With captivating titles like Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and Gay Girl Prayers, it’s no surprise that Canadian author Emily Austin has been taking the literary world by storm.
My first introduction to Austin was when my roommate and I were browsing around Posman Books, and came across her debut novel, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead. My interest instantly peaked, and I read the back cover to find out that the book is about a morbidly-anxious lesbian who accidentally gets a job at a Catholic Church, then proceeds to accidentally become involved with the murder of the elderly woman whose job she takes the place of. Woah. Obviously, I told Posman Books to take my money, bought the book with no hesitation, and began reading it on the train ride home.
Later, I found myself repeatedly laughing out loud (like, I’m talking full-on cackle) as I read, accidentally startling innocent passerbys on the train. I finished the book within two days, wrote a raving 5-star review on Goodreads, and then began my search to learn more about this captivating author I had somehow never heard of before this.
From then on, I devoured every single book that Austin has published in under a month, including her sophomore novel, Interesting Facts About Space, and her shockingly underappreciated and deliciously disturbing novella Oh Honey. Every work by Austin is a unique, captivating journey that ties in themes of mental health, queerness, and human nature.
If you couldn’t guess from my rave reviews above, my Goodreads has now become a shrine dedicated to applauding all of Austin’s works.
The thing that stands out to me about Austin is her ability to so graciously blend humor, suffering, introspection, and joy effortlessly. Her words often have me crying laughing on one page, and then actually crying on the next.
In addition to being a master of dark humor, Austin creates incredibly unique and complicated characters. They are intricate, flawed people who are more than just their queer identity and mental health struggles. She doesn’t let either of these identities dominate her characters, allowing for relatable, three-dimensional people that pop off of the page and into your world.
When I found out that Austin was coming to the Cambridge Public Library in collaboration with the Harvard Bookstore for an author event, I was (obviously) the first to purchase a ticket and mark my calendar (huge shoutout to Harvard Bookstore for all of the free author-events they hold!)
At this Q&A, I was lucky enough to hear from the literary genius herself. Austin humbly and gracefully took a captivated audience through her writing process, her perspectives on mental health, her experiences in the literary world, and why she loves rats so much.
Austin promoted her brand-new novel, We Could Be Rats, which centers around two polar-opposite sisters, and includes themes of imagination, adulthood, and unshakable bonds. Whether or not this article has convinced you to buy and consume all of Emily Austin’s works in one sitting, I certainly will be devouring We Could Be Rats, and you can expect another raving 5-star review from me on my Goodreads asap.