Louisiana Tech University creative writing instructor Genaro Kỳ Lý Smith is out with a debut book of poetry published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press. The 34 poems are based on the life experiences of Lý Loc. He’s the son of an affluent Vietnamese landowner who lost everything the day Saigon fell, April 30, 1975.
“He’s my grandfather who was a major commander for the South Vietnamese Army,” Smith said, in an interview from his office at Louisiana Tech. “He’s the son of a land baron, and just like his father, he had seven wives at the same time.”
Smith visited Vietnam in 2002 and that trip inspired him to begin sketching out poems about his grandfather. The only memory he has of him is eating sugarcane on his porch at age 3. Fast forward to 2010, former Louisiana Poet Laureate Darrell Bourque asked Smith if he could read his poems, albeit unfinished.
“I sent them to him via email. The next day he [Bourque] emailed me back and said you have to finish these poems, and you have to write as many poems as it takes to tell not only his story, but also the stories of his wives and children,” Smith said.
The poems read like a novel. Smith agrees that there is a page-turning quality that makes the poetry more accessible. He wants readers to get a full picture of Lý Loc’s childhood, adult life and his years spent in the reeducation camp.
“He goes from eating chicken, pork and fish to eating just rice and nothing else. He has to eat undercooked rice in the camps whereas his wives have well-cooked rice. Also, his jaw is broken,” Smith said.
Smith will have a reading tomorrow at Bossier Arts Council, 630 Barksdale Boulevard, from 2 – 4 p.m. The book, “The Land Baron’s Sun: The Story of Lý Loc and His Seven Wives,” will be available beginning Oct. 28. Lý Loc died of natural causes in 1992 somewhere in Vietnam.