Mary Gaitskill’s Real Life GalleyCat

Over at The Awl, editor Choire Sicha has turned a new essay by Mary Gaitskill into an emotional contest that the cat-lovers in the GalleyCat audience can appreciate.

Here’s an excerpt: “Lots of people are playing a little game this week–you can play along at home, it’s easy! The game is called: On Which Page Of Mary Gaitskill’s Nutty Memoir About Her Lost Cat And Everything Else Will You Start Weeping? It’s not a fun game but here we are in the hot lonely wasteland of the end of August, so what else do we have?”

Published in Granta 107, the intensely personal essay focuses on Gaitskill’s obsessive quest to find her missing cat–an unexpectedly gripping story. As Sicha’s sideways compliment attests, the essay has managed to rattle readers, turning the warm and fuzzy pet memoir genre upside down in the process.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting this Thursday, February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Michael Brito (Edelman Digital), and Tim Devane (bitly). Register now.