Beth Kander Had to Defend Her Decision to Write a 40-Year-Old Protagonist

Last week Beth Kander joined our book club—moderated by me and Rooted Community Editor Shira Muroff—to talk about her darkly comedic, genre-defying, and utterly original novel I Made It Out of Clay. Beth was charming and funny and generous. She shared how she wrote the first draft of the book in under a month (spoiler alert: lots of coffee). She also talked about the publishing pros and cons of writing a “genre-defying” book, and the research that went into creating a lore-worthy golem. And, as teased in the title, Beth also discussed standing up for her decision to write a female protagonist on the cusp of turning forty instead of, say, thirty. We love to see it! All in all, it was a fabulous discussion.

You can listen to these book club recordings in the Substack app, in your web browser, or on Spotify¹. Subscribe to the show on Spotify to get notifications when new episodes are released. Recorded book club conversations are only available to paid subscribers, but the live book club sessions will continue to be free and open to all readers.

Thank you, Beth! Thanks again to our partners: Mississippi Book Festival, Lemuria Books, and Friendly City Books. The team at Red Squared records and produces these discussions at their studio in The Hangar.

Plan ahead and check out our upcoming book club picks!

March 27: Proud Flesh: A Memoir of Motherhood, Intimate Violence, and Reclaiming Pleasure with author and Rooted contributor Catherine Simone Gray (REGISTER HERE!)

April: Come By Here with author Neesha Powell-Ingabire

May: No One Gets to Fall Apart with author Sarah LaBrie and moderator John Caleb Grenn

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