Anxiously Authoring

AWP 2023 recap, News from the Library re: Heather Frese and Elissa Grossell Dickey, plus the gender problems in Naomi Alderman's THE POWER, and a booktail to go with it!

Apr 12, 2023

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AWP aka Anxious Writers in Public

In March, I went to AWP’s (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) annual conference, the behemoth of writerly events in the US, held this year in Seattle. In the Before times, roughly 14,000 people would attend. This year I heard there were about 9,000. I’m not sure how many pounds of books that breaks down to per person, but suffice to say I think the airlines made a killing off those overweight baggage fees.

This trip was kind of extra in the all the ways: a lot of risk, a lot of anxiety, a great adventure where I spied Carmen Maria Machado THREE times, the third time passing her on a staircase in a crowded bar. Mere moments later, I met Kristen Arnett and fangirl flopped. (Kristen, if you ever read this, I’m sorry I so awkwardly brought up that clown cunnilingus story, I don’t know what came over me.) So, what did I learn in Seattle? More importantly, what did I eat and drink? Some photos:

One of my main goals in attending AWP this year was to scout opportunities for my next novel, QUEENS OF HEAVEN OF EARTH. But once I got there, I realized I wasn’t in the headspace to pitch myself the way I did in 2020 in San Antonio, when I found a publisher for THE GOLD PERSIMMON. It was enough to just be there this time. I bought books and quietly lurked around presses I’ve had my eye on, taking notes to add to my personalized cover letters. I hugged friends I’d never seen IRL before. Alone, with a new Whiskey Tit title by Abigail Stewart, I ate the best omelette of my life.

This omelette was the best omelette I’ve ever had and therefore deserves its own photo. Light, fluffy, buttery, just enough goat cheese inside, with smoked salmon and pickled red onions and fennel on top. Accompanied by a grapefruit mimosa. If you’re in Seattle, stop by The Hart and the Hunter for breakfast.

I also got to meet JD Scott, with whom I’ve been corresponding via email for a few years now, ever since I reached out to tell them how much I liked their collection MOONFLOWER, NIGHTSHADE, ALL THE HOURS OF THE DAY. I later booktail-ized it, then added it to my queer magical realism independent study syllabus. This year, JD invited me onto my first AWP panel, a discussion among small press authors about promotion in relationship to community building. I included their booktail in my slides, along with a sampling of some of my earlier and current work. The panel was well-attended—like, surprisingly so—the atmosphere was warm, and my fellow panelists Sheree L. Greer, Yanyi, and moderator Gloria Muñoz were captivating, giving, and insightful. Personally, I benefited from hearing them.

When it was my turn, I admit I got a bit emotional. I held it together, though and just waved my hands around a lot! I just couldn’t believe I was talking about booktails at AWP. And if ever there’s a place where booktails are welcome, it’s a room full of thirsty (pun intended) authors.

In the end, I left Seattle with FOMO, even though I was there. Is there a term for that feeling? When you were part of something and it was great, yet you still missed out on so much? I also went home with the realization I need to convert more of my online connections into in-person memories. Life is short. And lonely. Let’s be friends.

Speaking of friends, let’s celebrate a few!

News from the Library

Featuring news and updates on authors and their booktail-ized books!

Early booktail THE BADDEST GIRL ON THE PLANET

Heather Frese, author of the booktail-ized novel THE BADDEST GIRL ON THE PLANET, has a new novel coming out next spring! Look out for THE HEART IS A HOLLOW LIGHT, the story of a young woman whose loses her father and flees to her best friend’s seaside inn, finding her way back to herself through science, nature, and the history of the Carolina coast.

Elissa Grossell Dickey, whose novel THE SPEED OF LIGHT was one of Pick Your Potions’ first booktails, has published a new suspense novel called IRIS IN THE DARK where a single mother faces her greatest fear: the past.

And now…the problem with THE POWER… and a booktail!

I remember feeling—no pun intended—electrified by my first read of Naomi Alderman’s THE POWER. The very concept was thrilling, and I thrummed with fury as I consumed page after page on my commute to and from the office job I hated at this heterosexist org run by billionaire philanthropists who did silly things with their money to make themselves feel like good people. I was angry then, angry that my time and talent belonged to someone else and that they squandered both.

Anyway, back to THE POWER. On the second read last month, I again reveled in the story’s critique of scientific theory grounded in bias, which is so readily exposed when the script is flipped and evolutionary biology is used to justify female dominance over males. The subtle sexism at play in some of our most basic interactions is, again, no more blatant than when our expectations are inverted and it is women belittling and objectifying men with ease.

However, the book’s major shortcoming extends from this very same bias: the erasure of trans and non-binary existence. THE POWER offers a semi-scientific explanation for the development of an electric skein in the chests of biological females, yet simultaneously fails to define what a biological female is beyond XX chromosomes. There is mention of a few cis men with skeins, but intersex, trans, and non-binary bodies are simply… not there.

