In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Andrew Thomas speaks with Steven Duong on his debut poetry collection At the End of the World There is A Pond (Norton 2025).

"Tell all the truth but tell it slant." Taking Emily Dickinson's dictum as a guiding principle, poet Steven Duong delivers a collection startlingly clear, formally innovative, and consistently funny. At the End of the World There is a Pond is divided into four sections–The Jumpers, The Swimmers, The Sinkers, The Floaters--and throughout each Duong explores themes of addiction, mental health, climate change, diaspora, and popular culture.

from "Anatomy":

“there’s no / point in writing nature poems anymore, / not unless you drown the verses in smoke / & oil & organophosphates–the Anthropocene / demands a new syntax” 

Steven Duong  is a writer from San Diego. His poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, Guernica, and the Yale Review, among other publications, and his short fiction is featured in Catapult, The Drift, and The Best American Short Stories 2024.The recipient of fellowships and awards from the Academy of American Poets and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he is currently a creative writing fellow in poetry at Emory University. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Photo courtesy of W.W. Norton and IfeOluwa Nihinlola