Q&A: Kirsten McDougall
Kirsten McDougall, acclaimed fiction writer and Victoria University Press staffer, answers our quick Q&A in honour of her new novel, which is already racking up rave reviews. She’s a Killer is the story of a brilliant and stubborn slacker who is drawn into radical action. It’s about what happens when we refuse to face our most demanding problems, told by a woman who is a strange and calculating force of chaos.
1. How are you and what have you been up to lately?
I’m good! I’ve been preparing my greenhouse for my tomato seedlings. We built the greenhouse last year and it’s a game-changer. I can now grow excellent tomatoes in Wellington. I’ve been reading a lot too, getting back into my one-to-two novels a week pace.
2. If you were working in a bookshop, how would you hand-sell your book to customers? What would you say to convince them to buy and read it?
I’d say it’s a funny book about serious issues such as climate change and late-stage capitalism. It has a mad narrator, who you shouldn’t like but you will. It has a kick-ass heroine, and a pain-in-the-ass bourgeoise married couple, and an imaginary friend. It’s fast-paced and thriller-ish. And did I say it was funny?
If the customer still wasn’t sold, I’d give them my hard stare whilst smiling. I’ve sold many products using this method.
3. What books (or other art/media) influenced you while writing this book, or generally in your life?
I’ll list some influences in no particular order: Stewart Lee, Kim Deal, Anne Carson, Michael Ondaatje, Elizabeth Knox, Oprah, Madonna, Simp, Nana Mac, Aunty Ngaire, David Long, The Fast Show, The Mighty Boosh, Fleabag.
4. What good books have you read lately?
In her collection of essays that read like long stories, Jo Ann Beard has written some characters that pop off the page like 3D animations. The stories in Festival Days are shocking, horrifying, hilarious and taken from real life. My heart beat quicker and at some point I cried. This book is also full of animals, which gives it extra points.
Med, A Cookbook, by Claudia Roden. Before Ottolenghi there was Claudia Roden. I don’t eat meat anymore, but I still bought this because Roden writes so well and her recipes are divine. I just ignore the meat sections.
I love watching Tayi Tibble develop as an artist in the wide world. She’s young and already onto her second poetry collection, Rangikura, which came out in June. The poems are funny, dramatic, light on their feet and moving. Her two books have just been picked up by Knopf in the USA, perhaps the first NZ poet to taken in by this great old house.
A wonderfully immersive and satisfying big novel with globe and time-spanning characters is Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. It’s shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize this year. New Zealand features, as does the mid-west States, Vancouver, Seattle, Alaska, London, the Arctic, and Antarctic. The main character Marian and her twin brother Jamie will stick in your mind for days.
Buy She’s a Killer (Victoria University Press), $35
