If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love, and Other Stories

About the Author

Rachel Swirsky holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop and graduated from Clarion West in 2005. Her short fiction has been published in venues including Tor.com, Subterranean Magazine, and Clarkesworld Magazine, and been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, the Sturgeon Award, and the World Fantasy Award. In 2010, her novella “The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers in the Queen’s Window” won the Nebula. Her newest collection, How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present and Future, is forthcoming from Subterranean at the end of September. It has a Shaun Tan cover!

Swirsky wrote this piece after talking to multiple editors who worked with horror stories, all of whom reported receiving many submissions about men murdering their wives or ex–wives. Despite the fictional veneer and supernatural justification, many have the feel of personal revenge fantasies, and most characterize the women through disturbing, misogynist stereotypes. Swirsky wanted to see if it was possible to write a story that included all the markers of the trope but nevertheless subverted it.

If she was going to turn into a harpy, she wouldn’t want to be a vulture–harpy. A Macaw harpy? A bird of paradise? A cassowary? So many better options.