5 Questions for Ethel Rohan, by Michelle Johnson

5 Questions for Ethel Rohan, by Michelle Johnson Interviews [email protected] Tue, 04/16/2024 - 08:28 Ethel Rohan’s second novel, Sing, I, was published by TriQuarterly Books on April 15. The novel’s heroine, Ester Prynn, works in a convenience store in a coastal California town. A masked gunman robs the store, upending Ester’s life, leading to both newfound verve and difficult choices. Q: Ester Prynn/Hester Prynne: is your protagonist a contemporary condemned woman? A: While patriarchy dominates, all women are condemned to varying degrees—levels of devaluing and policing that are dependent on our government, race, class, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, domesticity, and perceived chastity and morality. Ester compounds this misogyny with internalized condemnation that feeds her blistering sense of guilt and shame on a number of levels and suppresses her true wants and needs. Her struggle over the course of the novel is to rise above the limits that she and prescriptive, heteronormative power systems have forced on her. Q: You seem to be equally at home writing novels and short fiction. As a reader, which are you more drawn to and why? A: As a reader, I’m equally devoted to the novel and the short story. While the novel can give us more plot, characters, time, place, ideas, insights—and readers can stay within its world longer—both forms require the writer to employ a similar skill set and deliver the best story possible.... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-16 13:28:17 UTC ]

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