BIO.
MIA T. STARR was born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is a possibilitarian, experiential traveler, writer, and believer of following her dreams. She is also the founder, editor, and creator of Four Days A Week, and a contributor at Monday Musings.
Mia's writing credits include published poems, an Honorable Mention for ASPIRING AUTHOR in the New York Stories 2005 Short Fiction Contest, and a Finalist placing for CLOUDS in the 2006 Glimmer Train Fiction Open Contest.
She is currently working on various writing projects, including revisions to MORNING SUN, a historical fiction inspired by her father's journal. The story takes place from 1944 to 1975—a time beset by famine, sacrifices, doubts, and two wars. MORNING SUN is a story about an ordinary Vietnamese boy's survival, courage, and hope.
When Mia is not writing, reading, or creating at Four Days A Week, she loves to travel, watch sports, take long walks, and get together with families and friends.
Mia loves connecting with her readers and can be reached here and on Twitter.
Mia's writing credits include published poems, an Honorable Mention for ASPIRING AUTHOR in the New York Stories 2005 Short Fiction Contest, and a Finalist placing for CLOUDS in the 2006 Glimmer Train Fiction Open Contest.
She is currently working on various writing projects, including revisions to MORNING SUN, a historical fiction inspired by her father's journal. The story takes place from 1944 to 1975—a time beset by famine, sacrifices, doubts, and two wars. MORNING SUN is a story about an ordinary Vietnamese boy's survival, courage, and hope.
When Mia is not writing, reading, or creating at Four Days A Week, she loves to travel, watch sports, take long walks, and get together with families and friends.
Mia loves connecting with her readers and can be reached here and on Twitter.
AN INTERVIEW WITH MIA.
March 15, 2010 (the day Mia launched Four Days A Week)
HOW DID YOU ARRIVE AT FOUR DAYS A WEEK? HOW DID IT COME TO BE?
It began with a branch I saw at an art fair in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Prior to purchasing it, the artisan informed me that it was a prayer arrow and meant for making a wish and trusting it to come true. I took this arrow with me on a one-week trip to Breckenridge, Colorado, where I went to Boreas Pass, a 12,000-feet high, former railroad bed on the outskirts of Breckenridge. There I reflected on a wish and threw the arrow without watching where it landed. Days later when I was home in Chicago, I experienced a burst of creativity that led me on an unexpected journey. Within a month I found Four Days A Week, a place to encourage and explore our dreams, give voice to our wishes, and celebrate the joys that will always come from trying. I think of Four Days A Week as a haven, a home to make as our own.
March 15, 2010 (the day Mia launched Four Days A Week)
HOW DID YOU ARRIVE AT FOUR DAYS A WEEK? HOW DID IT COME TO BE?
It began with a branch I saw at an art fair in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Prior to purchasing it, the artisan informed me that it was a prayer arrow and meant for making a wish and trusting it to come true. I took this arrow with me on a one-week trip to Breckenridge, Colorado, where I went to Boreas Pass, a 12,000-feet high, former railroad bed on the outskirts of Breckenridge. There I reflected on a wish and threw the arrow without watching where it landed. Days later when I was home in Chicago, I experienced a burst of creativity that led me on an unexpected journey. Within a month I found Four Days A Week, a place to encourage and explore our dreams, give voice to our wishes, and celebrate the joys that will always come from trying. I think of Four Days A Week as a haven, a home to make as our own.
Mia on the mountains of Boreas Pass. Colorado.
WHEN YOU SAY YOU HAVE LEAPT FEARLESSLY INTO THE UNKNOWN, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY FEARLESSLY?
I'll have to go back to a conversation I had with someone a few years ago. She had asked me about my writing, trying to understand why I was spending so much time on something that had so little potential to yield any kind of income, why all the sacrifices for something she saw as less than promising. She asked, "Don't you think you're wasting your time?" She was afraid for me and meant well. She highlighted the fears—uncertainty, skepticism, judgment, possible destitution, and the dark, solitary hours—that came with listening and following a dream. I think Meredith Pignon expressed 'fearless' best when she said, "In being fearless you are not without fear, rather you are withstanding fear. You are moving forward in spite of it."
