Five Questions with Novelist Kate Myers
Plus a chance to win her new book!
In Excavations, Kate Myers’ debut novel out last week, four women on an archeological dig in Greece stumble upon an artifact that would undermine the entire career of the male professor in charge — and upturn thousands of years of written history.
It’s a fun, fast-paced and feminist read that combines academic satire with a tale of four unlikely friends forming a bond. I devoured it and seriously considered booking a trip to Greece once I was done.
Kate has written for Elle, BuzzFeed, and Self magazines. She studied archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, before working for CBS in TV development and for CollegeHumor. She was kind enough to answer a few questions. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Kate’s publisher, HarperVia, has generously agreed to give away three copies to subscribers of this newsletter. To enter, comment with where you’d like to go on an archeological dig.
Without giving too much away, how did you decide what the discovery the characters make would be?
The dig I was on was about sports, it was an ancient athletic site. It felt so inherently masculine and in general, in ancient history, there are women in popular consciousness. It felt ripe for a gender send up, and I wanted an artifact that would turn those notions on their head.
The book has four narrators — millennial Z. struggling after yet another breakup, the seemingly perfect conservator Kara, Patty, a lost college student, and Elise, a professional excavator. How did you go about crafting their individual voices?
It’s something my editor and I worked on a lot. I wanted to make each character feel distinct and special. A lot of that was putting these people at different places in their lives. I wanted each of these women coming to this problem from a different point of view. They each have their own agenda.
If anything, what they all have in common is they’re not that warm and fuzzy. It’s not the sort of people-pleasing women we often see. Elise is the strongest example of that: she’s, frankly, mean. But you still like her. At the other end of the spectrum you have Patty who is a naïve and lost, but you’re rooting for her.
I like Patty because I think I am her a lot of the time. We’re all lost, clueless and trying to figure it out. Elise is who I want to be. She’s a boss bitch and I love seeing that.
You worked on an archeological dig. What was that experience like and how accurate is the depiction in Excavations?
After graduating, as an attempt to delay adulthood as much as possible, I went on a dig in Greece, not dissimilar from the one in the book, for a couple of months.
What I tried to do in the book is cut a distinction between what people think an archeological dig is probably like and the reality. It seems very glamorous. I think people romanticize it. You’re wearing a linen top and a big straw hat, and you’re digging and you do a brushstroke in the dirt and there’s a chalice right there. It’s the Hollywood version of archeology.
The reality is that it’s grueling, physical labor. It can take decades to find anything. In the dig I was on, they were on their 35th year. It’s a generational amount of work. And, it’s profoundly boring. I wanted to convey that it’s like having a boring day job.
Is there anything you learned in your research that surprised you?
The coolest thing that has happened with this book happened recently as a product of the publicity circuit. As part of an event, I’m going to be in conversation with the head Mediterranean curator at the Walters Art Museum, Dr. Lisa Anderson-Zhu. I was nervous about having her read the book because she’s an expert in this field and it’s fiction. It’s not accurate and doesn’t try to be.
She read it and then sent me an email saying, ‘This is crazy, but reading Excavation made me go back and look at the statues in our collection. I never thought they could be women, but there’s no reason they couldn’t be.”
I thought that was wild because the premise bled into the real world.
Lastly, any books you want to recommend?
Probably the best book I read this year is Booth by Karen Joy Fowler. I went around for two weeks talking to strangers about John Wilkes Booth. I was obsessed with this book and I remain so. It's so good and so strange. But my husband said, ‘You need to stop talking about John Wilkes Booth.’
On a lighter note, if you’re looking for a chill fun read, Bad Summer People. I read it in a day over the weekend and loved it. I’m a total Elin-Hilderbrand-head. She’s the queen of summer. Bad Summer People was like that but more salacious. It was great.
Thanks to Kate for chatting! You can follow Kate on Instagram and buy Excavations here. And, don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
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I'd go dig at Sardis in Turkey. Generational excavations can be exciting!
iceland or greenland! they are amazing places and not as scorching hot as most archaeological digs!