![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/foodstudies\/files\/2024\/12\/kate-wilcox-1-200x300.jpg\")
Image: The cover of Professor Su\u2019s book of poetry Peach State, which features the poem Lychee Express. Food is a central theme in this book of poetry, exemplified by the title, which identifies Georgia as the \u201cpeach state\u201d and the imagery of fruit on the cover. Image sourced from: University of Pittsburgh Press. (2019, March). Peach State. University of Pittsburgh. https:\/\/upittpress.org\/books\/9780822966562\/<\/p><\/div>\n
Food, as it is one of the most basic elements of human life, integrates itself into almost every aspect of our daily lives, including into our stories. Professor Su was gracious enough to show us the process of writing one of her poems, Lychee Express<\/em>, during class. She described the inspirations behind the poem as a part of her desire to go through ordinary life \u201cimagining the journey of fruits at the grocery store\u201d (A. Su, personal communication, December 5, 2024). She also led the class through a ten-minute writing exercise where we used phrases from our oral history podcast assignment to free write prose or a poem and then discussed it.<\/p>\n Professor Su\u2019s writing incorporates a great deal of what we have learned so far this semester. In her writing, she draws connection between food and her own history, her identity, and world history, with a particular emphasis on experiences from her daily life (Poetry Foundation, n.d.). As we discussed in class, Professor Su uses food to discuss historical comparisons and social\/societal norms in Lychee Express<\/em> (Poetry Foundation, 2019).<\/p>\n As I reflected on Professor Su\u2019s use of food in poetry, I began to think about food as a theme in my own writing. In general, my fiction writing stems from a similar place to Professor Su\u2019s talk: imagining a journey, process, or archetype that already exists in my life or in history, then expanding on it or imagining a different reality for it. Like Professor Su\u2019s journey of grocery store fruits, my writing, which is often set in fictional worlds, usually incorporates food to explain the conditions of the world to the reader. Learning about Professor Su\u2019s process, and how she thinks about food and poetry, led to the realization that food is a significant theme in my own writing. Professor Su\u2019s talk emphasized how dynamic and important the field of food studies is, in that it is so often incorporated into art.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Works Cited:<\/p>\n Poetry Foundation (n.d.). Adrienne Su. Poetry Magazine. https:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poets\/adrienne-su<\/a><\/p>\n