In this episode, Cassandra explores the powerful impact of Mary Jean Chan’s non-Anglophone upbringing on her poetry and poetics. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Chan writes from the intersection of cultures, languages, and identities—bringing Cantonese inflections and a diasporic lens into English verse. We examine how her bilingual background shapes her themes of queerness, voice, and belonging, and how her poetry navigates the tension between inherited tradition and self-invention.