HOW DID YOU BECOME A WRITER?
It was a gradual process I resisted until one day in my mid-twenties I found myself watching waves crash on a beach in Montauk, New York. I thought about how much I loved the sea and how strange it was, considering how I had almost drowned twice when I was young. I wanted to understand why I wasn't afraid of the water, as well as why I loved it. The need to explore and understand led me to write my first poem, OF THE SEA. Thereafter, I wrote more poems before moving on to write fiction.
I'll have to go back to a conversation I had with someone a few years ago. She had asked me about my writing, trying to understand why I was spending so much time on something that had so little potential to yield any kind of income, why all the sacrifices for something she saw as less than promising. She asked, "Don't you think you're wasting your time?" She was afraid for me and meant well. She highlighted the fears—uncertainty, skepticism, judgment, possible destitution, and the dark, solitary hours—that came with listening and following a dream. I think Meredith Pignon expressed 'fearless' best when she said, "In being fearless you are not without fear, rather you are withstanding fear. You are moving forward in spite of it."
HOW DID YOU BECOME A WRITER?
It was a gradual process I resisted until one day in my mid-twenties I found myself watching waves crash on a beach in Montauk, New York. I thought about how much I loved the sea and how strange it was, considering how I had almost drowned twice when I was young. I wanted to understand why I wasn't afraid of the water, as well as why I loved it. The need to explore and understand led me to write my first poem, OF THE SEA. Thereafter, I wrote more poems before moving on to write fiction.
WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE AUTHORS? FAVORITE BOOKS?
To name only a few authors and in no particular order: Jhumpa Lahiri, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Olen Butler, Haruki Murakami, Zadie Smith. My favorite books include Interpreter of Maladies, Unaccustomed Earth, The Great Gatsby, A Good Scent From A Strange Mountain, The Lovely Bones, The Hours, Empire Falls, White Teeth. I love stories with phenomenal writing and characters that will not leave me long after I've reached the last page. I'm drawn to stories that can take me away and quietly challenge me to see with new perspectives.
IS THERE A WRITING BOOK YOU RECOMMEND?
ON WRITING by Stephen King. The book introduced me to the concept of having a writer's toolbox. It was then when I began to type word for word passages and scenes of stories I found beautiful or compelling. I also included character descriptions, the flow of words, openings and endings of a chapter, and engaging dialogue. In a way I was teaching myself how to write, along with creating an indispensable toolbox. Soon I had pages and pages of the essentials in writing. I filed them away on my computer folder called Writing Toolbox. When I'm stuck in my writing I go to my toolbox for guidance and inspiration, and if this doesn't do the trick, then I type on the page a few questions that include: What is this about? What do you need? Where do you want to go? What needs to happen? What's the conflict here? Asking the questions usually gets me writing again.
Mia in a Vietnamese dress. Michigan.
YOU ARE VIETNAMESE, BUT YOUR NAME IS MIA T. STARR. HOW?
(Mia smiles.) My birth name is Huong Thi Nguyen, not the easiest name to pronounce and not the reason for the changing of my name. For as long as I can remember, I always had this feeling that I wanted to be responsible for the life I created and lived. For me to do this, I had to give myself a new name. In high school, a friend passed me a note with the suggestion of Mia. I liked the sound of the name, liked how it could be from anywhere (in Vietnamese, if pronounced in a certain way, Mia means sugarcane).
After I graduated from the University of Michigan and was getting ready to legally change my first name, my older sister and her husband said to me, "If you're going to change your name, you might as well go all the way. How about Mia T. Starr?" And so it came to be, I was Mia T. Starr with a middle initial that stood for Thi and the link between my birth name and now my new name.
WHAT'S ONE THING MOST PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU?
