“If you don’t think the lives of women hold as much value as the lives of men, for thousands of years, a thousand years later you’re not going to know very much about the women that existed in those time periods.”

Created, edited, and hosted by NER summer interns Andrew Grossman and Kate Sadoff, NER Out Loud episode 21 presents a reading and conversation with A. E. Kulze, author of the short story “The Ladybugs” from NER 43.2 (summer 2022).

After reading an excerpt from her story, Kulze talks about her writing process, the role of the unconscious in forming the whole, and the joy of a perfect editorial cut. She also speaks more broadly about gender and domesticity, the failures of contemporary feminism, and the Desert Mothers, who’ve been largely forgotten to history.

Listen to the new episode on Soundcloud—and subscribe to NER Out Loud on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher!

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Andrew Grossman and Kate Sadoff are Middlebury College students, both English majors with a focus on creative writing, class of 2023.5. As NER‘s summer podcast and publicity interns for 2022, they also produced NER Out Loud episode 20, featuring coauthors Milia Ayache and Amina Hassan and their play “Splits/kin” published in NER 43.2 (summer 2022) as part of the international feature on Lebanese writers.

^{Andrew Grossman (left) and Kate Sadoff (right)}