Please Note: The internet was not playing nice on the day we interviewed Polly, and though we tried several strategies, we could not totally resolve some technical difficulties. That being said, as you listen, you’ll hear that Polly’s warm authenticity and her lovely personality just totally outshine the tech issues.
No woman totally escapes the fact that she lives in a body made for making other humans. Whether she wants to have kids or not, her body and the society she lives have agendas. Polly Rosenwaike’s moving collection, LOOK HOW HAPPY I’M MAKING YOU, explores the challenges of deciding whether to become a mother, the obstacles to becoming a mother, and the the learning curve of adapting to motherhood.
Named one of the Best Books of 2019 by Kirkus Review, Glamour, and an Editor’s Pick on Amazon, Rosenwaike’s empathetic and beautifully-written collection offers a window into the lives of a dozen women who couldn’t know what awaited them, from trying to get pregnant and stay pregnant, to the hard-earned lessons of what day-to-day mothering involves for each of them.
Join Sonja and Vanessa as they ask Polly about her creative process, how she came up with the concept of the collection, the nitty gritty of working with an editor, what she thinks of first when she writes, how she chose the collection’s clever title, and her literary influences. As we do with all our visiting writers, we ask Polly about a story that shaped her, and we just loved what she shared–you won’t want to miss it!
Along the way, Sonja and Vanessa cast themselves back into the misty past, reminiscing about pregnancy and shiny-new motherhood, and Vanessa confesses that she sucked at breastfeeding.
REFERENCES:
If you do not have a favorite local bookstore, remember that you can always order online from Lawrence Kansas’s beloved bookseller, The Raven Bookstore. Here is a link to Polly Rosenwaike’s LOOK HOW HAPPY I'M MAKING YOU.
Spoilers…but hey, if you don’t know what TWILIGHT is, come out from the rock you call home and join us for a lively and insightful conversation with our special guest, Dr. Giselle Anatol, editor of the 2011 collection of critical essays, BRINGING LIGHT TO TWILIGHT. Dr. Anatol has provided popular texts and the legacy of the vampire important scholarly attention, and we’re incredibly lucky to have her in the studio to talk about the attraction and cultural influence of the TWILIGHT series.
Don’t worry, we’re not cancelling Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT because, dear listener, that’s just not how we roll on IWAW. What Sonja and Vanessa love is exercising intellectual curiosity. And this text brings up so many questions! For starters, can you both love TWILIGHT and be a feminist? How much Jane Eyre is there in Bella Swan? Is Carlisle actually a mother? Is Meyer drawing on works like PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, ROMEO AND JULIET, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, and WUTHERING HEIGHTS? Would the sparkling vampire series make a young, modern reader want to go read these classics? What are we to make of the novel linking Native Americans to wolves? Is Bella’s life-threatening pregnancy a commentary on abortion? What role does Meyer’s Mormon faith contribute to the focus on chastity, male power, championing motherhood, the imprinting and immortality of lovers?
With the world-wide appeal of the 4-book and 5-movie series, we really have to ask these questions because–as we always say on IWAW–stories shape who we are. Just to point out the obvious, what message does Bella and Edward’s romance, for example, communicate to a young reader about how love works, who to date, and what kind of risks to take? Can a young reader–the target audience of this series–always discern the line between fiction and reality?
ALSO, on this episode, we announce the theme of Season 5, the first season of 2026–our second year of the pod!!!
Along the way, Sonja bed rots, TWILIGHT-style, and Vanessa, a TWILIGHT fan of old, weathers Sonja’s wordplay about how much the series sucks.
REFERENCES:
Here is Dr. Gisele Anatol’s biographical information on the University of Kansas English Department website.
A link to Dr. Anatol’s 2015 Things that Fly in the Night
If you feel like checking out some of the fascinating articles in Dr. Anatol’s collection, here is a link to purchasing Bringing Light to Twilight
Here is a link to purchase Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature by Janice A. Radway.
Once again, we cannot say enough good things about Rachel Fader’s The Darcy Myth, and we also have a great episode on it: Rachel Feder's The Darcy Myth.
Check out Hot and Bothered Podcast: Twilight for a take on the movie by the extremely talented Vanessa Zoltan & Hannah McGregor.
