She Is Haunted

ABOUT * Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, Shortlist * 2022 Stella Prize, Longlist * 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award, "Highly Commended" "A Best Book of the Year" —The Guardian "A Most Anticipated book of 2022" —Entertainment Weekly With an unforgettable voice and exuberant wit, She Is Haunted is a masterful debut exploring issues of identity, connection, and loss, told with remarkable grace and assurance by Chinese/American/Australian author, Paige Clark. In stories charged by the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, grief, exes, and the profundities of friendship, She Is Haunted features injured ballerinas, cloned dogs, and competitive call centers in settings as far ranging as future and present Australia, New York City’s Chinatown, and suburban California. A mother cuts her daughter’s hair because her own hair begins falling out; a woman attempts to physically transform into her dead husband so that she does not have to grieve; a woman undergoes brain surgery in order to live more comfortably in extreme temperatures. Braiding the real and the surreal, both playfully witty and deeply insightful, these stories show us characters striving to make sense of the grand themes of family, love, death, and our changing world. She Is Haunted flags Paige Clark as a wondrous and wise new literary talent. Excerpt in The Offing: “Conversations with My Brother About Trees” from She Is Haunted by Paige Clark Excerpt in Literary Hub: “Why My Hair Is Long” from She Is Haunted by Paige Clark Additional reading: Paige Clark in The Guardian | July 19, 2021 "My husband finished his album from hospital. His death taught me how to live" "Is She Is Haunted about Adrian? It is inspired by him, but this book is about me. It is about all the ways I learned how to exist." Paige Clark in BOMB | July 20, 2022 "The Extraordinary Illiteracy of Place and the Immigrant: Writing Without Country" "From immigration to colonization, Paige Clark considers what it means to 'go back to where you come from.'" Paige Clark in The Rumpus | July 8, 2022 "What to Read When You’d Rather be in Australia" "When I first moved to Naarm (Melbourne, Australia), I had never read any books by Australian writers and had never heard of any Australian writers besides Tim Winton. Little did I know that some of the most exciting English language writing was happening here, particularly by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers. This is the reading list that I wish I’d had then. These books show what life is like in this country more than any travel guide ever could." Reviews Scroll to bottom for Goodreads reviews. * Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, Shortlist * 2022 Stella Prize, Longlist * 2022 Barbara Jefferis Award, "Highly Commended" "A Best Book of the Year" —The Guardian "A Most Anticipated book of 2022" —Entertainment Weekly "Paige Clark’s debut collection, She Is Haunted is a fictional study of the never-ending ending, the ending that haunts. The she in the title is a generalized one. Clark’s protagonists are women from different parts of the world, in different stages of life, haunted by different aspects of their pasts, often the deaths of loved ones. Mother-daughter and human-animal conflicts recur across these eighteen stories, as do issues of unwanted pregnancy, erotic frustration, transnational identity, and climate change... Haunting is the signature trope in Clark’s collection as well as the essence of its literary form. In every story, no matter the narrator, past time always trespasses into present time." —Kelly M.S. Swope, Full Stop (Read the full review of She Is Haunted) "She Is Haunted is a weird short story collection about relationships and the human experience. I recommend this collection to anyone who wants bite-sized fiction that they can leave and come back to whenever they please." —Shelby Newsome, Curious Iguana (Frederick, MD) "Paige Clark’s debut collection of linked stories, She Is Haunted, explores the shifting boundaries of selfhood amid loss and grief. Clark, a Chinese/American/Australian writer and scholar, harrowingly evokes our current moment: climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rise in anti-Asian violence across North America all inform these stories. Many of Clark’s protagonists are mixed-race Asian women who grapple with how their heritage shapes their relationships with friends, family members, and lovers. More than a few of them are named Elisabeth (or variations thereof) and share overlapping histories and similar lexicons—as if they were parts of a single consciousness refracted across time and space. Clark’s prose is spare and precise, and she has a penchant for incisive satire that extends into speculative