Kirsten Beachy promoted her debut non-fiction novel, ‘Martyrs and Chickens: Confessions of a Granola Mennonite’ on Apr. 22 in Martin Chapel, for EMU’s final Writers’ Read of the ‘24-25 academic school year.
Beachy is an EMU Graduate and current EMU writing professor. Graduating with a BA in both Philosophy & Theology, and Theater, she continued her education at West Virginia University where she graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing. She’s been featured in dozens of publications, including ‘Tongue Screws and Testimonies: Poems, Stories, and Essays Inspired by The Martyrs Mirror’ which she edited the entirety of. Since 2013, Beachy has been a part of EMU’s Intellectual Life Committee, Writing Committee, and Faculty Senate.
The event began with Beachy reading a chapter of the book, and a few snippets of some other chapters, starting with ‘The Voice.’ “This is maybe the most academic piece, or the piece that speaks the most to my academic life, and since I’m here at EMU and some of my colleagues are here, I thought it might be a good one. It’s about impostor syndrome, both the academic side and I think also on the religious side.” She followed this up with a chapter on Motherhood, written in an ABC poem format, where each letter of the alphabet gets a word attached to it, and 100 words describing it.
Following the readings were a short series of questions from Chad Gusler, another EMU Grad and Writing Professor. When asked about her self-reflections throughout the novel and the time it took to write it, Beachy said, “There’s something transformative about becoming a caregiver of any sort. I think a lot about how this maybe affected my creative life. I just didn’t write for a while, or I would write as an act of desperation every now and then.” The process of writing ‘Martyrs and Chickens’ started while she was at a writing retreat, and continued over the course of about 25 years. When asked about long stretches of time where she hadn’t written anything, Beachy stated that, “Sometimes you’re writing, and sometimes you’re being written on.”
After the interview, the audience was free to ask questions. There were tables where you could either buy a book or a bookmark. Beachy also announced her “Author’s Tour” that will be happening during the summer, where she will be promoting both her published novel and her upcoming fiction novel that is currently in the works.
