Q&A: Megan Dunn
Part memoir, part essay collection, Megan Dunn’s ingenious, moving, hilariously personal Things I Learned at Art School tells the story of her early life and coming-of-age in New Zealand in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.
‘I’ve been waiting for this cask wine drenched cruise through a juicy world of low art, popular culture, lurex, and frosty pussies. Dunn is bewilderingly funny and smart.’
— Kiran Dass
GOOD BOOKS asks Megan some quick questions in honour of the release of Things I Learned at Art School.
1. How are you and what have you been up to lately?
I find this hard to answer. Superficially, I am fine! But I also frequently feel like a small crocodile, seething in a sewer. That's my personal management style: small croc in sewer. Seething.
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?
If you ever watched The Smurfs and Alf, if you ever wished you were a mermaid like Daryl Hannah in Splash, if you ever owned a Strawberry Shortcake Doll or a My Little Pony, if you ever mildly dabbled in sex work after art school, if you ever sexually tormented a middle aged man just for fun, if you ever partied all night with other badly behaved feminists on Ecstasy, then woke up feeling fragile and called your mother, call Megan, she'd love to catch up. It’s been a while...
Things I Learned at Art School is a mental health break and you’re on it, laughing about every minor bad decision you ever made.
3. What books (or other art/media) influenced you while writing this book, or generally in your life?
Consciously: nil. I wrote this book led by my own craven id, spurred on by my intuition, and instincts sharpened by those gummy heart shaped lollies that taste like aniseed. But I do think the colloquial hilarity of the Adrian Mole Diaries (a childhood fav) crossed with the vitriol and virtuosity of Kathy Acker and artist Sophie Calle play a part. I like my art feisty as f*ck with lashings of black humour.
4. What good books have you read lately?
HEAPS. This is a plea to other writers to stop writing good books, so I can catch up. (On Freedom by Maggie Nelson. Vivian Gornick, Fierce Attachments and The Odd Woman and the City. Karl Ove, sexy Norwegian beast. Saw The Crying Book by Heather Christle the other day and had to withhold myself from buying it...)
Buy Things I Learned At Art School (Penguin NZ), $35
