My Next Ghost features a few succinct, scattered questions customized for people we like — less “what’s your creative process?” and more, “have you ever seen a man slip on a banana peel?”
Introducing our very first next ghost...
Janet Steen
Location: A sweet little hollow in the Catskill mountains of Upstate New York.
Eight-word memoir: A good hair day and nowhere to go.
What’s one thing you swore you’d never do again, but then you totally did it again?
I swore I would never buy another piece of shitty fast-fashion clothing off the Internet that I’m 100 percent sure is not going to be anything like the picture, and yet I did it again. And again and again and again...
Was there a project you did in grade school that you were really proud of?
I was very proud of the wooden key holder I made in sixth grade that was in the shape of a key. It was a little meta masterpiece before I even knew what meta meant.
What’s a movie that makes you cry, and is it a Meryl Streep movie?
“Ordinary People” is a movie that always makes me cry. It doesn’t have Meryl Streep in it, but it does have Mary Tyler Moore.
Have you ever known a crazy animal?
My cat Lorenzo (RIP). He liked to drag his favorite stuffed animal into the living room in front of guests and hump it passionately. He was also the most aggressive cat I’ve ever known. When my daughter was born I was afraid he might kill her but he just kept to himself and got really depressed.
Have you ever fainted in a public place?
Yes, some years ago in the middle of a small party, I fainted after having stayed in the hosts’ hot tub too long. I also vomited on their newly redone patio. People in the area still talk about it.
Janet Steen has written fiction, journalism, criticism, memoir, and is now mostly in love with the essay form. She worked for Esquire, Time Out New York, Details, and other print magazines back when print magazines were a thing. She edits books and other things made of words on a freelance basis. For a while she was co-curator of a popular reading series in Brooklyn called Murmrr Lit.
Two by Janet Steen
“‘Everything happened so fast.’” That’s what we say in these situations, as though we know the beginnings of things.” — Letting The Story Go: Field Notes From A Brutal Time (Literary Hub)
“When [Denis Johnson] died last year, at the age of 67, I wondered if I could locate the cassette I’d recorded the interview on all those years ago. Eventually it surfaced, on a dusty ancient Sony type-1 normal bias, and there, suddenly, was Denis — before books like Train Dreams and Tree of Smoke.” — Lying Down In The Dirt: Interview with Denis Johnson (Longreads)
The Belle of West Shokan always makes me laugh.
Janet is so funny (except when she chooses to be serious). Either way, the perfect choice for your first next ghost!