A close-up from the cover of “Hair Side, Flesh Side”
Flayed skin, a mangled saint come to life, cannibalism in Croatia, a gruesome birthday gift, a lost manuscript of Jane Austen written on a young woman’s flesh: these are just some of the themes taken up in Helen Marshall’s remarkable collection of short stories, Hair Side, Flesh Side (recently out from ChiZine). In addition to her considerable gifts as a writer of dark and thought-provoking fiction, Marshall is a Ph.D. student in medieval English literature at the University of Toronto, where she’s writing a dissertation (directed by Alexandra Gillespie) on the culture of Middle English literary production from 1300-1360, focusing on the development of the South English Legendary, Mannyng’s Chronicle of England, the Auchinleck manuscript, and the Pricke of Conscience. Helen’s fiction brings her historical interests to bear in fascinating ways, exploring, in her words, “the physicality of memory and the way things imprint themselves us”–all speaking to what she describes as “the geeky medieval part of me that likes the conflation of books and bodies.” While dedicated to rigorous work in medieval manuscript culture, she also believes that fiction can help us see the past differently (a theme taken up as well in my conversations with fellow academic-fiction writers Katherine Howe and Ian Mortimer).
You can purchase Hair Side, Flesh Side here and read the great review in Publishers Weekly here. Enjoy!
I’m reading through the collection now and am transfixed. Thanks for the stories, Helen!
I love her thoughts here on the interplay of creative and academic writing. There is a sort of ‘becoming-fiction’ to any essay worth its imaginative salt, isn’t there?
Beth, I’m glad you’re enjoying the stories! I do find that my fiction writing helps with my academic writing: it’s still very much a process of trying to find a coherent and meaningful narrative through a series of facts and events. The more you can make research *mean* and connect with the reader, the more relevance it inevitably has.