I’m back with an exciting announcement: this summer I have my first writing residency! It’s a bit different from a traditional residency experience in that I won’t be escaping to a cabin in the woods, but I suspect my weeklong adventure in the city will be productive nonetheless. The exciting and relatively new publisher Montez Press has a partnership with Mathew Gallery in Manhattan and reached out to invite various publishers they admire to join them at the gallery to host events this summer. The Feminist Press will launch our latest translation by the French feminist icon Virginie Despentes, Bye Bye Blondie, at the gallery on July 21st.
In addition to hosting events throughout the summer, the gallery has kindly allowed writers to stay for residencies. I am one of the fortunate writers who will be living in the gallery for a week. I will be working on a short story during my stay, what I hope to be the last story in my short story collection manuscript Hooliganism. Each story in the collection focuses in some way on female sexuality. While holed up in the gallery, I plan to reread Bye Bye Blondie, which features a teen girl being institutionalized for acting in a manner the adults in her life find erratic, but which is typical rebellious teen behavior that probably wouldn’t have landed her in this situation if she were a boy.
I plan to use the space and my reading of Despentes to inform my short story. I’m hoping that a gallery space will prove to be fertile ground for creation and that the challenge of producing a new piece in a week will be inspiring rather than crippling. I feel up for the challenge, especially knowing that near the end of my week I’ll get to celebrate by hosting the Bye Bye Blondie launch party. I can spend a week in solitude knowing a reading and wine-fueled festivities await me at the finish line.
I’m also working on lining up events for my Siblings and Other Disappointments book tour, so stay tuned for exciting updates, including information about my appearances at the Litquake Literary Festival in San Francisco!
Kait Gets Lit 