“Unveiling Grief: Eiren Caffall Reveals the Hidden Wisdom in ‘The Mourner’s Bestiary'”
AE: I have. In five sentences—how do you think the new regime that we are now living in is going to affect the work of your book and your work in general?
EC: I’m not gonna try to think in five sentences, because I can’t. But I’ll try to keep it short.
AE: I just wanted to see if you could do it.
EC: Oh, I can’t! You know that. The first draft of my novel was 160,000 words. Come on.
AE: Okay.
EC: Well, it’s gonna make everything harder. And it’s gonna make everybody who’s vulnerable more vulnerable. Every activist that I know feels like they’ve just had their entire toolbox stolen and thrown down a pit. It’s gonna take a lot of work to try to get them back out. And all the people that are fighting are fighting beautifully, brilliantly, bravely, but it’s going to be an incredibly difficult slog. I want us to sit in mourning together now, because I certainly couldn’t function on Inauguration Day. I think it’s okay for us to sit with all the things we’re gonna lose. But I also think it’s going to change how we see interconnectedness and building power.
