Being True to My Freakier Impulses: An Interview with Anna Cabe by Paula Mirando

This week’s interview for our tenth anniversary series is with Anna Cabe. Anna Cabe is a Pinay American writer from Memphis, TN. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Slate, Bitch Media, Vice, decomp, The Cincinnati Review, The Masters Review, Slice, StoryQuarterly, The Toast, and Fairy Tale Review, among others. She received her MFA in fiction from Indiana University and has been supported by organizations like the Fulbright Program in the Philippines and Millay Arts. She is currently a fiction editor for Split Lip Magazine. You can find Anna at annacabe.com. She is trying to convince herself to like eating shrimp.

Anna and I spoke via email and Slack about folklore, fairy tales, Run BTS, and the ultimate Pinay hype anthem. Anna also shared this story about a duwende she published in Necessary Fiction back in 2016, which fits perfectly into our conversation about myth and magic.

Paula Mirando: How long have you been on SLM staff? Has it changed you or your writing?

Anna Cabe: I joined SLM as a fiction reader in 2018, after I graduated from my MFA program and was in the Philippines for a Fulbright grant. At Indiana University, I was an editor for Indiana Review, which has shaped my writing and editing in immeasurable ways. I was eager to remain in touch with the literary community so I was on the look-out for journal opportunities. I ended up applying to Split Lip because Jon Chaiim McConnell, the fiction editor at the time, wrote the kindest, most enthusiastic acceptance I’d ever received. I think that’s just indicative of Split Lip’s ethos of loving attentiveness, not only in working with contributors to make their stories the best and truest they can be but also in building one of the warmest, most supportive literary communities I’ve ever encountered.

In general, SLM has taught me discernment, how to trust my intuition when it comes to both editing and writing. It has also taught me to be bold: once you’ve read tons of submissions, you get a sense of what the current literary landscape is like and what stands out. As a result, I’ve felt freer to be wilder with my own writing and to be true to my freakier impulses.

PM: Do you have any obsessions, and if so, how do they show up in your writing?

AC: Too many to count, but here’s a list (which is one of my obsessions!): witches, ghosts, hunger (broadly defined), moms, light, shadows, pop culture, fairy tales, true crime, teeth and the mouth more generally, skin, blood, gross body stuff (broadly defined). I’ve noticed, especially as my editorial eye has sharpened and as I’ve written enough to begin to have some perspective on my work as a whole, I tend to lean on the same images and moves (open mouths, brightness, fairy tale adaptation, etc.), so I’m trying to push myself away from relying on them.

PM: Speaking of fairy tale adaptations, I am so enamored with the piece you published in The Masters Review, “Maria Makiling Off the Mountain”! Aside from the story of Maria Makiling, what is your favorite myth, folk tale, or fairy tale, and why?

AC: My favorite Western fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast and its variants, but from Filipino folklore, my pick is always Marcela, the Intelligent Maiden. I just love a heroine who, without magic or any assistance besides her brains, outwits a king, earns a prince, and most importantly, forces the powerful to see her as their equal. What’s not to love?

PM: To circle back to the tenth anniversary theme, what was your favorite book, movie, or TV show when you were ten years old? Have these works been foundational to your writing in any way, even if those connections aren’t immediately obvious?

AC: I used to watch Gargoyles with my mom, one of the few times during the week I got to stay up late (around 9PM). I jokingly call myself goth-adjacent, because I was friends with goths as a teen and adored horror and everything spooky while not actually being a goth, and Gargoyles was totally up my alley, since it’s about medieval gargoyles out of time protecting New York City. I revisited a few episodes recently and was struck by the complexity and darkness of the story arcs and characterization, the way the series pays homage to Shakespeare, noir, folklore, and a host of other sources. I’m especially compelled by how my understanding of Demona, a primary antagonist, has shifted. As a ten-year-old, of course I didn’t like Demona since one of her goals is to destroy humanity, but as an adult woman, I have to say, I see her point, when gargoyles like her were subjugated by humans for their labor and then destroyed if humans’ fear of them overcame their usefulness. Heady stuff for a ten-year-old! But, I can now see how my preference for dark complicated female characters, for genre-bending, for referential writing, for knotty time-hopping storylines, for explorations of marginalization, community, and survival, stem from works like this.

