AR: What are some of the particular craft issues?
 

SS: There’s form and then there are things about the English language. The English language is based on a male-female dichotomy. When you say, “She picked up her book,” you don’t know how many people you’re talking about. There’s an ideology there. Overcoming that ideology is really hard. Unfortunately, the conventional narrative of romance — marriage, motherhood, etc. — is becoming the queer narrative as well. So if you’re not in that story, what is your structure?

AR: Are there contemporary lesbian writers who encourage you?

SS: Inferno was the best lesbian book I’ve read in the last few years. It was written by Eileen Myles, who’s a bit older than me. It would be hard to be a twenty-five-year-old and write that now. Where would you get the permission and the energy?

AR: Finally, one question we always ask: who’s your favorite wag — a joker, a wit — living or dead?

SS: For many years my favorite joke was from Woody Allen, in Hannah and Her Sisters. Woody's character asks his father “Pop, I don't get it. How could there be Nazis? How could there be a Holocaust?” And his father answers, “What do you want from me? I don't even understand how the can opener works.”