulnerable moments, which makes me wary of outside input, even if it’s from trusted editorial friends. I always knew that all good editors want what you want: for your writing to be the best it can be. It was through the editorial process for The Tomato Woman that I really internalized that. My poems grew tremendously throughout seven months of workshopping. The character of the poems and my writing never changed, but my writing swelled to reach the vision I aimed for. It was hard, but the end product was so worth it. The Tomato Woman is my proudest achievement ever, and I’m not too proud to admit that it took a village.
SB: What is in the future for Bea’s writing!! What comes after this book?
BB: Beats me! I haven’t been on a writing schedule since I sent the final version of The Tomato Woman to the printer’s in April, and I’ve been too busy working all summer to write. My broad plan is to keep writing for the rest of my life forever. I want to keep publishing chapbooks and eventually the first full-length collection. I’ll be taking on a more executive role at Sunset this fall, which I’m excited about. Maybe I’ll edit a book (I haven’t decided). In short: I’m not sure. I have no girlboss plans in the works. I think I’m going to stumble on my next project. For now, I’m just waiting for a stroke of inspiration. I’m in no rush.
Saturn Browne (she/they) is an Asian writer. She lives at the mouth of 2 rivers in New England. Their work appears in SoFloPoJo, Gone Lawn, Eunoia Review, and more. Browne was an alumna of the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop and a 2023 Adroit mentee in Poetry. Her debut chapbook, BLOODPATHS, came out in April with Kith Books. You can find her often on a train and her writing at https://saturnbrowne.carrd.co.