All Faculty Profiles
Olivia Cheng
by Carmen Hornillos
“Everybody has a lot of creative impulse and desire to create art; it’s a very human desire,” says Gotham teacher Olivia Cheng.
Olivia began her collegiate journey as a Math and Econ major at Swarthmore College, going on to work in tech after graduation. Olivia had always been interested in writing, but things really heated up during the pandemic.
“I started writing more intensely then, just because I had more time off from work,” Olivia says. “I had the time to write and really study short stories and understand what made them work.”
Olivia went on to get an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan and has published a variety of works across multiple platforms, ranging from short fiction to essays to interviews. However, Olivia’s first love has always been short fiction. She seeks to write from perspectives that aren't her own, and relishes diving into the hard-to-answer questions in her work.
“My best writing has always been external,” Olivia says. “I really enjoy writing about other people. Writing about other people is always really fascinating. I love writing about men, in first person POV. I think there’s a big divide between men and other people in society. I’m fascinated about why that’s happening. We’re in this weird mode of culture where I think our expectations of masculinity are very different or constantly changing. A good example is in modern dating; I hear a lot of people say they want a masculine guy that needs to be in touch with his feelings. I mean, what does that mean? These are the cultural questions I’m interested in.”
Another way Olivia expresses her curiosity is through travel. She’s been all over the place in the last few years and takes time to interpret what traveling the world is truly like, specifically when it comes to social dynamics.
“I write a lot about travelers,” Olivia says. “Americans who travel have a lot of privilege over most people in the world. Americans who go to almost any other place tend to be wealthier. One of my short stories is about a tour guide in China who meets an Asian American. I write a lot about the exchange of power that happens… you have this expert in this country showing you around, but you’re the person with the resources and money. They’re providing a service to you for sometimes a week or weeks at a time and are at your beck and call. What does that mean in terms of relationships?”
Olivia also enjoys tennis. She played juniors and in college teams, and tennis is what gave Olivia’s daily life structure, which she has carried into her writing practice.
“I do think that [tennis] gave me really good habits in terms of writing,” Olivia says. “In the morning, when I’m writing something very serious, I’ll wake up at 6 and work out, and then I’ll work for the entire day. Tennis gives you that diligence to really commit to something and to get good at something. To do things repetitively over and over again until it’s perfected.”
And Olivia is as committed in the classroom as she is on the court.
“Teaching’s really fulfilling, especially at a place like Gotham, where people actually want to be there,” Olivia says. “You get to shape people who are entering writing for the first time. The classes are always great, and most students are really engaged. I think if you give them a lot of energy, they give back.”
