Finally

The Odysseys of Fally Dogswell

The long-awaited sequel to Kelly Cogswell's autobiography, Eating Fire: My Life as a Lesbian Avenger.

It's summer. An American writer is wandering Paris. The city seems foreign and hostile after several years spent back home in New York. Even her diary betrays her when French starts appearing, displacing her native English.

Fighting to express herself, memories float to the surface. Her first loves. The family nest in far-off Kentucky where churches sprout as ferociously as blackberry whips. Her banishment by her mother when she pronounced the word, lesbian. Then her life in New York where she met a woman, herself cast away from Cuba by a violent wave of homophobia.

Bit by bit, the story of all her exiles becomes not just a meditation on memory, language, and foreignness itself, but also on the attraction of hate and violence when you are — or feel — like an outsider, even in your own country.

In The Odysseys of Fally Dogswell, Cogswell moves past the limits of her work as a journalist to return to her roots as a poet and artist. The work is illustrated by drawings pulled from her notebooks. Sometimes mocking, sometimes illuminating, they remind us of the power of the single gesture present in her early work in performance and video, not to mention the actions she participated in as a Lesbian Avenger.

Translated from the original French by the author.

Recognized on several occasions by the New York Press Association, Kelly Cogswell is a journalist, memoirist, and extremely underground artist. She now lives in Paris.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tetrapod Press (October 1, 2024)

• Language ‏ : ‎ English

• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 146 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1736155865

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1736155868

• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.7 ounces

• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.4 x 7 inches