30 Dec Micro Interview | Thuy On
Sticky Teeth’s micro-interviews feature words on the intersection of art and writing. For the 15th edition, we spoke with Australian arts journalist, editor, critic and poet Thuy On.
In my baby writing days in Melbourne, I spent most weekends bussing it to theatre shows – with a happy-to-be-there friend for my +1 ticket – to formulate criticism for Artshub. I filled up my emerging portfolio with a 5 and 1 star once or twice but mostly dished out 3 stars here, there, everywhere. These same friends expressed horror and timidity as I publicly aired my distastes, even though we had been to the closest bar after the show where half my critiques were fleshed out by their fast nodding encouragements.
It was a good exercise in forcing myself to betray all that OTT niceness that infuses your eager-to-please early 20s. I had enough fun that I went along with this gig for a while until I packed up for France a few years ago. Nothing has filled the void since. But reconnecting with one of their editors, Thuy On, for this sticky teeth micro-interview, has whet my appetite.
Read on for Thuy talking about literary world overflows, reading for pleasure, writing on Kylie Minogue and love for Maxine Beneba Clarke.
– Tahney
Everyone seems to be far too distracted with other channels these days that reading for pleasure and/or edification seems to be a dying pastime.
Thuy On is an arts journalist, editor, critic and poet. She’s the Reviews and Literary editor of online arts publication ArtsHub. She has two previous collections of poetry published by UWA Publishing: Turbulence (2020) and Decadence (2022). Her third, Essence, will be released in 2025.
From your perspective, what's a problem bugging writing in the arts these days?
In my capacity as Reviews Editor (we deal with live performances, exhibitions and books at ArtsHub) there are just so many books published that land on my desk for potential coverage. I can only commission a tiny fraction for review. In an ideal world, I would wish for more readers.
Everyone seems to be far too distracted with other channels these days that reading for pleasure and/or edification seems to be a dying pastime.
Who is someone working with words that you adore?
I am a big fan of Maxine Beneba Clarke. She’s a writer whose work includes memoir, short stories and picture books. But I like her poetry the best. Poetry is often accused of being pretentious and opaque but Maxine’s work is accessible, political and punchy. Anyone can and should read it.
A quote from them?
In her collection of poetry How Decent Folk Behave she writes: “I am warning you/ i’ve got poetry … and I could smell/ their fear.”
I like how she holds up poetry as a weapon here.
And what have you been working on lately?
I was asked to contribute a poem to a Kylie Minogue anthology of all things! Writers were invited to take a song from her extensive catalogue as inspiration for their work.
The collection is called Spinning Around: The Kylie Playlist edited by Kirsten Krauth and Angela Savage. It’s a lot of fun. There are fiction pieces, essays, poems and memoirs in there.
Any arts or other writing we should keep our eye out for?
Look out for my new collection of poetry, my third (!) to be published in February 2025. It’s called Essence.
My previous two are Turbulence (2020) and Decadence (2022). All three were released by the University of Western Australian Publishing (UWAP).
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sticky teeth is our bi-monthly newsletter sent to you with a curated reading list of art history deep dives, artist interviews, and exhibition reviews – as well as our micro-interviews series with arts writers.
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