“Do I Want to Spend the Next Seven Years Thinking About One White Dude?” Jac Jemc on Writing About Iconic Royal Cousins
In Conversation with Alex Higley and Lindsay Hunter on I'm a Writer But
Welcome to I’m a Writer But, where two writers-and talk to other writers-and about 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 we’ve got going on that week. Hosted by Lindsay Hunter and Alex Higley.
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Today, Jac Jemc (Empty Theatre) talks to us about the impetus for writing a novel about Empress Sisi and King Ludwig, trimming hundreds of pages as she drafted, using her time wisely, Donald Barthelme, what it feels like to bask in the buzz, and more!
From the episode:
“[Ludwig is] a queer figure, and we were in a moment where we were just finding out that Trump was potentially running for president, and I was thinking a lot about irresponsible political figures, and I was just fascinated by [Ludwig]. But I’m averaging seven years a novel, and do I want to spend the next seven years thinking about one white dude? Granted, he’s at least queer. So I started pulling in other women in his life.”
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Jac Jemc is the author of The Grip of It, My Only Wife, A Different Bed Every Time, and the story collection False Bingo, which won the Chicago Review of Books Award for fiction, was a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and was long-listed for the Story Prize. She teaches creative writing at the University of California San Diego.
