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Alix Strauss has been a featured lifestyle trend writer on national morning shows and talk shows. Her articles cover a range of topics, from food trends to celebrity interviews, appearing in an array of publications and newspapers such as: The New York Times, The New York Post, and Daily News, as well as national magazines: Marie Claire, Self, Time Out, City, Maxim, Men's Health, Outside and Mademoiselle among others. In addition, Alix's work has been anthologized, and her short fiction has appeared in the Hampton Shorts Literary Journal, the Idaho Review and Quality Women's Fiction. She is the recipient of several awards and fellowships: The Wesleyan Writers Conference, Skidmore College Writer's Institute, Sarah Lawrence Summer and Squaw Valley's Screenwriters' Summer program. Her official website is www.joyoffunerals.com
The Joy of Funerals
The Joy of Funerals is a sneak peek at the inner world of those left behind. From the very first page, readers are drawn into a strange, often humorous world where nine 30-something year-old women grapple with sex, power, love, and death. The cast of characters ranges from a widow who lusts after men she meets at the cemetery, to another woman who obsesses over finding her lover’s killer. One woman wonders if her recently deceased—and certainly less than perfect—blind date could have been the man of her dreams, while another pays a daring shiva call to the wife of her psychiatrist/lover.
Linking the eight independent tales together is an end novella featuring Nina, a funeral-junkie who craves the warmth and intimacy only tragedy can bring. Nina attends the funerals of the deceased characters from the previous stories, pretending to know the dead, and encountering the other people from the stories. Making up for her own emotionally distant family, she keeps looking for a connection among the living, be it a friend, lover, or Mr. Right.
Begun as an essay in the Lives column of the New York Times Magazine, The Joy of Funerals is a fascinating, poignant, and often disturbing look at just how differently people grieve. With raw wit, insightful humor, and a uniquely penetrating voice, Strauss turns the spotlight on loss and grief.
Alix Strauss's Summer Reading List
The Best Awful There Is
by Carrie Fisher
This novel isn’t out yet, but from what I’ve been able to gather from inside sources, a woman has a nervous breakdown. It’s about her decent and struggle back.
LA: People, Places, and the Castle on the Hill
by A.M. Homes
An interesting, first hand look into what makes LA a place both hated and loved, glittery to the outsider and fake to ones who live there. It’s mostly about the people the author encounters in her travels.
The Falling Nun and Other Short Stories
by Pamela Rafael Berkman
Women who are trying to find their place in the world.
Come Up and See Me Sometime
by Erika Krouse
Edgy women looking for love, relationships and a better life.
Kissing in Manhattan
by David Schickler
Linked stories follows a troupe of love-hungry urbanites who all live in the Preemption—a mythic Manhattan apartment building.
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