Chloé Caldwell on Period as Plot

Welcome to I’m a Writer But, where writers discuss their work, their lives, their other work, the stuff that takes up any free time they have, all the stuff they’re not able to get to, and the ways in which any of us get anything done. Plus: book recommendations, bad jokes, okay jokes, despair, joy, and anything else going on that week. Hosted by Lindsay Hunter.    

Today, Chloé Caldwell discusses her memoir, The Red Zone, as well as the ambitious decision to center a book around her period/PMDD, periods in pop culture, women’s changing bodies, the euphoria of seeing menstruation depicted realistically, structuring and restructuring her book, and more (about periods)!

From the episode:

Chloé Caldwell: When I became passionate about periods, and thinking about periods, I noticed the way my friends and I talked about our bodies and periods was not being depicted anywhere. [My friends and I will] text each other the grossest things, and this is all in secret, and yet we’re all talking about it in the same way. I thought it would be so interesting to have that captured in a book that is somewhat literary–and contemporary. I thought, oh my God, what if I made the period the plot of the book?

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Chloé Caldwell is the author of The Red Zone: A Love Story (Soft Skull, 2022) and three more books: the essay collection I’ll Tell You in Person (Coffee House/Emily Books, 2016), the critically acclaimed novella, WOMEN (SF/LD 2014), and Legs Get Led Astray (2012). Orphaned Passages: Notes on Trying will release in 2025 from Graywolf Press.