AOIBHEANN SWEENEY

AUTHOR OF AMONG OTHER THINGS, I'VE TAKEN UP SMOKING

By Julia Reischel

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First novels can be such gawky, pimply, hyper-sensitive little waifs, especially if they're coming-of-age stories about the sexual awakenings of young girls. But Aoibheann Sweeney cut her teeth in the publishing industry in New York, so now that it's come time for her to offer her little lamb up to the knives, she's prepared.

DOES IT BUG YOU THAT BOOK REVIEWERS ARE DESCRIBING YOUR INTROVERTED, LONELY ONLY-CHILD PROTAGONIST AS "WEIRD"?
I think some of the "weird" stuff is a way of talking about queerness now. They don't say, "Gross, this is a gay book." Now it's, "This is a weird girl. She can have sex with boys and girls."

UH ... THIS IS A GAY BOOK?
I think that in the early drafts, there was more sex in it, and it was a little bit more queer. But yes, I always really felt strongly that it was a lesbian book.

THIS REALLY FITS IN WITH THAT BOOK REVIEW YOU DID ABOUT VIRGINIA WOOLF.
A lot of things I've read up until now, like Michelle Tea, are about badass girls who write in a beat generation tone. I don't know why this younger generation of dykes feel that their mentors are more like the Jack Kerouac types. That to me is just not as appealing; maybe I'm still just too much of a Harvard girl. My book does, hopefully, read more like other lesbians from further back. People like Willa Cather and Elizabeth Bishop.

I THOUGHT IT WAS A BIG SECRET THAT ELIZABETH BISHOP WAS GAY.
No way-maybe then, but not now. And Willa Cather, she wore men's suits-she was a full-on dyke. And she won a Pulitzer. In a way, all of the gay liberation has led to an outpouring of all this trashy stuff. That's totally not my style; I'm not going to be a prostitute for two years and then write about it.

[On Thursday, 7.26.07, Aoibheann Sweeney will be reading from Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Harvard Sq.,Cambridge. 617.661.1515. 6:30pm. harvard.com]