Its author reflects on the remarkable journey.
First, it was a workshop exercise.
Then, an experimental work of fiction out on submission.
Credit: Ramin Talaie; Vintage
Then, a small-press publication with a run of merely 500 copies.
Then, a resurgent reprint backed by the resources of Penguin Random House.
Chances are you’ve never read anything like it perhaps why it keeps finding new audiences.
(Each recipient receives $50,000.)
(The full list of winners isnow available.)
“It’s totally bananas,” Lawlor says.
“It’s crazy.
The world has changed in two weeks.”
Lawlor reflected on the road to this moment, step by step.
Read on below.Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girlisavailable for purchase.
On Paul’s Humble Beginnings
It was a span of 15 years.
I didn’t really start writing until I was 30.
I took a living-room workshop in San Francisco.
I had never taken creative writing classes as an undergrad.
I finally took this writing class and I wrote what became the first section ofPaulin that.
I put that piece in a drawer for a while.
I did a graduate creative-writing program at Temple [University] with Samuel Delaney.
[Laughs] I pulled this old piece out of the drawer and I brought it in.
Delaney said to me, “You’re not done withPaul.”
I was like, “Okay!
Whatever you say.”
He was really a hero to me.
All these things happened.
I was never working full-time on the book for all of that time.
I was teaching, taking classes, working, and I was writing.
That’s how most writers actually live!
One asked, “Could Paul learn a lesson?”
At some point I was like, “They can’t sell this, that’s fine.”
I kind of stuck with it.
I wasn’t going to change the pronoun every time Paul changes his body presentation.
On Getting Published
Rescue [Press] put it out.
She really went through everything, line by line, believed in the project.
We had a great working relationship.
They put everything behind their, like, two books that year.
They did that for me.
It was 500 copies first printing; I have friends who had more galleys than that.
[Laughs] But somehow, it got to [The New Yorker].
The friend I have who works there was like, “I had nothing to do with it.”
I don’t know if I believe her or not.
But it was in “Briefly Noted” and then everything changed.
On Getting Re-Published
I started getting calls about film and TV rights.
Rescue was like, “Could we help you get an agent to deal with this?”
He [took a look] and was like, “Let’s do this.
It’s the right time now.
It had to happen this way.”
And half of everything goes to Rescue in perpetuity.
To me, that’s amazing.
I want to support they do.
Small-press publishing and independent bookstores, all of that is where literary culture happens.
It’s this thing that I care so much about.
Pedagogically and politically, I’m of the mind to smash all canons.
What I’d like to be part of is a wave of current queer and trans writers getting attention.
It’s really amazing to be reading and writing in this historical moment.
That’s a gift.
All the writers that the Whiting has honored.
But also, there are so many queer and trans writers right now.
I think we need more books.
On Winning a Whiting Award
It’s strange.
It was already strange.
I don’t love keeping secrets, but it was fun to keep this fun secret.
That was difficult to me, to keep it on the DL, but it has gotten stranger.
It’s really thrilling to know that even in a terrible time, there’s support for the arts.
So it’s an amazing thing to have this happening right now.
