Ghosts & guts & female embodiment

Gwen E. Kirby on Shit Cassandra Saw

I recently had a surreal experience while browsing the internet, subscriber.

I found by dint of kismet a hilarious (and very true) short story called “Midwestern Girl Is Tired of Appearing In Your Short Stories,” and after reading it multiple times — and laughing harder each time — I began texting it to friends. The consensus was that Gwen E. Kirby is a very funny person indeed, and that she has satirized a slice of NYC bro fiction with a sly, winking precision that would give the woman who ate Infinite Jest a run for her money.

Naturally, I had to learn more about Gwen E. Kirby. Imagine the goofy grin on my face when I found out that Midwestern Girl is but one story in a whole collection of short stories, and that Gwen is the fiction prof at my alma mater!

Author Gwen E. Kirby

Naturally, I had to invite Gwen on the podstack, and to my delight she said yes. In the below interview, we discuss her brilliantly inventive Shit Cassandra Saw, the vagaries of female embodiment, why one ought to consume both genre fiction and literary realism in hearty doses, and how the heck “feminist” became such a dirty word. (Let’s hope the butch gods forgive me for badly needing a haircut and somehow blanking on Anne Lister’s last name!)

If you enjoyed this interview, please run, don’t walk, to your local indie bookstore and purchase a copy of Shit Cassandra Saw. (And if you can enroll in a fiction seminar at Carleton College, I’d recommend doing that, too!)