WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.380 align:middle line:90% Hi, everyone. 00:00:02.380 --> 00:00:05.220 align:middle line:84% I'm very pleased and honored to introduce Kate Bernheimer-- 00:00:05.220 --> 00:00:08.670 align:middle line:84% writer, editor, teacher, and muse of the contemporary fairy 00:00:08.670 --> 00:00:10.320 align:middle line:90% tale. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:13.740 align:middle line:84% I'm sure many of you were at this reading, that Aurelie just 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:16.530 align:middle line:84% mentioned the other night, celebrating "My Mother She 00:00:16.530 --> 00:00:18.810 align:middle line:84% Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me," which 00:00:18.810 --> 00:00:22.140 align:middle line:84% is important anthology of contemporary fairy tales edited 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:24.780 align:middle line:84% by Kate just published by Penguin. 00:00:24.780 --> 00:00:28.830 align:middle line:84% And we sold out really fast this past Wednesday, which was sad. 00:00:28.830 --> 00:00:31.790 align:middle line:84% But we have many more copies tonight, which is happy. 00:00:31.790 --> 00:00:34.980 align:middle line:90% So please pick one up. 00:00:34.980 --> 00:00:36.277 align:middle line:90% This past Wednesday night-- 00:00:36.277 --> 00:00:38.235 align:middle line:84% so it's been the week of Kate, which is lovely. 00:00:38.235 --> 00:00:40.770 align:middle line:90% 00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:44.010 align:middle line:84% Wednesday night, though, was for contemplating and celebrating 00:00:44.010 --> 00:00:48.720 align:middle line:84% Kate in her fiery bright aspect as an editor, energizer, 00:00:48.720 --> 00:00:52.380 align:middle line:84% protector, and generous measurer of fairy tales. 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:54.660 align:middle line:84% Tonight is for contemplating and celebrating 00:00:54.660 --> 00:00:59.040 align:middle line:84% Kate in her moonbeam, cave-shine aspect as a writer, tale 00:00:59.040 --> 00:01:02.220 align:middle line:90% teller, spell maker, author. 00:01:02.220 --> 00:01:03.930 align:middle line:90% Kate's stories are fairy tales. 00:01:03.930 --> 00:01:05.610 align:middle line:84% The dark woods in a Kate story may 00:01:05.610 --> 00:01:09.360 align:middle line:84% take the form of a grimy urban avenue or a wood-paneled den 00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:10.410 align:middle line:90% and house in the burbs. 00:01:10.410 --> 00:01:12.810 align:middle line:84% But they are dark woods nonetheless. 00:01:12.810 --> 00:01:15.240 align:middle line:84% Kate's characters are fairy tale characters, 00:01:15.240 --> 00:01:17.880 align:middle line:84% both freed and bound by an intuitive logic that 00:01:17.880 --> 00:01:21.900 align:middle line:84% makes no kind of sense except for the feeling kind. 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:25.320 align:middle line:84% Kate's fairy tale characters are clearly second generation. 00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:28.260 align:middle line:84% Each character harbors a remembered fairy tale, 00:01:28.260 --> 00:01:31.350 align:middle line:84% even as she lives out her own tale. 00:01:31.350 --> 00:01:34.980 align:middle line:84% The wandering bride knows by heart the legend of the rose 00:01:34.980 --> 00:01:37.530 align:middle line:84% that will bloom only when the beautiful child dies. 00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:39.900 align:middle line:84% The daughter who atones is forever 00:01:39.900 --> 00:01:43.380 align:middle line:84% haunted by the story of the ovens of World War II. 00:01:43.380 --> 00:01:44.915 align:middle line:84% The bad and lonely sister would like 00:01:44.915 --> 00:01:46.290 align:middle line:84% to be the little matchstick girl. 00:01:46.290 --> 00:01:49.830 align:middle line:84% I think, because although the matchstick girl was just as 00:01:49.830 --> 00:01:55.110 align:middle line:84% lonely and then ultimately dead, she was good instead of bad. 00:01:55.110 --> 00:01:57.600 align:middle line:84% In Kate's fairy tales, as in real life, the atrocious 00:01:57.600 --> 00:01:59.130 align:middle line:90% and the beautiful coexist. 00:01:59.130 --> 00:02:00.490 align:middle line:90% That's the ur paradox-- 00:02:00.490 --> 00:02:03.330 align:middle line:84% the one that breaks every heart that ever beat or does 00:02:03.330 --> 00:02:04.950 align:middle line:90% still beat. 00:02:04.950 --> 00:02:07.950 align:middle line:84% The brutality of being abandoned, killed, or born ugly 00:02:07.950 --> 00:02:09.780 align:middle line:90% is real. 00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:12.990 align:middle line:84% But, fortunately, so are magic implements and friends 00:02:12.990 --> 00:02:16.950 align:middle line:84% who offer help just when you need it and animals that speak. 00:02:16.950 --> 00:02:18.510 align:middle line:90% Animals do speak. 00:02:18.510 --> 00:02:22.530 align:middle line:84% You can see lots of animals speaking on YouTube. 00:02:22.530 --> 00:02:26.040 align:middle line:84% It's really disturbing to see a dog trying to say I love you. 00:02:26.040 --> 00:02:29.633 align:middle line:90% 00:02:29.633 --> 00:02:31.050 align:middle line:84% We don't just love Kate's stories, 00:02:31.050 --> 00:02:32.880 align:middle line:84% we need Kate's stories because here it 00:02:32.880 --> 00:02:36.300 align:middle line:84% is, almost 2011, but we're still sucking down 00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:39.570 align:middle line:84% the bitter dregs of the era of the Enlightenment. 00:02:39.570 --> 00:02:42.960 align:middle line:84% In the words of Cecil Collins, a mystical 20th century 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:45.240 align:middle line:84% British painter, "what an age to live in. 00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:47.310 align:middle line:84% It bites into you with a formless 00:02:47.310 --> 00:02:49.960 align:middle line:90% denying of the life in us." 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:51.990 align:middle line:84% Kate's writing provides some of the forms we 00:02:51.990 --> 00:02:54.690 align:middle line:90% need to affirm the life in us. 00:02:54.690 --> 00:02:56.400 align:middle line:84% She's the author of three novels-- 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:59.790 align:middle line:84% The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold, The Complete Tales 00:02:59.790 --> 00:03:02.610 align:middle line:84% Of Merry Gold, and the forthcoming Complete Tales 00:03:02.610 --> 00:03:03.360 align:middle line:90% of Lucy Gold. 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.490 align:middle line:84% She's the author of three children's books-- 00:03:05.490 --> 00:03:07.710 align:middle line:84% The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum, 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:10.080 align:middle line:84% and The Lonely Book forthcoming, and The Girl 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:12.540 align:middle line:84% Who Wouldn't Brush Her Hair, also forthcoming. 00:03:12.540 --> 00:03:14.820 align:middle line:84% She has published fiction and literary nonfiction 00:03:14.820 --> 00:03:18.390 align:middle line:84% in Tin House, Western Humanities Review, Poetry International, 00:03:18.390 --> 00:03:20.490 align:middle line:84% Puerto Del Sol, The Massachusetts Review, 00:03:20.490 --> 00:03:21.720 align:middle line:90% and others. 00:03:21.720 --> 00:03:23.640 align:middle line:84% Her most recent book is a lovely collection 00:03:23.640 --> 00:03:27.870 align:middle line:84% of short stories entitled Horse, Flower, Bird. 00:03:27.870 --> 00:03:31.640 align:middle line:84% Please join me in welcoming Kate Bernheimer. 00:03:31.640 --> 00:03:39.000 align:middle line:90%