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Marginalia: Carol Birch

Emily Atherton

This episode features an conversation I had recently with Carol Birch. Birch is skilled at crafting fiction around historical fact, especially when there’s not enough factual information available. That was the case with her latest book, Orphans of the Carnival.

The novel looks at the life of Julia Pastrana. Born in Mexico in the 1930s, she could sing and dance, was fluent in three languages, and was billed as the Ugliest Woman in the World. It’s fiction based on fact, and against a backdrop of carnivals and freak shows, the story is stranger than fiction.

Here’s our conversation:

If you listened to the Marginalia commentary on-air, this is what you heard:

44002_120916.mp4
Carol Birch, Marginalia | the commentary


Orphans of the Carnival by Carol Birch was published by Doubleday  

Marginalia was produced at KMUW - Wichita. Discover new episodes at kmuw.org or through iTunes or Google Play.

Editor: LuAnne Stephens
Engineer: Jon Cyphers
Producer: Beth Golay

Beth Golay is KMUW's Director of Marketing and Digital Content. She is the host of the KMUW podcast Marginalia and co-host with Suzanne Perez of the Books & Whatnot podcast. You can find her on Wichita Transit in conversation with other riders for En Route, a monthly segment on KMUW's weekly news program The Range.