WEBVTT

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Hello.

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I'm delighted to be here tonight
to introduce Andrea Lawlor.

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This introduction has been
supported and inspired

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especially by Kate Bernheimer,
Isaac Esposto, and Maria Tatar.

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As children, if we are
very lucky, we are read to,

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cross-legged on the
floor, tucked into bed,

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flashlight under the covers.

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We read to ourselves, too.

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This space, the reading
space, is cozy and magical.

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Here, we meet
friends who dress up

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as rain clouds to
catch a bit of honey.

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We visit neighbors in
upside-down houses,

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their chandeliers like campfires
in the middle of the floor.

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The titular main character
of Andrea Lawlor's novel Paul

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Takes the Form of
a Mortal Girl is

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a shapeshifter with a
voracious and adventurous

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sexual appetite.

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Perhaps Paul is not the
most suitable companion

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for young children, but
just under a year ago,

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I found myself sitting
cross-legged on the floor

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of Professor Kate Bernheimer's
classroom, listening

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as a video-projected Andrea
Lawlor read us fairy tales

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from their novel for the
benefit of their sweet child,

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who had snuck into
the magical room

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of our writerly conversation.

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Right now, this
week, and always, I

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think we could all use some joy.

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In the face of
horror, dread, fear,

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I am trying to seek out joy.

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I bought Andrea Lawlor's
novel for my brother and then

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for myself, so we might explore
the queer geography of Paul's

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life in the early '90s.

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Activist scenes, music
festivals, bookstores,

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leather bars, and
riot girl shows,

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places full of beautiful people
and ideas and music and sex,

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places, to borrow a phrase
from Paul Polydoris, that

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taste like glitter.

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If the world of
Paul feels real, it

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is because of Andrea
Lawlor's rigor,

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over 15 years of meticulous
research and documentation.

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I ask you, as you experience
Andrea Lawlor's work,

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to also listen and read for
familiar storytelling forms.

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A student and reteller
of Greek myth, Lawlor

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conjures personalities and
journeys of mythic proportions.

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Fairy tales skulk in Iowa
City basement shows where--

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and I quote from the novel--

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"at the bar, a fair young punk
emerged from a forest of plaid,

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caught Paul's
attention by sucking

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on one of those fake
beers, an O'Douls."

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Andrea Lawlor's
fiction allows us

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to imagine how magic might
make us more real, more

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various in ways not permitted
by current laws of science

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or society.

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Even in the novel, after Paul's
extremely cool friend Jane

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makes plans with a cute barista
who might be a lesbian, quote,

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"Jane experienced a feeling
to which she attached first

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the word 'abundance,' then
the word 'plenitude,' and she

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considered how this might indeed
be the best of all possible

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worlds."

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Who better than Jane's
author and Paul's author

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to lead us tonight into still
more better possible worlds?

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Andrea Lawlor teaches writing
at Mount Holyoke College,

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edits fiction for
Fence magazine,

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and has been awarded fellowships
by Lambda Literary and Radar

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Labs.

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Their work has appeared in
various literary journals,

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including Ploughshares,
Mutha, The Millions, jubilat,

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The Brooklyn Rail,
F-Word Dinosaur,

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and Encyclopedia, Vol.

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II.

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Their publications include a
2016 chapbook called Position

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Papers on Factory Hollow Press.

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Their novel Paul Takes
the Form of a Mortal Girl

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was a 2018 finalist for the
Lambda Literary and CLMP

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Firecracker Awards.

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Paul, originally published
by Rescue Press in 2017--

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it quickly sold out--

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is now out from Vintage Knopf
in the US and Picador UK

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in the UK and Ireland.

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Please join me in welcoming
to the mic Andrea Lawlor.

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[APPLAUSE]