fiction • word sketches • The Brunch
from author and academic Kathleen Clare Waller
Welcome to our community for readers and writers of fiction!
I have always loved diving into fictions. It’s where I play with the ideas in my mind, from research to experience, imagination to ethics, and the in-between of many layers the world has to offer, the nuances of truth. It’s also where I observe - as writer or reader - the culture of the everyday and how we choose to live in harmony or dissonance with the worlds around us.
Fiction here is likely to contain more truth than fact.
~Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own”
The Matterhorn began as an investigation of internationalism and interdisciplinary interests related to my academic research, travels, and observations. It then evolved into podcast conversations and discussions of how to layer stories with ideas, culture, places, and texts. These areas have long been inspirational for my fiction writing, and in the ensuing seasons, it has become the forefront of my newsletter publication.
Read below to learn more about what I publish here and who I am.
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📚 FICTION — You can find serialized fiction (An Interpreter in Vienna & A Hong Kong Story), excerpts from novels, and short-form work on The Matterhorn.
✍🏽 WORD SKETCHES — a written sketch: a play with language & ideas
☕️ THE BRUNCH — A figurative flat white or fizzy to pause with, any time of day. Ideas about writing, reading, internationalism, the arts, and culture.
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🎙 Listen to the podcast on Substack, Apple, or Spotify. Please rate the show if you like it!
💰 The funding for this project is via patrons who also have a chance to engage in or start private chat conversations about writing & international life, the arts, texts, and more. Patrons can also access the e-book to my latest projects (above) and will receive e-books of future publications. Thank you for your support!
*Message me for meaningful collaboration opportunities in exchange for a comped account.
About me
I write novels and research culture through the arts. I have taught literature, cultural studies, the arts, ethics, and epistemology for over 20 years and have a PhD in Comparative Literature (as well as degrees in English, Art History, Literary & Cultural Studies, and Education). I’m a specialist at putting texts together to form ideas rather than one particular area of research. Having lived in eight countries has added to the way I am able to investigate the arts from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. However, it’s also made me more aware of what I don’t know…which is a ton. I’m looking forward to continuing this journey here with you.
To learn more about the way my research and interest in the arts inform my fiction, you can check out this lecture I delivered to Pratt Institute (Brooklyn). Thank you for joining me in this community and supporting my project!
Best,
Kathleen Clare Waller
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P.S. Are you new here? Check out some of these earlier posts.
If you’re just joining our Matterhorn community, you may want to look at my introduction to the first season and experience at The Matterhorn peak (these explain the title).
Here are my latest serializations:
An Interpreter in Vienna — a psychological thriller and spy novel, in-part response to Graham Greene’s The Third Man
A Hong Kong Story — A juxtaposition of Ivy’s solitary navigation with Hong Kong's journey in the 2010's. A story about divergence, culture, and love. What do you do when the future’s suddenly unclear?
You can also check out a few popular reads from my first year, or scroll through the archives for more:
Summer Travel: Maine (Summer Travel series)
Jazz Your Writing (Jazz series)
Paul Auster (series)
Childlessness (Parenting series)
September Issue(s) (fashion-as-text series)
Art of Zen: Haiku (series)
