Barbara Tran
Poet, writer, cynophile
The short of it
Barbara Tran's debut poetry book, Precedented Parroting, was selected as a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. knife | fork | book will publish Barbara's chapbook Homing Instinct in Fall 2026.
(Pictured: Sprocket and Barbara. He's panting in this photo, but he does smile.)
The longer story
Born in New York City, Barbara Tran is an immigrant. And a settler. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in Conjunctions, The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review. Her poetry chapbook In the Mynah Bird’s Own Words was selected by Robert Wrigley as the winner of Tupelo Press’s inaugural chapbook award. Barbara's full-length poetry collection, Precedented Parroting (Anstruther Books | Palimpsest Press), was a finalist for the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award; shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Memorial Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award; and placed third for the 2025 Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry. knife | fork | book will publish Barbara's chapbook Homing Instinct in Fall 2026.
Screenwriting
Barbara authored the titular character’s narration of Madame Pirate: Becoming a Legend, a short, virtual reality film, nominated for Best VR Story at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. She was selected as a finalist for the 2025 Sundance Collab Cultural Impact Residency. Barbara is currently at work in collaboration with Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn on the screenplay for Nguyễn's debut feature film, inspired by the life of 20th century Vietnamese photographer Khánh Ký.
Recognition, Residencies, Life & Loves
Barbara's writing has been recognized with a Pushcart Prize, MacDowell Freund Fellowship, and Bread Loaf Scholarship, as well as writing residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Hedgebrook, Lannan Foundation, Millay Arts, and Moving Poets. Barbara is a contributing co-editor of Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry and Prose, 25th Anniversary Edition and a member of She Who Has No Master(s).
In her past life, Barbara sat successfully for the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers exam, and coached her dog Tashi to a top-ten national placement in APDT Rally. (Tashi was titled in Rally in both the U.S. and Canada and appeared in A Doll's House, directed by Sam Gold, at the Wiliamstown Theatre Festival, where Josh Hamilton, Torvald, was especially kind to her.) Barbara shares her home in Dish with One Spoon Territory with her partner, the economist Bob Gazzale, and their two adopted canines, Sprocket and River.
Books
Precedented
Parroting
full-length poetry collection
In the Mynah Bird's
Own Words
poetry chapbook
Watermark
25th Anniversary Ed.
Edited by Barbara Tran, Monique Truong & Khoi Luu
Watermark
1998 Ed.
Edited by Barbara Tran, Monique Truong & Khoi Luu
Precedented Parroting
"The poetry of Precedented Parroting is phenomenal, and the craft of the book itself is astonishing. ... from its smallest lines to the full experience of reading cover-to-cover, Tran's debut book of poetry will leave readers touched and inspired, and keenly awaiting what may come next."
—Jury, League of Canadian Poets, Gerald Lampert Memorial Award
- Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award
- 3rd Place, Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry
- Shortlist, Raymond Souster Memorial Award
- Shortlist, Gerald Lampert Memorial Award
- Longlist, Pat Lowther Memorial Award
- CBC Best Books of 2024
Anstruther Books | Palimpsest Press
Support independent presses and bookstores. Order directly from Palimpsest Press or through your local, independent bookstore.
Cover image: Detail from Bow River Bends by Yen Ha
Word on Precedented Parroting
The rhythms and soundscapes in Precedented Parroting are virtuosic. They make me think of waves or air currents that memory, narrative, relationship, and emotion are set loose on. Feathers are composed of barbs, as loss is, observes Tran in the early pages of this book, one implication being that, like feathers, loss can both enable and necessitate flight. An immensely powerful, clear-eyed account of harm, dislocation, and survival through generations.
River Halen
Author of Dream Rooms
Tran’s collection offers a veritable aviary of the mind, wherein birds—their migrations, their forms of flight and flaring plumage—gradually become figurative envois for a series of moving meditations on family, displacement, racism, and, perhaps most saliently, what it means to remember and to forget in a diasporic context. (Full review in Hamilton Review of Books)
Michael Prior
Author of Burning Province
Each poem in Precedented Parroting is a singular, sublime murmuration, their words swooping, shape-shifting, and thrumming with life.
Monique Truong
Author of The Sweetest Fruits, Bitter in the Mouth, and The Book of Salt
Mesmerizingly, it goes on. This whole book manages a swooping arc of familial and avian narratives ... I was swept up in the cadence.
Cecily Nicholson
Author of Crowd Source
Judge, Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry
Selected Works Online
Poetry
- Blackbird: Four Cardinals and Long Division
- Cincinnati Review: Red O (also, a video essay on the writing of Red O)
- Conjunctions Online: Precedented Parroting (earlier version), Feelings in A-Minor, Teetering Under Telos
- crossconnect: Rosary
- The Ex-Puritan: Raven Takes Wing
- League of Canadian Poets: The Art of Armadillidiidae
Essays
- Asian American Book Club: How a Restaurant Menu Taught Me the True Essential Ingredients of a Good Book
- The New Quarterly: My Writing Space
Short Fiction
- Minola Review: Obsidian
Interviews
Kathryn Mockler's I've Been Meaning to Ask You
Forge ahead, little sister, you'll learn along the way.
Podcasts
- Listen & Be Heard w/Martha Cinader
- Multi-Verse: A Poetry Podcast w/ Evangeline Riddiford Graham
- All Write in Sin City
More Print Interviews
- The Malahat Review: What Speaks to You w/L'Amour Lisik
- River Street Writing: Power Question w/Hollay Ghadery
- 12 or 20 Questions w/Rob McLennan
Reviews
Precedented Parroting
- Hamilton Review of Books | For a Rising Body | Michael Prior
- The Fiddlehead | (Re)framing a Fragmented Biography | Robert Colman
- The Wood Lot | Blue Is the Colour Of | Conor McDonnell
- New Pages | Precedented Parroting | Jami Macarty
- Rob McLennan’s Blog | Precedented Parroting | Rob McLennan
Group Performances — Installations by Others
- Oregon Artswatch | Dao Strom, re-associating yellow at TBA — Dao Strom's Tender Revolutions/Yellow Songs | Lucy Cotter
- The Paris Review | Sit on It — m Burgess's Cake Sit | Charlotte Druckman
(I mean, how often is one invited to splosh before a live audience?)
In the Mynah Bird's Own Words
- Michigan Quarterly Review | In Barbara Tran's Own Words | Christian Langworthy
News
Poems in Anthologies, Spring 2026
- On Occasion, edited by Sina Queyras
- Mum's the Word, edited by Maria Coletta McLean and Rosanna Micelotta Battigelli
Nonfiction in Brick, Summer 2026
- Warbler Heliodor Yarrow
Events
Future
Burlington Public Library
Precedented Parroting
In celebration of Earth Day — a reading by and conversation with Barbara Tran
Sunday, April 19, 2026, 2PM
Photo (detail) by Ali Gradischer (@a_gradischer), courtesy of PICA
Past Events
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
Time-Based Art Festival, September 12 & 13, 2025
Hoa Nguyen & Barbara Tran join Dao Strom for Tender Revolutions/Yellow Songs
Pictured: Hoa Nguyen, Barbara Tran, Dao Strom
Members of She Who Has No Master(s)
Yellow garments by mai ide
Photo (detail) by Ali Gradischer (@a_gradischer), courtesy of PICA
Deep Gratitude
Where to Find Me
(not currently on social media)
The shore of Lake Ontario in the early morning is a good bet. Look for the cattle dog.
Or:
b a r b a r a t r a n [ a t ] g m a i l