If you want to know more about the Soucouyant that Dr. Anatol mentions, here is one of many websites with information: The Soucouyant.
Warning: SPOILERS! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!!
After you have read VICTORIAN PSYCHO–a novel that made NPR's Books We Love 2025 List for “seriously good writing”--come back and listen to a lively run down of the historical background that Feito weaves into her narrative. There’s so much of it that we can’t begin to cover it all in an hour! Feito brilliantly conjures the Victorian social landscape, and she does it all via the distinct voice of Winifred Notty, a ferociously bright, funny, and totally unhinged narrator. But is Winifred any more unhinged than the world that she inhabits? Indeed, could one argue that Winifred, this psychotic and goal-oriented governess, a product of the moral hypocrisies of an era that felt utterly sure of its own righteousness?
Along the way, Sonja and Vanessa enjoy a historic journey replete with chamber pots, tooth decay, arsenic fashion, animal fat hair products, and Christmas cards featuring dead birds and marching lobsters.
REFERENCES:
To learn more about the author, head to her website, virginiafeito.com.
Check out art by James Ensor, the artist after whom Feito names the house in the novel. Doesn’t it hit the right mood?
Here is a link to the painting that features in Ensor House’s Dining Decor.
For a fun explanation of chamber pots and open drawers, check out Elsie Jean, The Well Dressed Historian's video on You Tube.
If you’d like to read more about preparing and eating the delicacy that is the ortelan bunting (the bird the book mentions a diner eating, bones and all), you should check out this informative and entertainingly-written Atlas Obscura Article that includes pics.
Here is the interview in which Feito mentions her mother’s reaction to the first draft of the novel.
Here is just one of many articles on Victorian Christmas cards, and you can also just google samples of Vic Christmas cards and judge for yourself.
This National Library of Medicine article cites statistics about how many deaths in 19th century Britain could be traced back to infectious diseases.
Here is the link to The Molly Brown Museum page about deadly Victorian cosmetics and apparel, like arsenic green ballgowns.
For a taste of Victorian beauty advice, check out an excerpt from an 1870 Harper's Bazaar.
Here is a link to the Wikipedia page that quotes chapters from the Ugly Girl Papers.
Here is a link to read about the Victorian Corset Controversy that includes the letter to the editor quoted in this episode.
Warning: SPOILERS! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!!
Get lost vampires: there are some even scarier monsters in the Gothic-sphere. They live in High Place, the mysterious, ramshackled (...and seemingly undulating) house at the center of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Best-Selling 2021 novel, MEXICAN GOTHIC.
Join IWAW this week as Sonja shares some deep and fascinating research into Mexican history, European Victorians’ cultural fears, competing theories of eugenics, colonial tropes, and some inside info on the world of mushrooms. Vanessa sits raptly at Sonja’s knee for this one, and you should join us because Sonja’s research truly helps a reader appreciate the wealth of historical and cultural knowledge that Moreno-Garcia weaves through her atmospheric, unpredictable, and satisfyingly subversive Gothic tale.
Along the way, there are plenty of ghostie Gothic Easter eggs, and Sonja and Vanessa agree on everything except the fate of one character: Vanessa argues for cuddles and Sonja for incineration.
REFERENCES
To start your own mushroom culinary adventures, do check out Sonja’s dad’s book, A Cook's Book of Mushrooms by Jack Czarnecki
When the Past Isn't Dead: Post Colonialism and Horror in Mexican Gothic
A Piece of Britain Lost in Mexico, BBC
Real de Monte: A British Mining Venture in Mexico
Fungal Colonialism in Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Mexican Gothic
WARNING: SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!
What if Count Dracula came to small-town America? That’s the premise of this brilliant vampire novel by the most famous and successful “What if?” writer, ever: Stephen King. Not only is this novel gripping and satisfyingly plotted, it’s beautifully written and goes way beyond the mere category of “horror” novel. The characters are engaging and the analysis of small-town American life is loving, honest, and unflinching. Treat yourself to reading it before you dive into this episode–you won’t regret it.
Join Sonja and Vanessa as they explore what ‘SALEM’S LOT owes to the Gothic tradition, and to Bram Stoker’s DRACULA, in particular. With Stoker in mind, we also consider King’s use of female characters. Do we like them? Is there a Mina Harker in this American town? Is there a vampy Lucy, snacking on innocent American children?
