‘Mainlining Ray Bradbury’: An interview with Carmen Maria Machado

Abstract

A conversation between acclaimed American short story writer and memoirist Carmen Maria Machado and writer A. J. Ashworth, with a particular focus on Machado’s story ‘Inventory’ from her collection Her Body and Other Parties. Machado discusses what drew her to the short story as well as her evolution as a writer of the fantastical. She also touches on writing about sex, formal innovation, rejection, endings and struggling to write during the COVID-19 pandemic.