In this episode, host Terry Shepherd dives into the "uneasy space" of literary horror with poet and dancer Kirsten Kashock. They discuss her unsettling new novel, An Impossibility of Crows, a story that examines the haunting boundaries of devotion, inheritance, and control.

The Horse-Sized Crow

Kirsten reveals that the book originated from a single, startling dream of a crow the size of a horse. While the image was jarring, she felt curiosity rather than fear, leading her to create a female "mad scientist" protagonist—a rarity in a genre typically dominated by male figures like Frankenstein.

Logic, Longing, and Motherhood

The conversation explores the character of Agnes, a scientist who begins the novel having lost her parents, her job, and her child. Kirsten explains how Agnes’s scientific mind attempts to "solve" her daughter Mina’s birth defect through a breeding program, inadvertently crossing the line between care and control.

Key Discussion Points:

Generational Inheritance: How Agnes is shaped by her mother’s poetic journals and her father’s history in the Vietnam War.
The Isolation of the Pandemic: How writing during the global lockdown informed the book's themes of solitude and scientific obsession.
The Voice of Science: Kirsten describes the effort of developing Agnes’s scientific tone and the use of a journal format to sustain tension.
The Art of Revision: Why Kirsten views the first draft as "vomiting the clay" and revision as the essential "sculpting" of a story.

"The things that we bury do not stay dead."

For readers who seek the "pleasurable dread" of the dark and the unsettling, this interview offers a deep dive into the craft of a writer who isn't afraid to get "close to the bone".

Connect with Kirsten Kashock:

Website: kirstenkashock.com
Latest Book: An Impossibility of Crows

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Kirsten Kashock - An Impossibility of Crows