The problem THE POWER tries—and fails—to skirt is that it’s difficult to define biological sex. Relying on chromosomes to do that work? Not so fast! Besides, some people have XXY chromosomes, like this possibly non-binary Scandinavian from a thousand years ago, and other such variations. Hormones can’t settle the issue, either. Katrina Karkazis, a senior research visiting fellow in the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale, sums it up for The Guardian:

The science is clear: there is no single physiological or biological marker that allows for the simple categorisation of people as male or female. Gonads were once thought to define one’s sex. In the 1800s. By the 1950s scientists had identified at least six markers of sex: chromosomes, gonads, hormones, secondary sex characteristics, external genitalia and internal genitalia. While these markers may align along a female-typical or male-typical path, that’s not always the case […] So while sex is commonly thought to be straightforward, consisting of two clear categories of male and female, the breadth of human physical variance is more complex than the categories suggest.

In the world of THE POWER, would someone who’s intersex or has Androgen Insensitivity have a skein? As Vox puts it (albeit a bit harshly): “It’s as though Alderman cannot imagine critiquing our current patriarchal system of gender without erasing trans people from the world...”

If you’re wondering how all this relates to witchery, historically, non-binary or third gender individuals have occupied sacred positions within traditional societies. Intersex, and sex or gender fluid deities have existed in many parts of Africa. The manang bali are gender non-conforming shamans from the indigenous Iban tribe in Malaysia. Other cultures had at least three genders at one time, such as the Wakashu in Japan. Some still do, like the Muxes among the Zapotecs in Mexico. It’s well documented that colonization and imperialism are largely responsible for the erasure of gender diversity on a global scale. For further info on that, look to writer and artist ALOK. You’ll be glad you did.

An interesting counter read to THE POWER is Andrea Lawlor’s PAUL TAKES THE FORM OF A MORTAL GIRL, which I taught in my queer magical realism class for the Study Coven. In PTFMG, Paul’s default gender is masculine, but he has the ability to shape shift into almost any kind of human body. He can change his hair, musculature, height, genitalia, breasts, etc. This gets him into a bit of trouble when he falls for a lesbian at a cis women’s-only music fair. I should mention this novel is hardcore set in the 90’s, featuring a veritable rainbow lexicon of queer pop culture references.

Where THE POWER is serious and disturbingly violent, PTFMG is playful, curious, and chock full of unabashed queer sex of all kinds, with all genders. Furthermore, PTFMG does not feel the need to explain Paul’s magic. Though he seeks answers, he never finds them. The text instead posits various mythological re-tellings as possible origin stories, deliberately verifying none. When Lawlor visited my class, they confirmed this was a conscious decision. There’s been much ado about explaining why queer people exist. The very question suggests our existence requires justification.

I wonder what might’ve happened if Alderman had provided no biological or pseudo-scientific explanation for the phenomena that defines THE POWER. Meanwhile, Amazon just released a series inspired by the novel, which I have not watched yet because my spouse and I are working out way through the last gazillion seasons of The Walking Dead and we’re not quite ready to start something new. Have you watched The Power? Perhaps the show’s writers made some corrections? LMK in the comments!

It’s time for THE POWER booktail!

Naomi Alderman’s THE POWER is the story of the end of the world as we know it. The countdown begins when first a swath of young girls, then adult women discover they harbor skeins of electricity in their chests. Suddenly, every female-bodied person (based on narrow definitions of “female”) is a walking weapon. Regimes topple and a new religion arises, at the center of which is Eve, a girl on the run turned cultic leader. Her right hand is Roxy, who might just be the most electrifying woman on Earth. As the story hurtles towards its inevitable conclusion, the narrative demonstrates again and again that the hunger for power knows no gender. And those driven by that hunger will always believe the ends justify the means: “There is a part in each of us which holds fast to the old truth: either you are the hunter or you are the prey. Learn which you are. Act accordingly. Your life depends upon it.”

This booktail is made with apple brandy for the tree-like shape of power, as well as the fragrance of apples at a supermarket where the book’s only male protagonist—Tunde—witnesses a terrifying preview of what’s to come. Likewise, when young Jocelyn zaps her politician mother upon request, Margot smells “the scent of wet leaves after a rainstorm. An apple orchard with the windfalls turning to rot, just as it was on her parents’ farm.” Scotch adds a smoky flavor, a symbol of the snifter under which a kind porter hides Tunde’s passport, enabling his escape, while other male guests of the hotel desperately down their whisky. Amaretto conjures the smell of pine and sweet almonds, enjoyed by Roxy, the most potent of soldiers. The drink is garnished with a brûléed orange slice for the scent of orange blossoms, and the taste that wells under Roxy’s tongue the moment she discovers her power.

THE POWER

Ingredients
1 oz Laird’s Apple brandy
1 oz Scotch
0.5 oz amaretto
1-2 tsp brown sugar
Orange wheel

Instructions
First, prepare the garnish: cut a thin slice of orange and sprinkle each side with sugar. You can use white sugar instead of brown if that’s all you have/your preference. If you don’t have a torch, set a small skillet on high. Cook each side of the fruit for a few minutes, until lightly caramelized. Set aside. Add the brandy, Scotch, and amaretto to a mixing glass filled with ice cubes. Stir until well-chilled, then strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube. Top with the brûléed orange.