Interview with Katie Flynn
What are 5 things you would want to find?
Presently, as I shelter in place, I find myself wanting to find:
A piece of cake in my fridge
New sprouts in my garden (I’ve recently done my spring planting)
Good news in my inbox (this could come in many forms, coronavirus-related, book-related, etc.)
Some fresh books on my doorstep
A portal to another world where human contact is presently no problem
What are 5 things you would want to hide?
My high school poetry collection—the drama!
Those first, faulty stories and novels—practice forming and for my eyes only
My computer’s file structure—it’s shameful the amount of memory I waste on old drafts of stories and failed essays and half-baked novels, but holding onto them is sort of a hopeful act. I never know if I’ll want to steal something from my past self’s failures.
My home office—in my unfinished garage, a cave of sorts, always a mess
My portal, obviously
If you could choose anywhere in the world for your book to be hidden, where would it be?
Right now, I’m thinking a lot about the places I’ve always wanted to visit, the trips I’ve put off. The Kamchatka Peninsula is high on my list. Really, my dream trip is to take the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to the end of the line, so perhaps a dream locale to hide my book would be in Vladivostok.
If you could find any book, which would it be and why?
I always want to read the early drafts of great books, just to get a sense of what happened in the editing process. I’d love, for example, to come across the first draft of Miriam Toews’s Women Talking, one of the best novels I’ve read lately, or possibly ever.
Who would you want to find your book (another author, celebrity, et cetera)?
The other day Margaret Atwood was recommending books about pandemics and I really wanted to mention my book in her thread, but was too embarrassed. So, yeah, I’d love for Margaret Atwood to find my book like on a train bench or something, post-outbreak obviously, when found objects can go back to being treasures.
