Give us your elevator
pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?
A Girl Goes into the
Forest is a collection of hybrid stories and fables that examine the mythos
of the American girl. Immersing readers in forests both literal and
metaphorical, this book illuminates love and loss by exploring the complex
desires, contradictions, and sorrows of daughters, wives, mothers, and those
who love them.
Which story did you
most enjoy writing? Why? And, which story gave you the most trouble, and why?
“Goodbye, Roller Coaster” was one of those rare stories that
wrote itself, the first draft, that is. The experience of transcribing what
comes out of nowhere and then later reading and taking it in, is one of those
fundamental pleasures: to see a momentary texture of one’s mind. In contrast,
“You Can Do Anything” was a story that I grappled with for ages. I wanted to
get across the emotional pain and suffering underlying the fussy, cautious, and
controlling nature of the male protagonist, to make him if not lovable at least
relatable, and I found this challenging to the degree that I wanted to give up
on him—but I couldn’t.
Tell us a bit about
the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.
There’s been a straightforward path to publication that’s been
singular and wonderful. I wanted to publish A
Girl Goes into the Forest with Dzanc, and showed the manuscript only to
that publisher, who quickly read and accepted it, to my profound pleasure. My
publisher has been beautifully supportive and I couldn’t be happier. It’s been
a realization of a dream, and I know how lucky I am.
What’s your favorite
piece of writing advice?
One of my mentors, Kevin McIlvoy, once spoke of how
necessary it is to have more than one writing project going at any given time,
and while he might not think of that as advice, I took that idea in and it’s
served me well. With all of the activities and work that go into supporting a
book as it makes its way out in the world, I need to have the making of art to
return to, to keep me grounded in what’s most important. Having projects
underway to turn to is a lot like picking up the partially knit sweater to work
on without having to plan—what should I make: scarf, hat, other? What kind of
yarn, what color, what gauge needle, and so on. The story is there, begun,
waiting for me to pick it up.
My favorite writing
advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the
writing of this book?
Initially, once I understood that I was writing about the
mythos of the American girl in our patriarchal system, I was surprised to find seeping
into the book stories about the damage done to boys in this destructive system.
That’s what led, I believe, albeit unconsciously, to my incorporation of lines
from Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” to structure the book.
How did you find the
title of your book?
I wish I had a good story to tell about how I came to the
title, but I don’t recollect that part of the process, and perhaps it was a
deeply submerged process. I can say only that when it came to me, I couldn’t
let it go. I liked that it shared a similarity to jokes that begin like so: “A
dog walks into a bar . . .” This was pleasurable because of that implicit
lightness and the playfulness since, of course, there is also the shadow of
that playfulness implicit in the act of a girl going into any forest. We’ve all
internalized the dangers of “Little Red Riding Hood,” for example: According to
an article published in the Smithsonian
Magazine that discusses how scientists
used phylogenic methods normally reserved for studying the origins of species
to analyze the tale, there exist at least 58 versions of similarly themed
stories around the world, from Japan to Africa to Korea.
Inquiring foodies and
hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any
recipes I might share?)
It turns out that even when I think I’m not thinking much
about food in this book, I’m thinking of food! There’s fudge with marshmallow
and nuts, there’s roast beef, a cake with pink frosting, gingerbread man
cookies, tomatoes, apples, hazelnuts, margaritas, key lime pie, smoothies,
white Russians, vegetable soup. The story “Confection” centers on lemon
sherbet, so here’s a recipe: https://www.joyofbaking.com/LemonSherbet.html
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