QME Interview
with
Kate Laity

Kate Laity has a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies and is currently
an Assistant Professor of English at the University of
Houston-Downtown, where she teaches English literature,
creative writing and film.  Her novel Pelzmantel: A Medieval
Tale was nominated for the Aesop Award, the International
Reading Association's Children's Book Award, and the John
Newbery Medal.  Recently, she won the Eureka Short Story
Fellowship, which granted her a one months' stay at the
writer's colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

This interview  with Ms. Laity was conducted by Diane
Saarinen.

D.S.:  Your novel, "Pelzmantel: A Medieval Tale," is a feminist re-telling of a Grimm Brother's fairy
tale, "Allerleirau." To me, a lot of fairy tales seem to be full of passive female characters waiting for
princes to rescue them.  What did you change about the Grimm tale to make it more woman-centered?

K.A.L.:  Well, actually, I think that view of female passivity is something encouraged by
Disney adaptations of the best-known tales.  A lot of fairy tale girls are quite active,
including the princess in "Allerleirau," the original Grimm tale I used.  She's clever
enough to come up with ways to put off her undesirable suitor, then to escape - although
I made the whole thing much more elaborate - and then to cleverly reveal her identity to
intrigue the next king.  What I added, though, was the return to reclaim her own land.  In
the original tale, she simply goes to another kingdom and becomes queen there.  I also
added a mentor - the ancient witch who acts as her childhood nanny - and a whole
network of secretly supportive women.

D.S.: That is encouraging because I think of fairy tales where women are pitted against each other - for
example, in "Sleeping Beauty" where a witch is slighted and places the curse against the princess.

K.A.L.: Well, at least there are female characters, which modern films don't seem to
believe in at all, unless it is the designated "chick flick" for that month.  I like narratives
where the important characters are female, good, bad, independent.  Unfortunately,
Disney seems to have made a rigid tradition of old women preying upon young girls.  
Characters should have shades of grey - people who are all good or all bad are caricatures,
not characters.  Women can be anything.

D.S.  Your story is set in medieval times.  Why did you become a medievalist?

K.A.L.:  It wasn't intentional!  I drifted a lot when I was young, being more certain of
what I did not want to do (work 9 to 5) than of what I did want to do.  I only knew I
wanted to write, but I also knew it would never really support me.  Then I took a course
on the Northern Heroic Tradition from Stephen Mitchell, and for the first time read
Beowulf and Njal's Saga.  I suddenly knew what I wanted to do - study this literature!
Before that I thought of the medieval literature as tales of knights and princesses, mostly
Arthuriana.  Yawn.  Those texts still have little appeal for me, but the Old English and
Old Norse literatures were a revelation.  I couldn't believe that stories hundreds of years
old could be so starkly beautiful with such mordant humor; in a way, they seemed so
modern.  

D.S. Pelzmantel was nominated for a whole host of awards, including the International Reading
Association's Children's Book award. Were you surprised it was classified as a children's book?

K.A.L:  Yes, very.  It came out in a rather different voice than I am accustomed to hearing,
but I never thought of it as a children's book.  An unexpected bonus - much of my
writing is definitely not for children, so it's great to feel that I can also write stories that
are accessible to a broad range of readers.

D.S. What new projects do you have up your sleeve?

K.A.L:  I am currently at work on a series of short stories called Unikirja, which means
Dream-Book in Finnish.  They are all inspired by the Kalevala and the Kanteletar, which
are collections of the traditional myth and folklore of Finland.  Several of the stories have
appeared in print and two will be illustrated by artists I know.  I am also trying to work
on my next novel in between the short stories and all my academic work (I'm writing a
book length study on the figure of the witch in Anglo-Saxon England as well as several
other medieval projects).  The novel takes place in modern Boston and thirteenth-century
Ireland.  And, of course, the odd story and play pops out whenever it has a mind to do so.

D.S. Well, it certainly sounds as if you've been busy.  It's been a pleasure chatting with you.

K.A.L:  It's been inspiring thinking about where I have been and where I am going.
Thank you, Diane!



Kate Laity's website can be found at www.magicwombat.com/  and her blog
can be read at katewombat.blogspot.com/

Contributor's Notes...

Diane Saarinen lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, Peter.  She is a regular contributor
to New World Finn journal, Finlandia Weekly newspaper and The Beltane Papers: A Journal of
Women's Mysteries.

Home    Intro.    Submissions    Fem. Links    Women's Res.    Calendar    Cool Links    Contact    Archives