E.J. Koh is a poet and an author. Her work has been published in TriQuarterly, Southeast Review, The Journal, La Petite Zine, Susquehanna Review, Gulf Stream, and elsewhere. She is a poetry finalist of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Prize and is currently completing her Masters of Fine Arts at Columbia University. She blogs at thisisEJKoh.com and tweets as @thisisEJKoh. Red is her first novel.

What Louis C.K. Taught Me About Genre

Last night I passed out listening to Louis C.K.’s Q&A on RSRV. Half-drunk, I was translating Korean poems with my dad on the phone – both of us trying to find an English equivalent of ‘death trap.’ Louis C.K.’s voice boomed in the background. He talked about working on The Dana Carvey Show. He had grappled with controversial material, which was the right thing to do. But for the wrong audience at the wrong network:

“We were on primetime television, the show’s like at 9 o’clock at night on ABC, it was just a mistake, those people didn’t want to see us…We got letters from old ladies like ‘You hurt my feelings.’ I learned from that, kind of like, you got to go where you’re wanted, you know?”

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