Ask the Author: Emily Howorth

Posted on by

Emily Howorth’s whimsical Look Away, Dixieland is part of the June issue. She talks with us about letting Scarlett O’Hara burn, fact versus fiction, party mixes and more.

1. Would you have let Scarlett O’Hara burn? Why or why not?

A difficult question! It would be tempting. But no—if I let her burn in Atlanta, she’d never get back to Tara, and then we would never get to see her retch after eating a radish straight from the soil, and thus we would never get to the “I’ll Never Be Hungry” speech—one of the few parts of the book/movie where Scarlett seems genuinely strong.

2. What are your cues that would tell me to get out of your house?

Unlike the narrator of this story, I’m not subtle. I’d tell you that the party was over and I was going to bed, and if I liked you, I’d offer you the couch—or, if you were extra special, the air mattress. In the morning we’d get breakfast tacos at the taco trailer down my street.

3. Give us your party mix. Leave no Rolling Stone unturned?

I imagined Scarlett’s party starting off with “Psychedelic Shack.” Not the best Temptations song, but appropriate for the circumstances. We’d get to “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” and “Masterpiece” for sure, and maybe David Ruffin’s “My Whole World Ended (the Moment You Left Me)” just because it’s the greatest song ever. At some point, we’d have to play some Stevie Nicks—because Scarlett and Stevie share that whole dresses-resembling-heavy-drapery penchant. As for the Stones? “Stupid Girl” might make the cut. Toward the end of the party, things have to get a bit more intense, a bit PJ Harvey “Rid of Me.”

4. How much of this story is non-fiction? How much of you is fictitious?

I do live in a duplex, and I own a feisty dog. But as far as fictional characters showing up—well, Scarlett hasn’t yet, thank god. What is true to me about this story is that we are all living with the past, literary or historical, all the time, and as someone who is by blood and circumstance a Southern woman (although I was reared primarily in the North), I often think about what it means to have the past lurking.

As far as being fictitious myself? Unfortunately, I’m probably less so than most people. 28%, I’d wager.

5. Frankly, my dear, do you give a damn? How much of a damn?

Yes, I do, although most days I try to just give a dang.