Alex Behr is the author of the new story collection Animal Kingdom. Her other books include Grief Stick. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Q: The writer Mary Rechner said of your new book, “Behr’s writing, fact or fiction, is sui generis. If her protagonists are damaged, medicated, and vulnerable, they’re also driven and wily, undaunted by risk or cost.” What do you think of that description?
A: Well, I used it on the front cover, so I love it! But the full quote resonates more with me when she compared me to Persephone.
Even in fiction stories that seemingly have little to do with my fiancé’s sudden death in the fall of 2020, they have reverberations of that confusion and deep loss I felt for years. Writing helped save me -- as did Mary wrapping me in a blanket and feeding me after Chris died.
Q: I’m so sorry for your loss…
How was the collection’s title--also the title of the first story--chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: In a Corporeal Writing workshop I took long ago, we had an exercise, or “portal,” to write about an animal. I started riffing about a dead brown bat that my godmother had wrapped in cabbage leaves. She named it Eeyore, one of my favorite storybook characters.
As I was deconstructing and adding to writing fragments that appear in the title story, “Animal Kingdom,” I brought in bats and other creatures whose fate, like my fiancé’s, seemed tied to our essential porousness.
The disease Chris died of is present in the animal kingdom, a wasting disease caused by misfolded proteins. I also researched that COVID, possibly transmitted by bats, could activate those misfolded proteins.
But uncovering the mystery of a death is little solace. I’d rather create art. Writing is porous and both a contamination and a contaminate. A meal and a potential poison. I wanted a title that was more neutral in tone than my books Planet Grim and Grief Stick, so I chose Animal Kingdom.
Q: How did you decide on the order in which the stories would appear in the book?
A: When I handed in the manuscript I talked to Leland Cheuk of 7.13 Books about a few stories that needed more TLC. I trust his instinct. A couple I cut altogether, leaving a big hole.
I decided to add more autofiction in the front and transition to the fiction stories with a set of real fragments, called spectacles, as a bridge. However, the fiction stories are also infected by what I’ve seen, heard, or experienced. Genres have little interest to me (but I don’t like invented dialogue in memoirs -- personal peeve).
Q: Over how long a period did you write the stories in this collection?
A: I am a palimpsest, to use a word my friend Lidia Yuknavitch loves. I’ve obsessively written in diaries since elementary school, and I’ve repurposed some of that material in the comedy show Mortified as well as in “How Not to Be a Groupie” and some of the spectacle snapshots in Animal Kingdom. Some “autofiction” pieces were started around 2010 or 2011.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Good question! When I recently meet with my writing coach, Margaret Malone, I brought a story fragment that seemed too internal and rambling. I’m going to work on an entry into the story and see what happens. I have 100 pages of unpublished fiction roaming around my hard drive, but since I have ADHD, I always like the new, shiny thing.
I also thought about “retaking” a poetry class by Matthew Dickman, one of my favorite teachers. We took a cool class called Belief Diagrams. I created three, and I’d like to create 26 for a chapbook.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I love teaching innovative workshops. I taught one at Literary Arts called “Summer Flâneur: Strolling and Writing.” And I’ve taught through Corporeal (“Eno/Ono” and “Antlers and Beehives: Writing in Natural Patterns”). I’m open to working with writing clients via zoom or in person.
And I’m always looking for places to screen the short documentary Grief Stick (trailer is on my website). I’ve screened it with readings and live music and with other grief writers with an invitation for audience members to write and reflect. As a piano player and bass guitarist, I love collaboration. www.alexbehr.com
And, finally, rock on.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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