or surreal realms." —Apogee Journal interview with Paige Clark by Michael Prior, author of Burning Province (Sept 1, 2022) "The Beauty Is Where the Play Is": A Conversation with Paige Clark on She Is Haunted" "Paige Clark on Relationships, Obsession, and Reality in She Is Haunted" —Observer interview with Paige Clark by Tiffany Babb, May 2, 2022 Bookin’ Podcast interview with Paige Clark, Episode 184 —Jason Jefferies, presented by Quail Ridge Books, host of Bookin', May 16, 2022 (Psst—copies of She Is Haunted can be purchased from Quail Ridge Books with free shipping) "When I read Paige Clark’s She Is Haunted, I was by turns delighted and moved: delighted because Clark takes obvious care and joy in crafting her sentences, and moved because her stories approach life’s mysteries with such emotional honesty... reading her suffused me with the wonder of approaching my life from an unexpected angle, leaving me awestruck but also disturbed. It is a perspective art uniquely provides. We all need it, from time to time." —YZ Chin, Poets &amp; Writers "First Fiction 2022: An interview between Paige Clark and YZ Chin, author of Edge Case" "Despite this similarity in subject matter, no two stories are alike; each is bizarre in its own delicious way... Clark’s prose is incisive yet playful, and she has an unerring eye for the contradictions and eccentricities of human nature, especially our innate need to connect and the many ways we fail to do so. Her characters have a strong urge to love despite the frequent obstacles they put in their own way. The boundaries she crosses are not just geographical and cultural: Her love stories are shadowed by grief, and her grief stories are brightened with love." —Alice Stephens, Washington Independent Review of Books (Read the full review of She Is Haunted) "Whether the story confronts the supernatural, such as the title piece where a ghost haunts her grieving mother, or whether it is set in a realist world like 'Private Eating,' where a woman lies about being vegetarian to impress a man, the oftentimes petty judgements of Clark’s protagonists encourage the reader to laugh at their own preconceptions of themselves and the world we live in... In this current age of climate change, pandemic, and war, Paige Clark’s She Is Haunted is a necessary read." —Nick Gardner, Stillpoint Magazine (Read the full review of She Is Haunted) "The collection is beautifully intimate, yet methodically layered... Intertwining pain and comedy, She Is Haunted is a testament to how complex emotional attachments are, and how many different forms coping with loss can take. The experiences the reader endures with the main characters are so emotionally raw, as Clark rejects predictable narratives for a study of struggling with identity and loss. Revolving around relationships, identity, and grief, She Is Haunted drops the reader into the story and provides only the most essential information about its world in favor of action and emotional reflection. A bitterly funny look into sentimentality, Clark’s debut manages to be introspective and playful, cathartic and comedic." —Samantha Loree, The Chicago Review of Books (Read the full review of She Is Haunted) "With a steady narrative voice, Clark is able to show the many, often comical and irrational, sides of personal grief.... This quality of longing is ever-present in the collection, shaped by the identities of Clark’s narrators, by the grounded, relatable inner monologues, and by the isolated, sometimes fantastic settings. She Is Haunted is ultimately a profound study in what makes a person ache, the ways they prepare for it, and the things they do to soothe it." —Frankie Martinez, Southern Review of Books (Read the full review of She Is Haunted) "The stories in Chinese/American/Australian writer Paige Clark’s debut collection, She Is Haunted, deal with relationships—both romantic and those between mothers and daughters—and mortality." —Susan Blumberg-Kason, Asian Review of Books (Read the full review of She Is Haunted) "Clark’s fresh debut collection of 18 stories is focused on themes of family, loss, trauma, longing, resilience, climate and gender in prose that is witty, disarming and completely engrossing." —Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine "May 2022 reads for the rest of us" Paige Clark has penned a letter for The Rumpus' "Letters in the Mail" program. "In turns devastating and hilarious, Clark’s exceptional debut collection cuts right to the emotional core of its characters and their conflicts in stories that examine Asian identity, familial relationships, climate anxiety, and gender with an astonishing sense of nuance and clarity... With a striking style, Clark consistently hits her mark, sticking each landing with breathtaking poignancy. This will not