A Story of Unfitting: Susan Swan's Memoir, Big Girls Don't Cry
Season 6, Episode 94
Our warmest wishes for the season – and a reminder that this is the last interview for the podcast, before we open up voting for this year’s GLWL awards: the author featured in your favourite episode will receive a cash prize and medal to honour their involvement.
In this episode, Linda reflects on how boxes are at times about imposed limitations. "Don’t box me in," you might argue – or let’s try to think outside the box (because it’s time for a change!). And it is this -- thinking and living outside the lines (and boxes) -- that Susan Swan’s wonderful new memoir, Big Girls Don’t Cry: A Memoir About Taking Up Space (HarperCollijns), compels us to do, to locate our sense of dignity.
Swan is the author of several novels including The Biggest Modern Woman in the World (1983), The Last of The Golden Girls (1989), What Casanova Told Me (2004), and The Wives of Bath (1993), which was made into the film Lost and Delirious (3:45). In this episode, we discuss how taking up space can be positive for women (and men too!), a means to shift beyond the conventions and to find our way out of the boxes that have contained us.
Other points of discussion:
the genre of the memoir
Margaret Atwood and official autobiography
Executive Producer: Linda Morra; Associate Producer: Maia Harris; Music by Raphael Krux ("The Madness of Linda") and Kevin MacLeod ("Natural Vibes"); Sound producer: Jason C.