PM: I love how Gargoyles is at the intersection of so many of your obsessions! It’s also fascinating to think of the ways in which a show like this, or even fairy tales as we discussed earlier, can facilitate these complex explorations of marginalization while also perpetuating ideas about what is considered monstrous within the culture that consumes that media.

Throwing it back to MySpace days, if we all had autoplay on our author websites, what song would be featured on your homepage?

AC: Toughie! I’d have to say “Us” by Ruby Ibarra just because listening to it makes me feel “the privilege of having been born a Filipina” deep in my bones. Runners-up would be “I Am the Best” by 2NE1 and “Thot Shit” by Megan Thee Stallion.

PM: Excellent choices! Shameless fun fact: I’m one of the extras in the music video for “Us.”

AC: OMG! Really? What part of the music video? I’ll keep an eye out for you!

PM: I’m to the left of the very last row in all the big group shots, but I’m also awkwardly staring into the void around 1:45.

While we’re on the topic of music, I really enjoyed the micro you have in The Cincinnati Review, “For All These Traces,” from the perspective of a K-pop stan. I’m especially fond of the description of the “dairy pop Mount Rushmore melting into oily puddles under the hard studio lights”—what an image! From what I recall reading on Twitter, you got into BTS during the pandemic. If I may ask, what was it about the group that lured you into the fandom? Do you consider yourself an Army?

AC: I’ve long been casually into K-pop just because I adored K-dramas and Korean cinema (I even wrote a whole essay about my love for K-dramas). I resisted jumping on the BTS bandwagon because well, I have a hipster-ish inclination to be suspicious of anything too popular, but being surrounded by BTS stans, particularly my brother, wore me down, since he kept forcing me to watch videos and listen to music with him. Then, the pandemic happened, and it just soothed me to endlessly watch videos of seven men with perfect skin and hair dance insanely difficult routines in perfect unison. What really clinched it for me, though, was watching and reading more behind-the-scenes material, where they get to be a little sloppier, eat alarming amounts of junk food, make fun of each others’ most self-serious moments in music videos, try to destroy each other in ridiculous competitions for Run BTS. The seven of them have really nailed that perfect pop balance of seeming relatable and silly while also being ridiculously talented artificial constructs. That tension enthralls me!

And since I’ve now written what is essential BTS fanfic for publication, I guess I’m an Army!

PM: Oooh, if I may ask, what’s your favorite episode of Run BTS? I just watched a bunch of the avatar cooking ones myself, but the zombie one is top-tier.

AC: The zombie one is bomb, but as a coffee addict, I love the barista one and am low-key obsessed with the dog-training one. Shout-out, too, to the double episode in the airport duty free, where Jin tricks everyone!

PM: I haven’t seen any of those episodes, but I will binge-watch all of your recs tonight!

Before I let you go, your fans all want to know: What is your favorite (childhood) snack food and why?

AC: Lay’s potato chips, which remains one of my great culinary loves. I prefer salty snacks to sweet and love potatoes, quite simply. I rarely got them growing up because my parents are doctors as well as being cheap. When they did, my three siblings and I would squabble over any of the best snacks, especially the name-brand ones, so Lay’s chips never lasted long. One of the greatest parts of adulthood is buying Lay’s potato chips whenever I want and not having to share them!

PM: This morning I watched a YouTube video in which someone claimed Lay’s potato chips are the perfect chip to pair with a cocktail, so you mentioning Lay’s in this interview feels serendipitous. I’ll take this as a sign from the universe to incorporate Lay’s into my snack rotation!

Paula Mirando is a queer Pinay writer from the Bay Area. Her writing has been supported by the Kearny Street Workshop Interdisciplinary Writers Lab, Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, and Philippine American Writers and Artists. Her fiction appears in Waxwing and she is currently working on a collection of linked short stories. She occasionally tweets @paulamirando. She is allergic to avocados but tempts fate by dipping chips in guac.