disappoint." —Publishers Weekly, starred review (Read the book review on Publishers Weekly) "Many Elizabeths appear in Paige Clark's collection. They are zany, tender, slyly wise, and always enchanting. I laughed! I cried! And I winced knowingly along as they plunge into the mysteries of diasporic identity, intimacy, and loss. Mothers and daughters come together, fall apart. Lovers charm and feint. They haunt me, in the best possible way." —YZ Chin, Entertainment Weekly "Authors pick their most anticipated books of 2022" "In our Nine Books About Your Life series, authors are invited to talk about nine types of books that have had an impact on their life. Their responses give us a glimpse into their relationships with their books and other people’s books. In this installment, we speak with Paige Clark, author of She Is Haunted." —Nicholas Alexander Hayes, Your Impossible Voice "Nine Books About Your Life: an interview with Paige Clark" "Grief and reckoning take many forms in Paige Clark’s expressive collection She Is Haunted. Haunting is most often a regret that tethers one to a place or people: that is the concept at the core of this collection. Every character is haunted by something with which only she can wrestle—or so she thinks.... Quieter stories observe the intersectionality of being an Asian woman. In one, two women have a small, profound realization about their shared haunting by racism and fetishization. Another looks at generational differences between a mother and a daughter... Steeped in longing, the stories of She Is Haunted celebrate the messy strength of women." —Dontaná McPherson-Joseph, Foreword Reviews (Read the full review of She Is Haunted) She Is Haunted appears in "19 new books to savor this week." —Katie Yee, Lit Hub "She Is Haunted kept me looking forward to a new story each day, with anticipation for something that would absolutely surprise me, make me think all the next day about how we operate as humans, as creatures, as lovers. Never predictable, riveting and trembling with the unexpected, this book is a remarkable debut, and Paige Clark a writer to celebrate." —Susan Straight, author of In the Country of Women, among others "Clark’s debut collection of 18 stories gives keen insight into the transnational Chinese experience and the often relatable struggles and fears these characters face... Clark's stories explore trauma, mother-daughter relationships, female friendships, identity, and grief with humor and an incredible wit that will capture readers." —Emily Park, Booklist (Read the full review of She Is Haunted) "What a beautifully wrought collection this is. Paige Clark has a singular voice, witty and graceful, and her explorations of grief, loss, and identity are deeply moving. I will remember these strange, funny, melancholy stories for a long time." —Alix Ohlin, author of We Want What We Want, Dual Citizens, among others "Paige Clark's stories in She is Haunted illuminate all of the corners of the heart — she examines her characters' journeys through grief, envy, connection, and love, across nations, identity and trauma. Her work has the deep honesty and precision of writers like Amy Hempel, Yoko Ogawa, and Alice Munro. A stunning collection." —Karen E. Bender, author of The New Order and Refund "Paige Clark is a wonderfully sly, fierce and fearless writer and She is Haunted is full of the best kinds of surprises. I couldn’t stop turning the pages." —Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field "Crisply contemporary yet timeless, She Is Haunted grapples with every aspect of our current moment, from global warming and the science-fictional alteration of our bodies; to their duplication by cloning, to avoid unbearable grief; to reproductive freedom, and the complexities of chosen motherhood; to the trans-global experience, and the formation of intentional communities, and identities. Quick-witted, astute, and deeply felt, Paige Clark's precise and confident prose delivers us to the center of our most painfully fleeting yet necessary moments in life, surprising us with mercy and humanity." —Sarah Gerard, author of True Love "She is Haunted is a beautiful, brutal, and unsettling debut. Clark confronts agency, identity and longing with masterful precision and true originality — each story has its own skewed logic and wonderfully odd atmosphere. I can't stop thinking about this stylish, deeply strange collection." —Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light "What an exuberant and tender collection! Paige Clark concocts stories erupting with lively language, deft wordplay, and great depth of feeling. Laugh, cry, and wince knowingly along with the many Elizabeths of the book as they broach the mysteries of intimacy and loss. I am haunted by them, in the best possible way." <