There’s for sure a creepy house–the Marsten House–and we will discuss parallels with Hill House, given that we dedicated an episode to Shirley Jackson’s THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, and King literally quotes and references her novel in ‘SALEM’S LOT.
Finally, as we’ve established this season, writers use Gothic to metaphorically explore a real-life fear…King’s Gothic work is no exception, but for him, it’s not patriarchy. It is, however, not unrelated to patriarchy, and it goes back to a story that’s one of the oldest and most influential in human history. Hint: think talking snake.
Along the way, we bump into Sigmund Freud and a priest with “serious mojo,” Sonja explains how to ward off a vampire when at the doctor’s office, and Vanessa makes a rare comment about being older than her co-host.
REFERENCES
Check out our episodes on Shirley Jackson’s THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and on Bram Stoker’s DRACULA.
Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for the amazing women in your life, and in honor of that, we’re proud to air this fresh, energetic, edgy interview with comedian, author, and entrepreneur, Lynn Harris. Lynn has lived and breathed comedy for over 30 years, and she has dedicated over a decade to bringing more diversity into comedy through her company, Gold Comedy, by offering classes, resources, and a supportive network of people in the industry who help women and non-binary people bring their humor to an audience for fun or as a career move.
Comedians, after all, are storytellers. And, at IWAW, we are all about how stories shape reality. From a female perspective, what kind of reality are we living when so few women get to share what is funny or absurd about their daily life? We all know there is comedy in our jobs, our kids, our spouses, and our weird, wildly fluctuating female bodies…so why isn’t there a deep bench of women to explore our existence with the vital energy that only comedy offers?
It won’t take long for Lynn to convince you that many, many more women should be in comedy–and that the underrepresentation of women has NOTHING to do with whether they are funny. It has to do with traditionally-male pipelines, legacies, networks, and gatekeeping. Lynn has worked hard over the last decade, creating a new structure to help women and non-binary people find their “crew.” If you’ve ever felt like you or someone you know “missed their calling” by not being on stage or writing for a comedy show, don’t miss this chance to hear about Gold Comedy, built to help make those dreams come true.
REFERENCES:
Check out Gold Comedy's Website, and you’ll be impressed by all the resources available to any woman who has an internet connection.
If you are interested in the Gold Comedy discount offer via our podcast, please write to IWAWpod@gmail.com.
Check out links to comedians Lynn recommends: Murray Hill's website, Cameron Esposito's website, Cole Escola's website, Maria Bamford's website, Naomi Ekperigin's website, Bob the Drag Queen's website, the United Talent Agency’s page for Julio Torres, and Karry Coddett's website.
For more info on the Miss Piggy Movie, check out this article.
WARNING: This episode contains SPOILERS!!!!
In 1959, one hundred and sixty five years after Ann Radcliffe’s THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO, one might reasonably have thought that there was nothing new to be found under the gloomy Gothic moon. Such a supposition, however, would be discounting the immense talent of Shirley Jackson, one of America’s greatest writers.
In THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, Jackson not only created a uniquely terrifying novel–per the master horror writer, Stephen King— but she also innovates the Gothic genre. In this episode, Sonja and Vanessa explore what it was about Jackson’s life that made her the only person who could write this singular book. And yet, despite HILL HOUSE's sui generis status, the novel depicts a widespread, bleak existence that many female readers of the mid-twentieth century would have recognized. Jackson fully explores the metaphorical possibilities of the Gothic genre to dramatize invisible forces shaping 1950's and 1960's American women’s identities, dreams, and place in the fabled nuclear family.
Along the way, Sonja speculates on the possibility that all children carry a dash of the demonic, and Vanessa confirms that the family “portrait” that Sonja thinks is naked is, indeed, naked.
REFERENCES:
Here is a link to the article by Barb Lien-Cooper that makes the case that Hill House works to rid itself of the non-Crain-family guests, not unlike the Oscar Wilde story, "The Canterville Ghost," (that is mentioned in Jackson’s novel).
Vanessa quotes a writer wondering if we are beyond needing a haunted house metaphor to express the condition of women’s lives, and it’s worth checking out the whole article, by C.J. Hauser, entitled “Some Reasons My Niece is Probably the Reincarnation of Shirley Jackson.”
