When I started the project I kind of saw Ke$ha as my antithesis. No one else ever came to mind until after the project was finished. but there’s nothing about them that intimidates me or inspires me. I guess Madonna or Lady Gaga would have been good candidates–they’re so adaptive as pop-icons. She is chaotic and carnivorous and unrepentant–which makes her really dexterous as a character. Laura Relyea: There are a lot of things about Ke$ha’s persona that I both fear and respect. What was it about Ke$ha that made you choose her specifically to serve this role? And were there any other iconic women who you considered for the role? Relyea, who is the editor of Vouched Books and hosts the Vouched Presents reading series in Atlanta, recently discussed her new collection with Fanzine.įanzine: For your new chapbook, All Glitter, Everything, you take Ke$ha as your subject, but it quickly becomes clear to readers–and is something that you also mention yourself in the acknowledgments of the book–that “Ke$ha” serves as a stand-in for a variety of women. The book, perhaps, makes the argument that life really can be all glitter, everything, if we take agency for our actions and refuse to fear breaking out of routine.įalling somewhere within the blurred categories of prose poems and flash fiction, the book is set to be released at the Highland Ballroom in Atlanta on October 24th. They also create a strong portrait of friendship, with all its ups and downs, and tell the reader much more about the growth of the narrator than of the character Ke$ha, for the narrator’s own feelings of envy, hope, and fear are reflected through her descriptions of her subject. The brief serial narratives that make up the collection aren’t just an exercise in character study. Relyea takes as her muse the bold, non-stop glitter-covered partier who brushes her teeth with Jack Daniels, and in doing so equates Ke$ha as a sort of everywoman–our friends, the people we know, the ones who really know who we are even when we try to hide things from them, the ones who bring out both the best and the worst in us. All Glitter, Everything, the debut chapbook by Atlanta writer Laura Relyea, is a story of friendship, change, growth, and Ke$ha.

Laura glitterato