Q/A w/ Zoe Baillargeon

Posted by Nick Martinez in Creative Writing

As a part of an ongoing Q&A session with the Creative Writing and Literature Department’s Senior Reading Class, Jackalope Magazine sat down with Zoe Baillargeon. Baillargeon discussed hashtags, learning to be funny and late night television hosts.

Creative writing major Zoe Baillargeon Photo by Ash Haywood

Jackalope Magazine: How dare you?

Zoe Baillargeon: I just do. You know? I am me.

JM: How did you get into writing?

ZB: I was originally a writer as a little girl, and then I got sidetracked by theater. Then during a study abroad, I realized I didn’t want to be in theater anymore, I wanted to be a writer.

JM: What genre do you work in and why?

ZB: Usually fiction but I’m going into nonfiction at the moment. I just think that fiction was easier to start off in. I never really considered myself a poet. In nonfiction I just felt like my life wasn’t interesting enough; then I learned how to be funny. Then, I learned how to put a twist on my life.

JM: What three words would you use to describe your writing?

ZB: Quirky, sarcastic and off the wall.

JM: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever written?

ZB: A story written entirely in hashtags about a basic bitch owning a bonsai tree, and she chronicles that on Twitter, and basically ends up killing the tree.

JM: Why was that the worst thing you ever wrote?

ZB: Because it was written entirely in hashtags! (laughs) It was an experiment.

JM: How do you balance work and family?

ZB: Lots of stress. There’s not really balance at the moment.

JM: Marry, Fuck, Kill: Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.

ZB: Oh man. Fuck Jon Stewart, because hell yeah. Marry Jimmy Fallon and I guess Kill Stephen Colbert.

JM: Blasphemy. Kill Stephen Colbert?

ZB: Yeah.