About Alienated Young Woman

Alienated Young Woman is written by Paulina Rodriguez between Manhattan and South Texas. I’ve written criticism, profiles, and news for Texas Monthly, GO, and the Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism, among others. With AYW, I’ll be sharing a mix of short-form recommendation guides and long-form essay criticism about the art that fascinates me—mostly literary fiction, film, and TV.

Disclaimer: I’m also a full-time grad student, so my publishing schedule is loose, but generally, my reading recommendations drop twice a month on Fridays, while long-form content drops monthly. I’ll also share occasional updates when my work is published elsewhere. To make things simpler, subscribe to Alienated Young Woman to get all of that in your inbox as soon as it drops.

Author’s note: The title “Alienated Young Woman” is taken from an interview I did with author Mina Seçkin, and references a beloved sub-genre of the bildungsroman that follows a (generally off-putting) young woman as she attempts to make sense of, in the eternal words of Lorde, a world alone.

However, as you may have noticed, the genre tends to veer pretty overwhelmingly white, American, and middle-class. With this blog, I’m more interested in books (like Seçkin’s The Four Seasons) that utilize its tropes and traditions while challenging those confines in some way. Some favorites include Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman, Mona Awad’s Bunny, Claire Kodha’s Woman, Eating, Xochitl Gonzalez’s Anita de Monte Laughs Last, Kat Dunn’s Hungerstone, and of course, The Four Humors. Check out this post for a full-length guide to the genre (with a running catalog at the bottom)!

A (non-comprehensive) list of my favorite authors:

• Julia Armfield

• Mona Awad

• Brit Bennett

• Emma Cline

• Daphne du Maurier

• Mariana Enriquez

• Xochitl Gonzalez

• Shirley Jackson

• Melissa Lozada-Oliva

• Toni Morrison

• Maggie O’Farrell

• Danzy Senna

A Brief Guide to My Writing Thus Far 

If you’re looking for a preview before you subscribe, here are some of my favorite pieces published elsewhere! 

Reviews: 

• Who’s Afraid of the Lesbian Housewives?

• At The Athena Film Festival, “Fancy Dance” Tells Big Stories About Small Mothers

• Ana in Two Acts: A Review of Xochitl Gonzalez’s “Anita de Monte Laughs Last”

• Raising the Dead: Gerardo Sámano Córdova’s “Monstrilio” and Post-COVID Magical Realism 

• Comedo of the Soul: A Review of Mona Awad’s “Rouge” 

• Not Like Other Fans: A Review of Melissa Lozada-Oliva’s “Dreaming of You”

Profiles and Interviews:

• The Donkey Lady Has Haunted Generations of San Antonians. She Has Her Own Talk Show.

• Unmaking the Family Secret: An Interview with Mina Seçkin

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