I played basketball in high school and to improve my skills, I went to the neighborhood park and picked up games against guys who were anywhere from nine to fifteen inches taller than me. I was barely five feet tall and usually the only girl on the court. The guys waited for me to finish so they could have their turn. When they realized I wasn't leaving anytime soon, they humored me by offering to play with me, thinking she's Asian and short.
They quickly learned I could shoot and wasn't afraid to defend and go after the ball, throw an elbow here and there, scrape my knees to get to the ball first. The idea of suddenly losing to a girl became real for the guys. They stopped letting me drive to the hoop, giving me hard fouls when I charged at them full speed. It was a great time, lots of fun. The guys improved my game, and I went from being a bench player to a starter on the JV team.
HOW WOULD YOUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS DESCRIBE YOU?
Years ago at my sister's wedding reception, a cousin came to me and said she heard a conversation between our fathers, uncle, and friends. She said, "Someone asked your father to pick one word to describe each of his children. Guess what he said about you?"
I didn't know the answer and was surprised to learn my father said, "Brave." I wondered what experience had shaped my father's impression of me.
Then I remembered the time when I was four years old and sick in the hospital in Saigon, Vietnam from some kind of mysterious blood clot. The doctors didn't believe I would live past a few days. The country was at war and life was full of uncertainties and fears. My father took me out to the hospital balcony for some fresh air, possibly thinking it might help me fight harder to live. I felt the soft wind on my face, and when I returned to bed for rest, I saw a room of sick, dying children as small as me. I remembered thinking I was not going to die. I asked my father to stay with me. And he did.
(Mia smiles.) My birth name is Huong Thi Nguyen, not the easiest name to pronounce and not the reason for the changing of my name. For as long as I can remember, I always had this feeling that I wanted to be responsible for the life I created and lived. For me to do this, I had to give myself a new name. In high school, a friend passed me a note with the suggestion of Mia. I liked the sound of the name, liked how it could be from anywhere (in Vietnamese, if pronounced in a certain way, Mia means sugarcane).
After I graduated from the University of Michigan and was getting ready to legally change my first name, my older sister and her husband said to me, "If you're going to change your name, you might as well go all the way. How about Mia T. Starr?" And so it came to be, I was Mia T. Starr with a middle initial that stood for Thi and the link between my birth name and now my new name.
WHAT'S ONE THING MOST PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU?
I played basketball in high school and to improve my skills, I went to the neighborhood park and picked up games against guys who were anywhere from nine to fifteen inches taller than me. I was barely five feet tall and usually the only girl on the court. The guys waited for me to finish so they could have their turn. When they realized I wasn't leaving anytime soon, they humored me by offering to play with me, thinking she's Asian and short.
They quickly learned I could shoot and wasn't afraid to defend and go after the ball, throw an elbow here and there, scrape my knees to get to the ball first. The idea of suddenly losing to a girl became real for the guys. They stopped letting me drive to the hoop, giving me hard fouls when I charged at them full speed. It was a great time, lots of fun. The guys improved my game, and I went from being a bench player to a starter on the JV team.
HOW WOULD YOUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS DESCRIBE YOU?
Years ago at my sister's wedding reception, a cousin came to me and said she heard a conversation between our fathers, uncle, and friends. She said, "Someone asked your father to pick one word to describe each of his children. Guess what he said about you?"
I didn't know the answer and was surprised to learn my father said, "Brave." I wondered what experience had shaped my father's impression of me.
Then I remembered the time when I was four years old and sick in the hospital in Saigon, Vietnam from some kind of mysterious blood clot. The doctors didn't believe I would live past a few days. The country was at war and life was full of uncertainties and fears. My father took me out to the hospital balcony for some fresh air, possibly thinking it might help me fight harder to live. I felt the soft wind on my face, and when I returned to bed for rest, I saw a room of sick, dying children as small as me. I remembered thinking I was not going to die. I asked my father to stay with me. And he did.
Mia holds a doll, a sponsor's welcoming gift.
Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Grand Rapids, Michigan.
