Bob Proehl
I'm working on a historical novel, because...I don't know exactly. It was the story I needed to work on right now. I wish it had been almost any other story, because doing historical work is fantastically difficult. But I love the project. It keeps on challenging me, every page of it.
It's set in Warsaw at the end of the 19th century. That part of Poland was part of the Russian empire at the time, and it had just become illegal to educate women past the level of high school. But this group of women formed an underground educational system called the Floating University, and they taught thousands of women, including a young Marie Curie (nee Sklodowska).
It feels like a big jump, but it hits on so many things that interest me. I think it continues from a lot of the stuff A Hundred Thousand Worlds focuses on regarding gender and identity. But it's also about language, and about punk (in a weird way), and about inventing yourself out of nothing.
It's set in Warsaw at the end of the 19th century. That part of Poland was part of the Russian empire at the time, and it had just become illegal to educate women past the level of high school. But this group of women formed an underground educational system called the Floating University, and they taught thousands of women, including a young Marie Curie (nee Sklodowska).
It feels like a big jump, but it hits on so many things that interest me. I think it continues from a lot of the stuff A Hundred Thousand Worlds focuses on regarding gender and identity. But it's also about language, and about punk (in a weird way), and about inventing yourself out of nothing.
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