5 Questions with Kim Pham
Kim Pham is a screenwriter, filmmaker, pho connoisseur, loving wife, mother to three precious doggies and eldest sister to one human girl.
She was awarded the 2022 Heyman Mentorship Award for her novel manuscript Bird Hands Beaver a Fishmint Bouquet. She is currently writing a screenplay with her sister, Vivian.
No.1
Congrats on winning the 2022 Heyman Mentorship! Do you want to begin by telling us a little bit about your novel-in-progress, Bird Hands Beaver a Fishmint Bouquet? Please tell us the story behind the title too—it’s so lovely and unusual.
Thank you so much! ^_^
The story follows 13-year-old Bridget Bui who has only one goal this year: to ace Australia’s KRAPLAN (Knowledge Retention Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy) tests and claim her rightful place as star pupil. Maybe then her parents will love her. Her bright plans for the year start to crumble when her best (and only) friend Desiree Kahlil transfers to a selective school, while she gets blacklisted from every tutoring centre in the vicinity and accused of plagiarism by her favourite teacher—all in one week. To add insult to injury, her mum returns from a routine trip to Vietnam, having managed to slip through customs with frozen fruits, dried squid, and a loathed cousin. Amy, Bridget’s sworn enemy, enrols in the same school and quickly becomes everything she’s not: popular, smart, and tall. The addition of the textbook example of a perfect daughter threatens the delicate balance of Bridget’s family life. With the help of a new friend, Bridget devises a plan to ace the exams, send Amy packing and reclaim her rightful place in the family, once again at all costs.
And about the title—I’m so happy you like it! It’s hard to explain the meaning without revealing a few secrets about the story but what I can say is that I came up with the title before I began writing the screenplay. Fishmint is a herb popular in Vietnamese recipes; it is also known as the chameleon plant and has a long history of use in traditional medicine. In ancient Japan it was used to counteract the effects of poisoning.
No.2
You’re also a screenwriter and filmmaker. How do you think writing a novel differs from writing a screenplay, other than the obvious stylistic differences?
To be honest, I don’t really know. I’ve written three sentences so far and I’m already struggling. The last time I tried writing fiction that wasn’t a screenplay was back in high school for the HSC and I bombed that so … My wonderful mentor Kathryn Heyman really has her work cut out for her!
My little sister Vivian Pham is the accomplished novelist and professional reader of the family and it’s been really nice to come to her for help and advice. When I received the Heyman award, I freaked out and asked her what tense I should write my story in and she advised me that third person might work best because that’s what a screenplay reads most like. So, I figured I should read more books since now I’ll be writing one, so I hurried to my nearest Dymocks and asked the shop assistant if she could recommend some books to me. Looking back, I can see how strange that might’ve sounded without letting her know any specifics. She asked me what genre I preferred and I proceeded to tell her, straight-faced: ‘Third person please’.
So, I’m not really an authority on this but so far, I’ve noticed the difference between my approach with screenwriting and writing a novel is that, when I write screenplays, I watch the story in my mind, then write what I see. When I’m writing a novel, I’m trying to write a story into the reader’s mind, which has really allowed me to play around more with language beyond dialogue.
No.3
In the announcement over at Books+Publishing, your work-in-progress was described as “if The Breakfast Club was directed by Bong Joon Ho”. This probably isn’t your assessment, but can you speak more to this?
I actually came up with that comparison for an elevator pitch I was working on haha! If I could change it slightly now, perhaps I would change it to, “If The Breakfast Club was directed by Bong Joon Ho and based in Bankstown”. The Breakfast Club has some really cool, unforgettable characters full of angst and tenderness. In a similar way, I hope my characters stick with people long after they finish reading the novel or watching the film.
I was also very inspired by Bong Joon Ho’s masterful balance of comedy and tragedy, and wanted to draw on that levity as I wrote about the quirky, compelling microcosm that is Bankstown.
No.4
Which writers or artists do you find an inspiration for your writing?
Bong Joon-ho is my favourite filmmaker and Memories of Murder (2003) is my favourite film. I don’t think I have ever watched a movie that was as frightening as it was funny. Comedy genius Stephen Chow comes in at close second. I grew up watching Hong Kong cinema and Chow, with his unique style of mo lei tau humour, instilled humour and tenderness deeply into my imagination. I also love Taika Waititi’s films for their zaniness and sincerity, particularly Eagle vs Shark (2007) and Boy (2010). My favourite book would have to be Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China by Wu Ch’eng-En. I’m now on the second installment of The Legend of the Condor Heroes by Jin Yong and I absolutely love it. I am enamoured with the epic melding of magic, folklore and romance in Wuxia literature.
No.5
What do you hope your novel will do for readers and Australian literature more broadly?
I write for two reasons, one: because these stories come to me and they force my hand, and in those moments, I want nothing more than to indulge them. Two: because I desperately want to connect with people.
There is universality in uniquely individual experiences. We are so accustomed to seeing what a failing American student looks like: they get the classic big, fat red ‘F’ circled in the corner of their paper, but in Australia it might look a little different. It might look like you trying to convince your mum the ‘E’ on your report card actually stands for ‘Excellent’ or telling your parents they’ll receive your report by email this year when [in actuality] you just chucked it in your neighbour’s bin. Being bullied doesn’t just come in the form of being tackled into the ground and handing over your lunch money. In Sydney, it’s much more cruel. What’s worse than constantly being pushed in front of at the canteen until you’re all the way in the back and by the time you get to the front the only thing that’s left is a cold chicken and corn roll and an even colder orange flavoured Zooper Dooper??
Sorry for the detour—returning to the second reason I write, it’s to ultimately connect with those who have had similar experiences to me but to also shed light on the kaleidoscope of moments that growing up in Sydney’s South West has to offer.
Find out more
The Kathryn Heyman Mentorship Award is for a writer from a background of social and economic disadvantage.
The successful writer will be mentored by Kathryn Heyman, under the auspices of the Australian Writers Mentoring Program, for up to twelve months. At the conclusion of the mentoring program, the writer will receive a full read of their manuscript, with the first option to publish, and a full editorial report from HarperCollins. More information here.