Kim Fu's Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century peers into the magical, transportive power of short stories
'Writing is valuable, writing is real, writing is work'
Kim Fu is the Vancouver-born author of two novels, For Today I Am a Boy and The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore. She has also written a poetry collection titled How Festive the Ambulance: Poems.
Her latest work, Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, is a collection of short stories that use elements of science fiction and fantasy to explore the strange and uncanny elements of human nature, relationships and technology.
The tales contain imaginative premises that blur the line between the familiar and unfamiliar, from a woman who recreates culinary experiences to a world that can no longer taste to a bug-infested house that serves as an escape from an abusive ex-boyfriend.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century is on the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist. The winner will be announced on Nov. 7, 2022.
Fu, along with Norma Dunning and Steven Price, is on the jury for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize.
The Seattle-based Fu spoke with CBC Books about writing Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century.
Why short stories are magic
"I've always loved short stories. You read them over a lunch hour or a bus ride. In that tiny space of time, you have the opportunity to be transported into a whole other world — and you have lived a whole lifetime with this character. You can have this very short experience that sticks with you for the rest of your life.
You can have this very short experience in this life that sticks with you for the rest of your life.
"One of the things I like about books especially, but art more generally, is that your life is so small. You're trapped in this body and this one life we have and you get to expand your universe. You get to have experiences that you never would have otherwise. You get to see so much more of the world and what is possible.
"Short stories do that in this tight compact little form."
The inspiration behind each story
"The first of these stories I created for Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century was Liddy, First to Fly. I started it in 2017. I found in a notebook recently — the phrase 'girl with horns growing out of her legs,' and then 'horns' is crossed out and 'wings' is written underneath it.
"I remember December of that year. I was sitting at the kitchen table. I started sketching a stick figure with wings on their legs: 'How high would they be? How big were they? How would this work? Logistically, would they be on both sides of the legs? Would they be able to fly?' The image got stuck in my head.
But it was natural to create a world where the bugs were a little bit more malevolent and supernatural.
"The story June Bugs first started when I did a writing residency in Saskatchewan. I was staying in a historical house in Eastend, Sask., and there was a freak early snow. After the snow melted, there was a dramatic infestation of June beetles into the house.
"In my experience, everyone in the town was incredibly nice and it wasn't that big of a deal. But it was natural to create a world where the bugs were a little bit more malevolent and supernatural."
The importance of community
"A lot of this collection was written around other people, especially when I was starting each story. Whenever I was feeling burned out or blocked, it was really helpful for me to be around other people who were also writing. This includes both writer friends I have — and meeting up in coffee shops, their apartments, but also meetup groups.
Being around other people who are all taking their work seriously, and taking the time, was super helpful for me.
"One of my biggest problems was feeling like writing, at any given moment, is less important than other things I have to do — than teaching or other work or gigs or other responsibilities. It feels like everything else is more important than the work. Being around other people who are all taking their work seriously, and taking the time, was super helpful for me."
"It gives me a lot of focus, knowing that everyone else is writing. Writing is valuable, writing is real, writing is work. I like the sound of everyone clacking at their keyboards, the scratching of the pens on their notebooks."
LISTEN | Kim Fu on The Next Chapter:
Finding spontaneity in writing
"I will write in bursts, mostly. I might write for a few days straight — not sleeping and dishes piled up next to me — but then not write for months, and those months can be terrifying because I'll be like, 'What if I never write again? What if that was the end?'
I will convince myself it doesn't work if I haven't let myself enter the world in that more playful, open-minded, experimental way.
"I've never been able to keep to a good routine in that way. For me, that kind of 'outlining and post-it noting' stuff tends to happen later in the process. It happens between drafts. If I do it before a first draft, as wonderful as that sounds. I find I will kind of kill the magic for myself a little bit. I will lose interest in an idea if I've overworked it or I'll lose faith in it — I'll get too bogged down in the mechanics of it.
"I will convince myself it doesn't work if I haven't let myself enter the world in that more playful, open-minded, experimental way."
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Kim Fu was interviewed by CBC Books producer Winnie Wang.
