VOTM: What’s the most unusual experience you’ve had at a reading?
LEE: I once had to read after a white, female author during a reading series. She had this ridiculously long bio that the host felt compelled to read the entirety of, like several pages long. Then, she read this rather dull piece that not only was way too long (I believe we had asked to keep our readings under 10 minutes and she went on for like half an hour), it was also really offensive. It included several problematic descriptions of an Asian character, including “porcelain skin” and “Oriental accent.” I kept looking nervously around the room to see if anyone else was witnessing this, but as the only Asian person in the room, no one else even seemed to notice what was going on. I didn’t say anything, but maybe I should have. I had to follow up that act. Awkward.
On another lighter note, I once co-gave a talk with a collaborator on the Bela Tarr’s film Satantango. A scene of cows from the film was playing behind us, and we hadn’t thought about the volume beforehand. So at a very convenient moment during our talk, the very loud and alarming mooing of a cow mounting another cow sort of stole the show. Mooooo.
Janice Lee is the author of KEROTAKIS (Dog Horn Press, 2010), Daughter (Jaded Ibis, 2011), Damnation (Penny-Ante Editions, 2013), Reconsolidation: Or, it’s the ghosts who will answer (Penny-Ante Editions, 2015) and The Sky Isn’t Blue (Civil Coping Mechanisms, forthcoming 2016). She currently lives in Los Angeles where she is Editor of the #RECURRENT Novel Series for Jaded Ibis Press, Assistant Editor at Fanzine, Executive Editor at Entropy, and Founder/CEO of POTG Design. She teaches at CalArts and can be found online at janicel.com.
Come see Janice read at Book Show in Highland Park on Friday, October 30 at 7:30pm.