To read about what Vanessa calls the “happy ending” theory, check out this fascinating 2017 article by Brittany Roberts, “Helping Eleanor Come Home: A Reassessment of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.” Roberts makes a very convincing argument that the house is actually trying to help Eleanor. Roberts argues: “If previous readings of Hill House have largely focused on the relationship between Eleanor and Hill House as abusive and unidirectional, a relationship that ignites a process of madness and dissolution of selfhood for Eleanor, I instead argue that the process undergone by Eleanor and Hill House is one of mutual fulfilment, a process of accommodating one another’s needs. As I demonstrate, Hill House encourages Eleanor to achieve the romance of isolation that she fantasises about, thereby propelling Eleanor to actualise both the self she has begun to construct through fantasy and her most inwardly cherished desires.15 In return, Eleanor provides a genuine love and appreciation for Hill House and the seclusion, isolation, and silence it promises. Far from participating in the dissolution of Eleanor’s selfhood, then, Hill House, and the many nonhuman emblems of domesticity and seclusion that Eleanor comes to care for throughout the novel, are instead co-creators of Eleanor’s newfound identity.”
Welcome to Manderley…or, rather, the romantic dream of Manderley. Who needs a repurposed abbey or a Alpine castle when you have the genuine fire-devastated, ivy-swarmed, misty ruins of a historic manor house along the tempestuous north Atlantic coast? As if that were not Gothic enough, let’s go all out with an orphaned heroine and a very carefully guarded family secret.
SPOILERS Ahoy when you join Sonja and Vanessa as they discuss this 1938 bestseller, REBECCA. It’s often promoted as a Gothic romance…but is it? Is Maxim De Winter a proper Gothic hero? Would you ride in his car? Are there real ghosts? How are we defining a haunting? Is our unnamed narrator reliable? Do we like her? Do the servants–once again–add a vital dimension to the mood and twists to the plot? And which Mrs. De Winter wins? It probably depends on how you feel about having tea with bread and butter.
Along the way, Sonja redefines “gentle flirtation,” and Vanessa blushes, perusing a sexy botanical Tinder profile.
REFERENCES:
The edition of REBECCA with the really insightful Afterword by Sally Beauman that Vanessa mentions is the 2023 Back Bay Books Edition.
If you’ve ever contemplated a governess career, perhaps Henry James’s THE TURN OF THE SCREW will give you pause. Or maybe this bite-sized Gothic ghost story will thrill you with the chance of being in charge of a beautiful English country house with no master to tell you what to do. But choose your adventure carefully because you might end up haunted and/or crazy and/or murdering someone.
Join Sonja and Vanessa as they do a quick Henry James 101, and explore WITH SPOILERS his classic, 1898 ghost story. Are there ghosts? Is the governess losing her mind? Why did Miles get expelled from boarding school? Are Miles and Flora the OG creepy literary kids? What role does hysteria play? Is there a spell cast over the entire plot? Is the story a trap to catch the reader? How does the novella, set at Bly Manor, link to the Netfilx show, THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR?
We’ll address these questions, and along the way, Sonja will propose a sexy theory, and Vanessa will suggest that the bosom can be a murder weapon.
REFERENCES:
While we did not look at JANE EYRE as a Gothic tale, we did think about whether it counts as a female odyssey in Season 1: Can a Lowly Governess Have an Odyssey?
Here is an overview of James Literary Criticism, including Edmund Wilson’s influential article, “The Ambiguity of Henry James” from 1934.
Here is the article about how Henry James felt about Jane Austen.
For more information about the Hysteria Diagnosis in the late 19th/early 20th century, check out this link.
Here’s a great article celebrating the ambiguity of Turn of the Screw.
Here is a link to the article that offers Henry James's take on several women writers that Vanessa cites in the episode.
In the world of the Gothic, after you bang on a few castle doors, you’re bound to run into a vampire. Bram Stoker, barrister and theater manager, notably closed out the 19th century by leaving us with his vampire masterpiece, DRACULA.
