Earlier this month, Spuyten Duyvil Press released Weird Girls: Writing the Art Monster, by Caroline Hagood, Assistant Professor of Literature, Writing and Publishing as well as Director of Undergraduate Writing at St. Francis College (SFC).

Part memoir, part cultural critique, part manifesto, Weird Girls traces the “art monster” — i.e., the writer, often coded monstrous and male — from ancient myth to modern literature and pop culture to ask: What happens when the art monster is a woman and/or mother? Also, what is the connection between creativity and monstrosity? Told in brief, probing, often darkly humorous chapters, Weird Girls offers a new take on art, motherhood and the writer. 

“I am so grateful for the support of the SFC community,” said Hagood upon publication of Weird Girls. “I have been inspired by the amazing writing professors and students here, and I am excited to see how the Literature, Writing and Publishing department and the M.F.A. program will continue to innovate and break new ground.”

In addition to Weird Girls, Hagood is the author of two poetry books, Lunatic Speaks and Making Maxine’s Baby; a book-length essay, Ways of Looking at a Woman; and a novel, Ghosts of America. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Electric Literature, the Kenyon Review, the Huffington Post, the Guardian, Salon and Elle. For more on Hagood, visit her website at www.carolinehagood.com.

Praise for Weird Girls
“Beguiling...Hagood's skillful construction, astute observations and candid personal confessions will draw readers in. This one packs a punch.” —Publishers Weekly 

“Caroline Hagood’s decision to embrace her ‘inner monster’ and lead a writer’s life spurs her epic literary journey exploring the figure of the so-called 'weird' woman: the witch, the mother, the feminist. Hagood’s text spills gloriously from topic to topic, weaving together a hybrid narrative that rejects both genre and the idea that the mother and art monster cannot co-exist. Bold, smart and wildly endearing, Weird Girls is a must-read for women who feel like the world can't contain them — and for those who love them.” —Patricia Grisafi, author of Breaking Down Plath    

“In Weird Girls, Caroline Hagood assembles the ultimate dream dinner party: a pantheon of brilliant, iconic, genre-defying and game-changing women artists through time and across discipline. In sharp and spirited prose, Hagood discusses the lives and work of these artists as a means to interrogate gendered ideas of creative genius. Using elements of memoir, manifesto and attentive close reading, Weird Girls is rich with insights that, in their jewel-like shimmering, light the path for discoveries of our own.” —Mary-Kim Arnold, author of Litany for the Long Moment and The Fish & the Dove