Alison talks to Kristen Roupenian, author of "Cat Person," one of the most read New Yorker stories of 2017. Roupenian visited Atlanta (for the first time) as part of her book tour for You Know You Want This, her collection of short stories, which includes "Cat Person" and other dark tales. This interview was recorded live on January 22, 2019, as part of the Writers at the Wrecking Bar monthly fiction series produced by A Cappella Books.

Links to Sites, Articles and Events Mentioned in This Episode

Writers at the Wrecking Bar

“If You Thought ‘Cat Person’ Was Dark, Wait Until You Read the Rest of the Book,” by Lauren Holmes for the New York Times

“Cat Person,” by Kristen Roupenian for the New Yorker

January 24th – Jon Ward, author of Camelot’s End, at 7 Stages Theatre

January 24th – Mesha Maren, author of Sugar Run, at Margaret Mitchell House

January 26th – Jennifer Skiff, author of Rescuing Ladybugs, at FoxTale Book Shoppe

January 28th – Literary Atlanta Live - Georgia Center for the Book Presents Soniah Kamal, author of Unmarriageable, at Decatur Library Auditorium

January 28th – Keith Dunnavent, author of Spy Pilot, at Atlanta History Center

January 29th – Sara Bliss and Agatha Achindu discuss Take the Leap: Change Your Career, Change Your Life at Manuel’s Tavern

January 29th – Atlanta Public Schools educator Shani Robinson and Atlanta journalist Anna Simonton discuss None of the Above, their crucial insider’s account of the infamous Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal, Charis Books and More

January 30th – Ben Wynne, author of The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis, at Carter Center

Upcoming Literary Atlanta Live Events

January 28th – Literary Atlanta Live - Georgia Center for the Book Presents Soniah Kamal, author of Unmarriageable, at Decatur Library Auditorium

February 18th – Literary Atlanta Live – Writers at the Wrecking Bar Presents Snowden Wright, author of American Pop

February 28th – Literary Atlanta Live – B. A. Shapiro, author of The Collector’s Apprentice, and Tim Johnston, author of The Current, at Margaret Mitchell House

Books Mentioned in This Episode

You Know You Want This: "Cat Person" and Other Stories by Kristen Roupenian

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

You Know You Want This: "Cat Person" and Other Stories by Kristen Roupenian 

The audiobook features an all-star cast of narrators including Aubrey Plaza of Parks & Rec, Finn Wittrock of American Horror Story, and the author.

 

About the Book (text provided by the publisher)

You Know You Want This brilliantly explores the ways in which women are horrifying as much as it captures the horrors that are done to them. Among its pages are a couple who becomes obsessed with their friend hearing them have sex, then seeing them have sex…until they can’t have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for “something mean”; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her heart’s desire: a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed “biter” who dreams of sneaking up behind and sinking her teeth into a green-eyed, long-haired, pink-cheeked coworker.

Spanning a range of genres and topics—from the mundane to the murderous and supernatural—these are stories about sex and punishment, guilt and anger, the pleasure and terror of inflicting and experiencing pain. These stories fascinate and repel, revolt and arouse, scare and delight in equal measure. And, as a collection, they point a finger at you, daring you to feel uncomfortable—or worse, understood—as if to say, “You want this, right? You know you want this.”

About the Author

Kristen Roupenian graduated from Barnard College and holds a Ph.D. in English from Harvard, as well as an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. She is the author of the short story, “Cat Person,” which was published in the New Yorker and selected by Sheila Heti for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018. Kristen is currently at work on a novel.