In this week’s episode, Sonja and Vanessa explore how Bram Stoker brews his very own brand of Gothic. Legends of the Carpathian mountains mix with modern inventions and modern ideas, like that of the New Woman. With 3 established female vampires, a newly-minted female vampire, and one beloved young wife teetering on the brink of the undead, women make up a crucial part of a tale that spans from England to the heart of eastern Europe. There are undeniably strong women in the novel, but is it a feminist text?
Along the way, we meet a “train fiend,” Sonja muses on sexy lancets, and Vanessa concedes that lawyers may well be the greatest blood suckers of all.
Who wants to break all the rules? Who wants to tear it all down and make the world anew? Emily Brontë does, that’s who.
If you imagined WUTHERING HEIGHTS was some quaint Victorian romantic ghost story…think again. Honestly, there is just no other book like it. This 1848 work is truly sui generis. It’s like Emily Brontë, in her one and only book, before she dies at age 30, writes an off-the-scale earthquake into life under the unassuming and isolated Yorkshire moors, and her quake violently, mercilessly shakes the foundations of Patriarchy, class distinctions, racial hierarchy, traditional marriage, expectations of femininity, the role of the Gothic heroine, traditional ideas of masculinity, Christianity, the legal system, traditions of hospitality, and the tropes of Romance, including the so-called brooding romantic hero. Nothing escapes unscathed.
Join Sonja and Vanessa as they share some brief biographical information on Emily Brontë, explain some notable critical takes on the novel, consider the outer limits of revenge, explain why Heathcliff is rarely portrayed accurately in film adaptations, and pretty much stand in complete awe of WUTHERING HEIGHTS, a page-turning labyrinthian story about storytelling.
Along the way, Sonja pines for a dance with strangers while wearing a red dress, and we try not to think very hard about Heathcliff’s double-wide-coffin fantasy.
REFERENCES:
If you have not read WUTHERING HEIGHTS, check out your local bookstore, and if you don’t have one, consider ordering from our legendary bookstore, The Raven, right here in beautiful, quirky, historical, downtown Lawrence, Kansas.
Here is the link to the Bronte House Museum page that details the racial history of Liverpool and how that affects our reading of Heathcliff.
The article that Sonja mentions about the symbolism of Catherine’s whip, by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, can be found here.
Here is an online edition of WUTHERING HEIGHTS that includes Charlotte Brontë’s introduction, explaining the sisters’ pen names, their publishing history, Emily’s temperament, and Charlotte’s take on her younger sister’s novel.
Sonja mentions the term “femme covert,” and if you are not sure what that is, here is a link to an article from the National Women's History Museum about the concept and the huge impact it has had on women historically.
We also reference previous IWAW episodes linked here: Interview with Heather Aimee O'Neill; Emily St. Aubert is the heroine of Ann Radcliffe’s novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, which we cover in a two-part episode; our episode on Tristan & Iseult explores the origins of romance; and we have an episode on Jane Eyre that intersects with the WUTHERING HEIGHTS episode in terms of the Gothic and romance.
Once a genre gains popularity, here come the parodies. Jane Austen grew up, petticoats deep in Gothic novels, and Jane had thoughts on reading them, writing them, and the effect they had on women readers. Our last novel, Ann Radcliffe’s THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO is mentioned multiple times in Jane Austen’s NORTHANGER ABBEY, finished in 1799 but not published until a few months after Austen’s death in 1817.
Join Sonja and Vanessa as they explore the historical and literary context of this lesser known and sadly lesser-loved Jane Austen novel. Find out why being Mrs. Tilney would be better than being Mrs. Darcy. Hear about a Jane Austen narrator that is not ambiguous and hard to pin down in a meta story about reading…a story that seems to agree with IWAW: namely, that stories shape us.
Along the way, we discover there is no crime in early 19th century England, we confirm that female frenemies have always been a thing, and Jane Austen finds herself caught in a late 18th century catch-and-kill publishing move.
REFERENCES:
If you have not read NORTHANGER ABBEY, you should stop by your local bookstore, and if you don’t have one, order it from our local Lawrence bookstore, The Raven.
The novel that references monks molesting nuns is Matthew Lewis’s THE MONK from 1796.
If you have not read Ann Radcliffe’s THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO from 1794, you can dive into those 600+ pages, or let us do the reading for you by listening to our fun, educational, romp through the plot in our MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO shows, Part 1 and Part 2.
