Writerly Growth, Ekphrastic Pieces, and Resisting European Beauty Standards in Art: An Interview with Azia Armstead

Azia Armstead is from Richmond, Virginia. She is an MFA student in poetry at NYU. Her work has appeared in Boston Review, Matador Review, and WusGood?, among other publications. She has received a fellowship from The Watering Hole and an award from the Arts Club of Washington for poetry. She was selected as a finalist for the 2019 Furious Flower Poetry Prize, and has been featured at Busboys & Poets.  

WSR: How would you describe your experience as an MFA student in NYU’s creative program so far?

Azia: This is my first semester at NYU in the Creative Writing Program and it’s a very fruitful experience. I feel like I have grown exponentially as a writer within a small window of time. Our first class was in September. Now, it’s December. I look back at the poems I wrote during undergrad and the poems I have written now, and they are extremely different. 

I feel that my mind has expanded so much. Now, I can write about the things I have been meaning to write about and pondering on for so long. It’s nice to have the support of not only my professors but also my cohort. I really feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be.

WSR: Do you resist anything in your writing?

Azia: I resist predictability and familiarity. I’m trying really hard to push myself to do things in very nuanced ways or ways that I’m not too comfortable with doing. I’m trying to expand and nudge myself out of my comfort zone.

WSR: Do you have any fears as a writer?

Azia: When it comes to content, I’m not afraid to write about anything in particular. I think what I am most afraid of is not contributing to art or creating art that isn’t useful and doesn’t do something for other people. 

WSR: How do you describe literary success?

Azia: I feel like I’m always having this conversation with my friends! I always try not to be consumed by the idea of accolades or awards. I don’t want to be driven by those things. 

When I think of literary success, it’s more on a personal note. I feel like my writing has grown to a point where—I don’t want to say comfortable or satisfied, because I never want to stop learning how to improve my craft—literary success for me is when you find your voice, and you are true to yourself as an artist.

WSR: Are you currently working on anything?

Azia: Currently, I am working on a collection of ekphrastic pieces because art has really influenced my work. I go to museums a lot, especially in New York, and I like writing pieces that are in conversation with works that I have seen. 

I’m intrigued by writing about blackness in the physical sense—when it comes to phenotype. For instance, I’m interested in poems about African American features like noses and lips and how Western culture or European beauty standards present these features. 

Going back to one of your questions, I do resist European beauty standards in my writing. So, the project that I am working on targets a lot of pieces that I have encountered that derive a lot of influence from African art, specifically African masks. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about faces. So, I have been writing a lot of ekphrastic pieces on portraits by European artists that kind of take on the characteristics of African art.