An Interview with Zoe Fairbairns

Abstract

Zoe Fairbairns writes novels and short stories, as well as political pieces, fiction reviews, and a radio play. Overall, Zoe Fairbairns's fiction, which is the focus of this interview, can be identified as feminist in its concerns, often using and subverting genre models, and accessible to a wide audience. There is little serious critical engagement with Fairbairns's work at the moment; this interview is an attempt to remedy that, and to explore themes which critics have not yet raised. We begin with an analysis of how the subject of women and work, and women and the economy, is presented in the author's fiction. We then move to discuss Fairbairns's style and language, and the means by which she researches her novels, proceeding to a discussion of class and realism in her fiction, and ending with questions about her use of the short story form. While it is vital to acknowledge Fairbairns's feminism, her technique and method as a writer must not be forgotten.