Alexis Coe will be reading at The Difficult to Name Reading Series on Saturday, July 25.
RS: How's your summer going?
AC: Wonderful. Strange. Busy. When the weather turned warm, I was living alone on a creek in an unincorporated hamlet. From there, I went on arduous journey for the New Republic. As I write this, I’m sitting in Brooklyn eating an everything bagel with lox, and I’ll spend August in LA. I don’t know if I can even claim I live in San Francisco anymore. I haven’t spent more than four consecutive days there since January. The weird thing is, I seem to like moving around. My dog does not.
What have you worked on in the past year that you're most happy with?
I’m really happy with my “Dispatches From the Russian River.” Pacific Standard put me in a remote cabin without cell service or mail. Everything about that experience--from the weekly essays about my feminist Walden to the daily reality of such a solitary experiment in self-sufficiency--was just what I needed. It sounds trite, but living in a redwood forest really changed me. I just erased the word “journey,” so I think it’s best to stop here.
What can people expect from your reading?
I’ll definitely be standing up. I can be more specific when I choose what to read. It could involve murder or helicopters or Republicans peeing on redwoods. Here’s what I do know: it’ll involve white men behaving badly.
Alexis Coe is the author of Alice+Freda Forever, which was just optioned for a movie. Most recently, Alexis lived in a remote cabin in the redwoods, where she wrote the series "Dispatches From the Russian River" for Pacific Standard. She's also contributed to Slate, the Atlantic, the Guardian, the Paris Review, and many others. Alexis holds an MA in history.