Jill Gutowitz
Jill Gutowitz is a writer, director, and author living in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, Time , Vanity Fair, Vulture, ELLE, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, VICE, and elsewhere. Her debut book of essays, GIRLS CAN KISS NOW is available now via Atria Books. Her first short film and directorial debut THE LADIES starring Lisa Ann Walter, Jaren Lewison, Alexis G. Zall and Annie Korzen premiered at Outfest July 2022.
Q: How has your relationship with pop culture evolved since writing this book? How has the downfall/changes at Twitter played into that?
A: I've definitely taken a step back from pop culture and Twitter since writing the book, not necessarily in consumption, but in the way I comment and participate. In a way, the book was the culmination or peak of my relationship to cultural commentary. The downfall of Twitter has of course contributed to how I feel about the platform or how I engage with pop culture, but the greatest shift has come from just noticing how constantly engaging on social media or commenting on culture was affecting my mental health and ability to create at all.
My goal for the future is to consume pop culture and participate in different ways, maybe ways that aren't so urgent — like, I want to write a novel, I want to lean more into filmmaking, larger projects. I want to give myself more time to reflect on art and culture, and I also want to create more, but I can't do that meaningfully if I don't give myself more space to do it.
TL;DR, I am still lurking online and for some reason signed up for Threads, but am being mindful about the kind of writing I want to pursue in the future.
Q: You touch on this in your final essay, but can you talk a little more about what your experience was like in writing this book — especially in the midst of covid?
A: Writing the book during the earliest parts of the pandemic was both extremely challenging and a lifesaver. It gave me purpose and something positive to focus on and pursue, but it was definitely hard to get myself to sit down and write about really personal and emotional chapters of my life while being extremely scared, depressed, and grappling with my own mortality (lol). Girls Can Kiss Now would've been a very different book if it was written during a normal time in history (whatever that means) rather than during a pandemic, but it's somehow better for it, and I'm certain of that.
These Sapphic Stories Book Club author profiles are compiled by founder Aliya Bree Hall. Aliya is a freelance journalist and author who founded the book club in 2021 to uplift sapphic stories and celebrate LGBTQ+ authors. This excerpt has been lifted from an interview Aliya conducted with our June 2023 author. You can read the full Q&A by joining the book club.
