Kristen Tsetsi
Her first novel, the independently released Pretty Much True (originally Homefront), was included in Saint Joseph’s University professor Dr. Owen W. Gilman, Jr.’s “American War Literature and Film: Vietnam to Now” 2012 course curriculum and
Kristen’s second novel, The Year of Dan Palace (originally published under the pen name Chris Jane), has been called “stunningly good” by Indie Bookworm and “impossible to put down” by Pop Culture Zoo. One Amazon reviewer expressed impressive hatred of it.
Her short fiction has won the Storyglossia Fiction Prize and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her short story collection Carol’s Aquarium, which includes prize- and award-winning stories as well as some that were previously unpublished, is available here.
Kristen contributes regularly to the writers’ and publishers’ resource website JaneFriedman.com, primarily with a series of interviews with writers and others in the publishing industry.
More information (features, interviews, appearances) here.
Kristen on Medium and Substack.
“Why Chris Jane?” answered at Read Her Like an Open Book.
A repeal of Roe v. Wade has unanticipated consequences that take a surprising turn from one generation to the next.
“Kris Tsetsi’s The Age of the Child illuminates the hypocrisies of our time without flinching. It’s good stuff. Read it.”
– Alan Davis, Fulbright recipient and author of (among others) So Bravely Vegetative (Winner of Prize Americana for Fiction) and the forthcoming Clouds are the Mountains of the World
“This book is timely. It presents a dark foreign world, but one that may not be unexpected the way things are going.”
– Philip B. Persinger, author of Tools of the Trade and Do the Math
“Something interesting and endlessly thought-provoking that The Age of the Child captures are the multiple sides of pregnancy – wanting to be pregnant, not wanting to be pregnant, and what right the government has in controlling pregnancy. This isn’t the first piece of dystopian fiction to consider these questions. The Handmaid’s Tale and The Farm, to name a couple, have opened the dystopian genre to questions about reproduction; however, The Age of the Child is one of the first I’ve read to really consider the issue of reproductive rights and attitudes so deeply.” – Rebecca Maye Holiday, author of The Beaches
Listen to the discussion on NPR’s “The Colin McEnroe Show.”
Signed copies: VJ Books and Curiosity Store
I spent years reporting from military bases where young families and lovers were being separated by the decisions of old men. I had never had a better understanding of the agony of military separation until I read Kristen Tsetsi’s haunting and lyrical debut novel.” –James C. Moore, New York Times best-selling author of Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential and Give Back the Light: A Doctor’s Relentless Struggle to End Blindness
Tsetsi’s talents shine throughout the novel, and she reveals herself to be the rare sort of writer who can satisfy both emotionally and intellectually. … Its intelligent, honest treatment of war is not the only thing that Pretty Much True has going for it. In many ways, it is an example of the kind of highbrow style that makes small presses so essential to the continued health of our literary landscape. ” –Small Press Reviews
From the powerful emotion of the break-up of Dan and Nina’s relationship in the opening pages to the completely unexpected ending, this book really is a stunning must-read.”—Indie Bookworm Reviews
The Year of Dan Palace is honest, original, and impossible to put down. With a wholly distinctive narrative voice, Kristen Tsetsi is a 21st Century Bukowski.”—Joseph Dilworth Jr., Pop Culture Zoo
* This novel, originally published under the pen name Chris Jane, has been re-released as an e-book under the author’s real name. Paperback and audio versions are still Chris Jane titles.
childfree conversation
from the blog
A Teacher Kissed Me in High School
..but please don’t call me a victim. ♦ “That’s where Mr. X kissed me,” I almost said. My husband Ian and I were watching the Hallmark movie A Heidelberg Holiday. It had been filmed in the German town where we’d met as teenagers while students at an American school. In our short time together (he’d transferred there
Authors on the Importance of Trusting Yourself (and writing what & how you want to write)
I interview a lot of writers for JaneFriedman.com, and I’ve also been listening to many interviews with writers, primarily on The VJ Books Podcast and The Thriller Zone. My favorite part of any interview is one in which the writer shares something illustrative of a determination to retain or honor an independent artistic spirit, to write what they want
Right, Like a Man: On the Power of Gender in an Author’s Name
I prefer the way I write when, while writing, I imagine being read as a man. There’s an immediate freedom to not be apologetic. To do as we were taught in high school English and eliminate the self-conscious “I think…” from the writing. I’m not sure when it happened, the shift into having to pretend.
Do Women Enjoy Being the Weaker Sex (More than Just Physically)?
Yesterday I asked Ian, my husband, how he’d feel if we were traveling somewhere and I offered to put his carry-on into an airplane’s overhead bin for him. Would he let me do it? No, he said, he would not. I asked why. “Because I can do it myself,” he said. “Why would I want
I Am More than My Looks! (But still, I’m beautiful, right?)
In an episode of Burn Notice, which I used to watch while exercising before I became a Caroline Girvan devotee, a man hires Mike (or, in our house, Burn Notice) to find the guy who beat up his sister and put her in the hospital. The guy and Burn Notice stand at the sister’s hospital bed.
Scare Tactics & Lies: How women are lured into making babies (Part I of II)
“I shouldn’t say never but I’m dreading motherhood.” I saw that tweet years ago and haven’t been able to forget it. It sticks with me because I used to feel that way. In my first post-high school relationship, as a girlfriend to the guy who’d become my first husband before I turned 20, I sensed