Also, as always, we highly recommend Rachel Feder’s brilliant study of romantic heroes, THE DARCY MYTH or at least check out our show about it.
Much of the biographical information for this episode was taken from Claire Tomalin’s careful and thorough biography, JANE AUSTEN: A LIFE.
We also reference Charlotte Lennox’s THE FEMALE QUIXOTE from 1752 & FORDYCE'S SERMONS a collection of advice to young ladies from 1766.
McCormick Templeman’s atmospheric, twisty, gothic mystery novel, ATLAS OF UNKNOWABLE THINGS came out October 7th, and if you haven’t ordered your copy, run–don’t walk–to your local bookstore!
In this special double interview, McCormick talks about her book (no spoilers!), her literary influences, her creative process, and her friend and colleague, Rachel Feder, author of THE DARCY MYTH, offers her literary expertise and gives ATLAS her highest praise, calling it a Gothic novel that is “both subversive and progressive.”
This interview digs into fascinating, larger questions about the Gothic. Why has the Gothic genre been so enduring? Is the Gothic femme-coded? What were Ann Radcliffe’s distinctions between “terror gothic” and “horror gothic?” What is the link between traditional Gothic and Dark Academia? Is Gothic always a commentary on patriarchy? And, yes, we dare to ask if female writers do Gothic better. Writers that come up in conversation are Jane Austen, Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Brontë, Ann Radcliffe, Stephen King, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Mary Wollstonecraft, Matthew Gregory Lewis, Mary Shelley, and even William Carlos Williams pops in for a cameo.
Plus, McCormick Templeman points us in the direction of some HOT NEW WRITERS to watch, and we’ve put links to all of them in the reference section below.
Along the way, Edgar Allen Poe squeezes into a cheer uniform, “Raised Myself on Gothic” becomes a t-shirt slogan, and we plan a castle turret sleepover, replete with veils, casement windows, and reading from a copy of E. B. Browning’s AURORA LEIGH by moonlight, whilst keeping warm ‘round a wee fire, fed with pages torn from M. G. Lewis’s THE MONK.
REFERENCES:
Grab your copy of ATLAS OF UNKNOWABLE THINGS asap! Learn more about McCormick Templeman at her groovy website. She is also on Instagram.
To discover Rachel Feder’s oeuvre, Rachel's website is a great place to start. And if you have a Swiftie fan in your family, DO check out her book, TAYLOR SWIFT BY THE BOOK, as a really special Christmas gift. Rachel is also very active on Instagram!
If you don’t have a favorite local bookstore, we always recommend stopping by or ordering from The Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, Kansas.
If you have not read Rachel Fader’s THE DARCY MYTH, absolutely treat yourself to it, and if not that, listen to the In Walks a Woman Episode on The Darcy Myth. By the way, Rachel’s last name is pronounced “FAY-der,” and we got it wrong the whole episode before we knew better…thankfully, she has graciously forgiven us.
Here are the Author Names that McCormick Templeman mentions in the episode:
Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint https://www.thiriimyokyawmyint.com/
Dennis J. Sweeney https://www.dennisjamessweeney.com/
Khadijah Queen https://www.khadijahqueen.com/
Camille DeAngelis https://www.cometparty.com/
Heather Aimee O’Neill published her debut novel, THE IRISH GOODBYE, on the last day of September, and it’s already started a reading wildfire: People Magazine just made it their Pick of the Week, it’s Apple Books’s October Staff Pick, and Jenna Bush Hager announced it as her “Read with Jenna” on the Today Show last week. Go, Heather!
Join Sonja and Vanessa as they ask Heather about dyslexia, her early years as a poet, the mentors who inspired her, her transition from poetry to prose, the importance of sisters, and the emotional work of finding her way to and through the creation of this beautiful first novel, THE IRISH GOODBYE. To spend time with Heather Aimee O’Neill is to dip into our shared cultural struggles and losses and to find a way to embrace and be at peace with all the messiness of relationships–especially with family. If you’ve ever simultaneously anticipated and dreaded holiday family gatherings, you’ll relate to her characters, and you’ll value Heather’s warmth and honesty in this interview.
