GREETINGS, BOOKWORMS! I’m Aisha Kandisha, Head Librarian at Kandisha Press. Join me in the dusty stacks of the library I will never leave again as I chat with some of my favorite Women in Horror. Today we feature author Dr. Marleen S. Barr!
Dr. Marleen S. Barr, who is known for her pioneering work in feminist science fiction scholarship, taught English at the City University of New York. She has received the Science Fiction Research Association’s award for lifetime achievement in science fiction scholarship. Barr is the author of Alien to Femininity: Speculative Fiction and Feminist Theory, Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond, Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction, and Genre Fission: A New Discourse Practice for Cultural Studies. Barr has edited many scholarly anthologies and co-edited the science fiction issue of PMLA. She is the author of the novels Oy Pioneer! and Oy Feminist Planets: A Fake Memoir.
What do you believe are your strengths in writing? And when you feel you need to improve on a particular writing skill, how do you go about it?
I am a science fiction scholar. Hence, I can diagnose myself in terms of my writing strengths. My writing is hilarious. I should have been a standup comedian instead of an English professor. There were times when I was giving public readings from my fiction and I could not stop laughing at my own prose. Since it is impossible to laugh and read at the same time, this penchant was not a plus.
Sometimes I write in notebooks when I am out in public. For my latest short story collection, I sat in lectures and composed in notebooks. This is socially acceptable because the lecturers thought that I was taking copious notes. So, before I knew it , I had all these notebooks filled with handwritten stories piled on my desk. I had to sit for weeks typing the stories to the extent that my arms hurt. I learned that next time I will not have a handwritten story pileup which needs to be decluttered.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community?
I am predominantly an author of scholarly books and articles. I have enjoyed wonderful relationships with all my editors. This also holds true for my forays into fiction writing. One press in particular calls itself a family–and it truly is a family. I have become part of their community of fiction writers–which is a galaxy far far away from scholarly writers In this way, I am bilingual in that I can switch from scholarship to fiction. I enjoy being a member of two writing communities which usually do not intersect.
Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
It is rare financially to make it as an author. This is not my goal. If the ability “to make it” means getting published instead of making a living, then I would say that the more you publish the easier is to get published; the writer begins to know more editors and fellow writers.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
I am most proud of my novel OY PIONEER! It is a humorous view of a female professor trying to navigate academic life. It is all true with the exception of things like the talking horse and the vampire literary critic. I could not make up the stuff which is in there. For example, when I was writing my dissertation, my mother really did take a can of Lysol and spray my computer and, via close proximity, my head. Her reason: she did not want to catch computer viruses.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
I would like to find a venue for an unpublished novel. I am kissing the ground that it is not in handwriting.
KANDISHA PRESS 
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