Photo: Melissa Faliveno
Melissa Faliveno MFA '11, who also teaches in theSarah Lawrence Masters of Fine Arts in Writing program,recently sat down with the Madison Cap Times to discuss her newly published collectionTomboyland, which debuted on August 4.
Faliveno, who is from Wisconsin, began to write about her home state when she moved to New York. As she told theCap Times, "I wanted to interrogate those things that I find really complicated that I don’t think there’s an answer for."
Her collection of essays explore the murkiness and nuance of identity, gender, class, and place. "I realized I had this essay in me about gender and sexuality, but also about the ways that our identity can be so inextricably linked to place and where you grow up, and how that can both define and complicate our sense of identity and self," she told the Cap Times.