By Nitya B.
Ina Cariño is a poet, and organizer, and 2022 Whiting Award winner, originally from the Philippines. Their debut poetry collection, Feast, was the winner of the 2021 Alice James award, and her forthcoming collection Reverse Requiem is slated for publication in April 2026 her work work appears in the American Poetry Review, the Margins, Guernica, Poetry Northwest, Poetry Magazine, the Paris Review Daily, Waxwing, New England Review, and among others. In 2019, Cariño also founded Indigina Collective, a reading series that showcases BIPOC, disabled, and queer creators in North Carolina. Their new collection Reverse Requiem is slated for publication in April 2026.
Nitya: What does being Asian American in North Carolina mean to you? What inspirations do you take from the community in North Carolina and how are you involved in it?
Ina: I grew up in the Philippines and I lived there until I was about 11. And when I moved to the U.S., I moved to Virginia with my mom. So that was kind of a culture shock to me – not just because America is a completely different place, but also because the South is a specific place in the United States. I wasn’t aware that this was a whole different culture and mindset and way of life. And so I had to get used to all of that.
I moved to North Carolina for grad school. I’ve really gotten to know a lot of the people and the hidden gems in the area for the arts and cultural events and spaces. And it’s been really nice to connect with others.
I guess what it means to me is something that is always changing, sort of malleable, shifting in different ways. It’s not one monolith of the thing. There’s different ways to be southern, right? And so I don’t know if I consider myself part of the South yet. I still feel like I’m putting out feelers. Not necessarily putting down roots, but just like making sure that I know exactly how I feel about where I am. But I really enjoy being in the community. And I put on readings for Indigena, my reading series that I host for marginalized folk in the area. And it includes BIPOC and disabled people. And so I’ve been able to connect with others through that as well.
Nitya: As a queer, Asian poet, how does the intersection between queerness and Asian identity reflect and shape your work?
Ina: Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. I will say my first poetry collection, Feast, was more focused on the idea of diaspora rather than intersections. There are touches of issues in there, but mostly it was focused on my experience growing up in the Philippines, moving to the United States, becoming an immigrant, and living in the United States as an immigrant. And so now I find that I’m moving away from that, not necessarily leaving it behind, but like finding those intersections.
Queerness too is something that is shifting and always malleable. I think that it definitely has been more on the forefront for me in terms of how it shapes my work, I would say that I’m very playful on the page. I like to try different forms on the page. And by form I mean like how the poem looks not, you know, and sometimes it’s like flushed all the way to the left, all the way down. sometimes it’s in different shapes. So I try to mix that, mix it up a little bit in terms of how it affects, like how you read it too. It affects how you read it.
Nitya: Your debut poetry collection, Feast, revolves around food and its culture. What compelled you to write about food, and why is it so important to discuss. Also, what’s your go to comfort food?
Ina: In grad school, I was in an MFA program for creative writing for two years. And the very beginning of it, I did not write about anything culturally connected to myself. I wrote really fluffy, surrealist, beautiful things that really meant nothing at the end of the day because I didn’t know that I could write about myself and not be tokenized. Or fear that I would be tokenized. But at the very end of the day, it doesn’t really matter because you have to write what you want to write. And so my advisor at the time, advised me to just write what I wanted to write, and who cares about the audience at first? And so the first thing that came to mind really was my upbringing in the Philippines, which revolved a lot around food and preparing food with my grandmothers and my aunts and uncles. And how food is very communal in many cultures. So I wanted to write about that because I feel like people would be able to be connected to that as well, even if they’re not Filipino. Or even if they’re not even, someone who grew up around food. I feel like it’s appealing–all the sensory aspects of food I really wanted to present to people.
In terms of what my comfort food is, I’m pescatarian right now, but my comfort food is meat based. It’s a Filipino dish called Dinuguan, which means blooded or bloodied. It sounds very crazy but it’s made with pork blood as the stew base, and pork meat, and other things like chili peppers. And you serve it over rice. And I remember this fondly because when I moved to the US, I was in fifth grade, and I thought, why don’t I bring this to school with me? And I was like, “Mom, can you make this for me? ’cause this is my favorite,” and she’s like, “Are you sure?” I was like, “No, it’s fine. It’s fine.” So I brought it to school with me, and people were like what is that? That looks so weird. because it’s brown. It looks like a chocolate sort of like color. Just like a chocolate stew, but it’s obviously not chocolate. And people did not believe me when I told them that it was made of pork blood. And so they called me a liar and I felt very embarrassed. It wasn’t even the fact that the food was gross looking to them, it was that they didn’t believe me, and that really bothered me. But that is still my comfort food for some reason. Even if that happened, it’s just really warm. It’s like a stew.
Nitya: Kind of switching gears a little bit for the next question. You touched on Indigena Collective a little bit, but can you talk a little bit more about it and what inspired you to start it?
Ina: Yeah! So I started Indigena in 2019 at the very end of the year, So right before the pandemic hit, and I started it because in grad school I noticed that my cohort of six people was mostly white. The cohort above me was mostly white. The cohort below me was mostly white. And so I thought to myself, where are these spaces that are dedicated hubs, that are consistently there for marginalized writers? And I didn’t really see any. There were open mics, there were like one-off readings here and there in the city, there were some in Durham as well, but there wasn’t like a consistent series. There were only a few and none of them were for just marginalized people. And I kind of played with that idea for a while, but I was a little scared to start it because I’d never done anything like that before.
My friend Steven was like, “you should start it. How about this? I’m gonna give you the name and number of the director of VAE, the art gallery downtown, and he would love to help you, give you a space to start this.” And I was very skeptical. I’m like, I don’t have any money to do this. But it turns out he, the director, was, willing to let me use the space for free. And I’ve been very lucky over the last several years because all of the spaces I’ve been in have let me use their space for free. And I’m really grateful for the community as well in that way.
It’s been a difficult process and I still do everything myself. It’s hard to not let go of it, but I see the logistics play out the way I want them to when other people are involved because I really want to honor the work of the writers who are on the platform for whatever reading that is that day. I don’t want to have any missteps like, pronouncing their name or getting their pronouns right. Or making sure that they feel heard. And so I feel like the way I’ve been doing it has been very streamlined over the years. But I, I have Steven kind of to thank for kicking me in the pants to start, start doing this.
Nitya: Where can people learn more about Indigena Collective, your poetry, and other projects? Is there anything we can look forward to from you in the near future?
Ina: In terms of what is in the works, it’s kind of already finished, but it hasn’t been published yet. But my second collection is coming out in 2026 with the same press, Alice James books. I’m in the process of going through the editing phase, and the layout, and the marketing, et cetera, which are all necessary parts. I’m really excited because this is a very different book from Feast.
I also put out a few poems every now and then with journals. And I try to do a lot in the community. I’ve been asked to organize a poetry night at Morning Times at the coffee shop downtown. Yeah. And that is happening on July 12th, next month. So I feature two poets and there’s a short open mic afterwards. I’m trying to do that more in different spaces as well.
For my reading series, we have an Instagram and a website. A lot of the events are posted on Instagram rather than the website. The website’s more informational for past events and what I am doing with it. And in terms of my own work, I have a website as well, and I also have an Instagram and people are welcome to follow me!
Indigena Collective: https://www.indigenacollective.org
Instagram: @indigena.collective
Ina Cariño: https://inacarino.com
Instagram: @moonfruit.png
