This little essay could go very wrong.

I don’t have a thesis or, frankly, much of an opinion, but I do have some questions and thoughts, and so I will set them down gently here and step back to see what I’ve made. What I lack in confidence in my ideas, I make up for in curiosity, so if you have thoughts, jump in. 

The topic: The dominance of women in the world of literary fiction.

My experience: It’s complicated.

The question: How much should the market influence what I write about, from whose perspective, and about what kinds of experiences?

The act of putting something in the world is a cleaving, and it's best to approach it like a Civil War surgeon and a Civil War patient. Bite down, ready yourself for the blade, and then get used to what your life is afterwards. 

What comes naturally, like a tumor in a spinal cord or a habit of thought, comes at a cost. But then I remember that there’s bravery inside of me, too, and triumph everywhere, and generosity and love and the rest.