Everyone is trying to get 5 minutes of this hot new novelist’s time, and she graciously gave way more than that to In Walks a Woman, so we’re betting you won’t find another interview that is as deep and thoughtful as this one. Start October right with the fourth in IWAW’s Authors’ Series!
Along the way, Sonja admits to some baking trauma, Heather invents “Long-Island Gothic,” and Vanessa loses track of Chekhov’s raccoon.
REFERENCES:
To learn more about Heather Aimee O’Neill, here is website & she’s can be found on Instagram.
If you live in Lawrence, Kansas, head on down to The Raven Bookstore on Mass or place an order through them at the Raven Bookstore Website.
When we mention “Eric” in this interview, that would be English professor and former Poet Laureate of Kansas, Eric McHenry. Heather considers Eric one of her most important mentors, and Sonja is so fond of Eric she married him and has two kids with him. If you want to check him out, here’s a good place to start!
Heather Aimee O’Neill references The Shit No One Tells you About Writing Podcast, and it’s legit–go check it out if you’re an aspiring writer!
If you want to purchase The Irish Goodbye, Heather Aimee O’Neill has been collaborating with Barnes & Noble, and this link will let you support them.
If you are looking for Heather Aimee O’Neill 2011 poetry collection, Memory Future–the one Sonja mentions–you should see if your local bookstore can order it for you…but if not, here is a link to Amazon. It’s not as widely available as her new novel, but it’s fantastic and totally worth hunting down.
Welcome to Season 4: “Haunting Women”!
Here’s your first scare: Ann Radcliffe’s 1794 gothic classic, THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO, is 290,897 words long. For the average reader, reading at a speed of 300 WPM, that would take 13 hours and 5 minutes to read. And that does not count potty and snack breaks. If you are up for it, go for it! If not, as Sonja likes to say, we offer “Cliff’s Notes for Adults,” and we’ll bravely take you through the book. So are there spoilers in this episode? YES. YES. YES.
THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO was first published in 4 volumes, so this episode (dare we say heroically?) takes you through both volumes 1 & 2 in about an hour. What awaits you? Lots of patriarchy in the form of castles, marriages for property, and men who say that it’s your fault they have to kidnap you because you wouldn’t say yes to their marriage proposal. We also pay tribute to Ann Radcliffe’s expansive imagination: Radcliffe, a woman who had never left her home country of England before writing this sprawling travel narrative through mountains and dales and mountains and villages…and, well, more mountains. We review what “Gothic” means, especially to British writers of the 18th and 19th century, and we once again find that saucy, babbling servants make the lives of bland rich people more exciting.
Along the way, we bump into Scooby-Doo, and we play some Udolpho Bingo (Sonja wins), and both Sonja and Vanessa claim they’d marry a stalker who carved sonnets about them into garden walls.
REFERENCES:
Vanessa’s reference to Pamela is to Samuel Richardson’s 1740 novel, PAMELA: OR, VIRTUE REWARDED, which we cover in Season 3: Episode 5.
As with the first part of our Udolpho episode, this is full of spoilers, so don’t listen if you are up for reading about 300 pages (approximately half) of this Ann Radcliffe novel. However, if you are seeking a lively summary that will allow you to chat confidently about THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO at your next cocktail party, do push play.
When you do, you will find yourself waist deep in banditti and pirates (which might seem like the same thing, but you’d be wrong). The story leaves the fabled Castle of Udolpho, but the intrigue does not end as Emily winds her way back, by road and by sea, to her homeland of France, and the patriarchal real estate hustle continues, while Radcliffe makes sure that every, single imaginable moment of mystery that we’ve encountered in the novel is tidily and rationally explained.
Then, we turn to the question of whether you should go ahead and read this novel yourself. What will you gain? What is there that we have not captured in our summary? The answer might surprise you.
Along the way, Sonja finds handy travel cash under a horse’s saddle, Vanessa does some “performative sighing” after summarizing this brick of a novel, and both Sonja and Vanessa agree that wallowing in melancholy does have its undeniable charms.
REFERENCES:
After recording about 50 episodes, itt’s hard not to refer back to books we’ve read for the pod, and you can find all of it in our previous seasons: check out our episode on Samuel Richardson’s 1740 Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded; for the reference on Mrs. Ramsey and Lily Brisco, here is a link to our To the Lighthouse episode; in the discussion about metaphorical windows, you might like these episodes: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Madeline Miller’s Circe, Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and our 3-part analysis of Juliet in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
If you are interested in our spicy episode on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” you’ll have to go to our Patreon–but we promise it’s worth it.
