How To Write About Sex with Carmen Maria Machado

We’ve made it to the end of season two! To close things out, Bethanne sits down with Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House, to discuss how she got into writing erotica, the politics of writing about sex, and navigating creative work in a repressive environment. Join us in conversation as Carmen talks about her first forays into writing.

Bethanne puts the spotlight on Middlemarch in this week’s Canon or Can It. Will the classic novel survive Bethanne’s critical scrutiny? Tune in to find out.

Can Bethanne beat the clock? She gives us 6 Recs for our To Be Read lists. Titles include: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett, Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill, A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, and Autumn by Ali Smith.

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The Book Maven: A Literary Revue is hosted by Bethanne Patrick, produced by Christina McBride, and engineered by Jordan Aaron, with help from Lauren Stack.

All titles mentioned:

In the Dream House – Carmen Maria Machado

Flowers in the Attic – V.C. Andrews

To the Finland Station – Edmund Wilson

Fuck: An Irreverent History of the F-Word – Rufus Lodge

Orbital – Samantha Harvey

Middlemarch – George Eliot

House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski

Imagine Me Gone – Adam Haslett

Dept. of Speculation – Jenny Offill

A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing – Eimear McBride

Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders

Autumn – Ali Smith

Episode Transcript:

Bethanne: Welcome to season two of the Book Maven: A Literary Revue. And as you might be able to tell today, I the Book Maven, Bethanne, have allergies. And so my voice has dropped about an octave. Thank you, dear listeners, for putting up with it. I promise we have a really great show. As you know, this season we're talking to leading authors, digging into the classics to decide which ones should stay in the literary cannon, and I'm also recommending some of my favorite books to you. We'll have all of that and more in this episode. And first this week I talked to Carmen Maria Machado, author of In The Dream House, and we talked about how she got into writing erotica, the politics of writing about sex and navigating creative work in a repressive environment. Join us in conversation as Carmen talks about her first forays into writing. I'm wondering, the first time you wrote a sex scene, was it for a short story? Was it an essay? And knowing yourself and knowing your process and your style, did you have any trepidation about it?

Carmen: If we want to be really technical, the first time I ever wrote a sex scene, it was when I was probably about 11 or 12 and I That sounds about right. Yeah. I went through this ph