Virginia Konchan

The following episode was recorded live at Literary Cleveland's Incubator Writing Conference held at Cleveland Public Library in early September 2026.

Incubator is the largest free writing conference in the country, and the Ohio Center for the Book was honored to host a session with Ohio authors Aubrey Hirsch and Virginia Konchan, entitled Genre, Gender, and More.

The lively, thoughtful conversation covered adult topics and includes some adult language, so listener discretion is advised.

The pair were introduced by Michael Credico of the staff of the Ohio Center for the Book.

Um, Aubrey Hirsch is the author of the book Graphic Rage: Comics on Gender, Justice, and Life as a Woman in America, and the story collection Why We Never Talk About Sugar.

Her stories, essays, and comics have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vox, Time, The Nib, Black Warrior Review, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere.

Virginia Konchan is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Requiem, and the short story collection Anatomical Gift.

Her publications include poems in The New Yorker, The New Republic, and The Atlantic, essays and criticisms in the Boston Review and American Poetry Review, um, ch- her translations from French in the Brooklyn Rail, Asymptote, and Circumference, and fiction in Story Quarterly, Joyland, and Memorious.