Sonja and Vanessa thought it best to put the last episode of season 3 safely on their Patreon...if you go there, you'll find out why!
www.patreon.com/InWalksAWoman
In the third of our author interviews, Sonja & Vanessa are proud to feature another Lawrence, Kansas local author: Rachel McCarthy James. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because she co-authored 2017’s cold-case cracking tour-de-force, Man on the Train, in which she and her coauthor, Bill James, solve a hundred-year old serial axe murderer mystery. In her new book, Rachel traces the history of the axe as tool, weapon, and cultural artifact. Whack Job includes so many killer stories (pun intended!), like the story of a murder victim, from 430,000 BCE, found along with an axe in the “Pit of Bones” in northern Spain. Whack Job also recounts hair-raising true crime stories that hit much closer to home, like the daylight axe murder of Frank Lloyd Wright’s mistress and five others at his Wisconsin “Love Cottage” in 1914.
In our interview, Rachel shares insights into her research methods, her travels, her “rabbit holes,” her original discoveries, the experience of working with editors to shape her manuscript–in short, the honest, hard work, determination, and sacrifice behind a well-researched and well-written history book. Plus, you are in for a treat because Rachel shares some fascinating stories that didn’t make it into the book!
Along the way, Vanessa and Rachel hatch a hatchet business venture, Sonja drools at hearing a new, non-cherry-tree axe story about George Washington, and the axe gets compared to an important but much maligned female body part.
REFERENCES:
You can purchase Whack Job at any bookseller, but we suggest ordering it from our outstanding local bookstore, The Raven, in the heart of Lawrence, Kansas.
This book and this episode is like a fruit smoothie by the sunny seashore–light, sweet, gentle first love vibes. This is a YA selection we have chosen to find out what the youngest set values in romance stories. Appropriately, it is not an “E” episode–first time in the season! Sonja and Vanessa are joined again by their Designated Gen Z Reader, Sage McHenry, to better understand the meteoric rise of this book series…now television series.
Unless you’ve been living under ye olde proverbial Rock, you know that the “Summer I Turned Pretty” franchise is a cultural phenomenon with staggering fan engagement on all social platforms. Join us as we explore what makes it so appealing and what tropes it shares with other romances we’ve analyzed this season. Of course, Vanessa asks Sage some pesky questions, like, are all the messages of the series positive for younger female readers. As always, Sage “Designated Z” McHenry gives as good as she gets. Join us to see what you think…can we enjoy something and look at it critically?
Along the way, incest jumps out at us, Sonja loyally picks the “right” boy from the series to keep her daughter happy, and Vanessa finds out the golden retriever she hastily adopted might not turn out to be as adorable as he seemed.
Welcome to our 2nd episode of “In Walks a Woman Writer”! Amy Stuber joined us in the studio, and the time flew by. Listening to this conversation, you’ll feel like you are sitting in your favorite coffee shop with Amy who is so kind, so unassuming–and yet so ridiculously talented.
Amy’s 2024 short story collection, Sad Grownups, won the prestigious Pen/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. The collection is wide-ranging, packed with women’s experiences, and haunting in its melancholy telling and perceptive understanding of modern American life. If you’ve ever seen a stranger on the street and wondered, what is their story?, this is the collection for you. Amy’s imagination is rich and empathetic, and these characters will stay with you, long after you finish her luminous collection.
We uncover so much in this conversation, including Amy’s literary influences, her inspirations, and why she believes short stories are the perfect fit for readers today. Along the way, some empty-nester secrets spring out of the vault, the Boss rides by with ghosts in his eyes, and we unmask a Joan Didion thief.
REFERENCES:
If you are in the Lawrence, Kansas area, Amy would love for you to pick up her book at her favorite local bookstore, The Raven. Support Amy’s local bookstore and Buy Here!
The Pen America Literary Awards are considered the “Oscars” of books, so it’s hard to exaggerate what a big deal it is that Amy won it. Get the whole scoop here, at the Pen Book Awards site. What we get from it is KANSAS. HAS. TALENT.