WEBVTT

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I'm Chris, a publisher
at Coffee House,

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and I couldn't be
happier to have

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the honor of introducing one
of my favorite writers, Kate

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Bernheimer.

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Kate's essay, "Fairy Tale is
Form, Form is Fairy Tale,"

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was named by Flavorwire as
one of the 10 greatest essays

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on writing ever written, where
she sits alongside such giants

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as Susan Sontag, Joan
Didion, and TS Eliot.

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When I was considering the
manuscript of what wound up

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being her first Coffee
House story collection,

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Horse, Flower, Bird,
she sent it to me,

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because she thought it would
help me understand her work.

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It did, and it, alongside
Victoria Nelson's Secret Life

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of Puppets, has also
fundamentally influenced

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the way I think about
fiction, especially

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work in a nonrealist or
speculative tradition.

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It's the latest in an impressive
list of literary output.

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Her most recent collection is
How a Mother Weaned Her Girl

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from Fairy Tales.

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She's also edited two seminal
anthologies, My Mother She

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Killed Me, My Father He Ate
Me: Forty New Fairy Tales,

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and XO Orpheus: Fifty
New Myths, and is

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the author of the wonderful
trilogy, The Complete Tales

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of Ketzia Gold.

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And she's the editor-publisher
of the wonderful and singular

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journal and press, The Fairy
Tale Review which, to my mind,

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is one of the most interesting
and important journals

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of the past 20 years.

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Lastly, as you know, she
teaches right here in Tucson

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at the University of Arizona.

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In a recent review of How a
Mother Weaned a Girl From Fairy

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Tales, the reviewer wrote,
"In transporting ourselves

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into the world of
the fairy tale,

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we continue to place value
in sharing experiences.

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Throughout the book, Bernheimer
skillfully and subtly

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illuminates the necessity
of this literary tradition.

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She maintains a delightful hope
in the darkest, most isolating

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encounters of our existence.

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If someday you find yourself
in the unfortunate situation

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of being held captive in a cage
waiting to be fattened in order

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to be eaten by a cruel
witch, what else can

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you do but try to break
loose, push the witch

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into her own oven, flee and
then have a laugh and a smoke."

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[LAUGHTER]

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Welcome Kate Bernheimer.

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[APPLAUSE]