Author Interview with Borderless Journal
Hannah Stevens
I've shared an extract below but head here for the full interview. And don't forget to read the full October issue and beyond.
KL: Your stories explore some quite intense human experiences. What themes or questions do you find yourself returning to again and again in your work?
HS: I tend to write about things that preoccupy me, things that worry me, things that inspire me and things that I’ve experienced too. Although the most obvious theme binding the stories together here is tattoos (and I have a few tattoos myself!), there are others too. A lot of the characters in the stories are queer, for example and there are bisexual, lesbian and gay characters. I didn’t set out with the idea to write queer stories, but these are the stories that came. I’m a queer woman who has had relationships with women, non-binary, trans people and men. I’ve inhabited various incarnations of queer worlds, and I think we often end up writing the worlds we know and the people we recognise.
Another theme I often think and write about is gendered violence and abuse because it is such a global issue. There are a number of stories that focus on gendered abuse with male protagonists who abuse their female partners. This kind of abuse is a common occurrence in the UK and around the world and something that’s worth bearing witness to. Some stories in the collection also document the cruelty and abuse that can happen in same sex and queer relationships, which can be overlooked. They highlight the harm we can do to each other by not saying how we really feel and what we truly desire. And there are cruelties in familial relationships here too: the violence parents can enact on their children as well as emotional neglect.
