Press for Animal You'll Surely Become
An Interview with Brittany Hailer, Author of Animal You’ll Surely Become
Lisa Grgas
The Literary Review
Lisa Grgas: I love that you’re challenging traditional female archetypes. There’s a long literary tradition of essentializing women. We’re seductress, spinster, witch, virgin, victim. The shedding of wolf skin feels both maternalistic (due to the grandmother’s assistance) and seductive… and exposing the very real power of a liberated woman is so unexpected and necessary.
WHAT TO READ WHEN STRAIGHTFORWARD STORIES AREN’T ENOUGH
The Rumpus
Animal You’ll Surely Become emulates that duality, and so when seeking inspiration, I read books that live across the spectrum of reality, fantasy, straightforward, and lyrical. For me, prose poetry and reimagined fairy tales told truths about addiction and trauma in ways that, sometimes, straightforward narratives could not. Perhaps the list that follows seems incongruent, but these books were my lifeblood while exploring memories I swore I’d never share with anybody.
Debut Memoirist Explores Her Parents' Secrets, And Her Own
By BILL O'DRISCOLL
90.5 WESA
Most journalists don’t write much about themselves. Neither did Brittany Hailer.
The North Carolina native and graduate of Chatham University’s writing program practiced what she calls “literary journalism” (sometimes known as "creative nonfiction") and later began covering addiction and incarceration issues for outlets like Pittsburgh-based nonprofit news site Public Source. (She has also reported for 90.5 WESA.)
But her first book is a memoir. Animal You’ll Surely Become (Tolsun Books) confronts her upbringing as the child of two addicts, as well as her own sexual traumas as an adult.