Publishers Weekly - 14.10.2019

wolves were male.” While no one

in Cutting Edge is a werewolf or

a vampire, there are a number of

transgressive acts that declare that

women have come into their own

in the #MeToo era.

Do you feel that female pro-

tagonists tend to be one-di-

mensional in traditional noir?

There are rarely female protago-

nists in traditional noir works. By

far, these are men, and the women

are wicked, untrustworthy, evil—

or they are of no dramatic interest

at all.

What is the main difference between these stories and

previous noir stories, even those written by women? Some

women in some of these stories embrace their wicked, evil na-

tures with a startling enthusiasm. “Enough with being victims!”

they seem to proclaim.

JOYCE CAROL OATES IN CONVERSATION

Sunday, Nov. 24, 11 a.m.

Building 1, Auditorium

Fixing the

Femme Fatale

A new collection of female noir edited

by Joyce Carol Oates looks to recast a

predominantly male genre

I

n Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by

Women Writers, a collection edited and curated by

Joyce Carol Oates, women blast into the traditional

male domain of noir. These 15 stories and six poems—by

the likes of Margaret Atwood, Aimee Bender, Edwidge

Danticat, and Oates—attest that women in noir are more

than the ubiquitous femme fatale created by men.

Why do you feel it’s important to promote female

noir at this point? Female noir is both in contrast to

traditional noir—a predominantly male genre—and

wholly distinctive, original. Essentially, it is the dramatization of women

appropriating actions and attitudes that have traditionally been the province

of men. As Margaret Atwood wittily observes, “In the old days, all were-

NANCY CRAMPTON

FICTION BY MARIANNE SCHAEFER TRENCH