Kate Christensen on Her Days of Yore

Possibly the most reassuring thing you could ever read about someone who is now a functional, successful person who has written books?

I took another year off. I graduated having no idea what I was going to do. I stayed in Portland. I had a crush on a guy who had dumped me twice already, I don’t know what I was thinking. But I hung around him anyway. I worked as a cocktail waitress, I worked in a bookstore, and I sort of cobbled together a living. But I didn’t write a word during that year. I was just depressed and hanging out with my depressed gay friend.

That could be any of us, guys. More importantly, there’s a lot of good stuff on the sexism she perceived during her time at the Iowa Writers Workshop. There’s a lot of Honesty, full stop.