“Nobody Wants a Crying Stripper” by Hannah Sward appeared in Issue 42 and can be found here.
We’d love to hear a little more about this story.
The piece was inspired by working/dancing at a strip club with my sister. Even all these years later, we talk about it a lot. Specifically about the other dancers. The details of what they were wearing, how they walked out on stage. Writing about it came naturally starting with listing the dancers just as the story starts with. There’s so much material to work with. It’s strange because even at the time, when I was a stripper, I had this sense that one day I would turn the experience into something.
What was the most difficult part of writing this story?
Getting pen to paper. It took so much inner work to come to a place where I could sit down and write my truth. That was the hardest part. As far as the piece itself, it was one of those rare pieces that just came.
Recommend a book for us which was published within the last decade.
For any poetry lovers, Indigo by Ellen Bass, published in 2020. I love her work.
And, if you enjoyed reading “Nobody Likes a Crying Stripper” then you might like Strip: A Memoir, published in 2022.
If you could have a drink with any living author, who would it be? Why?
At this point in my life, I think I’d most like to have a cup of coffee with Anne Lamott. I’m drawn to authors who write as it relates to a spiritual practice The more I tap into that place within myself, the less attachment I have to the end result. It brings me back to the process of writing and my relationship to it. There’s freedom in that.
What are you working on now? What’s next?
A short story collection about love and jealousy. Twenty years of stories. Some published, some not. All are written but getting each one to stand on its own, choosing which ones to put in, that’s taking time.
I’m also working on essays for various publications. That may be its own collection one day too.
Our thanks to Hannah for taking the time to answer a few questions and share this story. Read “Nobody Wants a Crying Stripper” here.
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Hannah Sward is the award-winning author of Strip: A Memoir. Widely published in literary journals in the US, Canada, and the UK, her most recent work can be read in the NY Times, LA Times, HuffPost and The Rumpus.Hannah is on the board at Right to Write Press, a nonprofit that supports emerging incarcerated writers. She lives in Los Angeles where she is working on her next book. To find out more hannahsward.com.