Australian author Ella Baxter’s second novel, Woo Woo, documents a woman on the brink. Sabine is a conceptual artist preparing for her pivotal exhibition Fuck You, Help Me (I mean... just yes). As the show nears, her anxieties intensify—leading to surreal interactions with lifelike baby puppets and the ghost of performance artist Carolee Schneemann. Desperate for attention from her distant chef husband, her many TikTok followers, and even her potentially violent stalker, Sabine begins livestreaming her unraveling for a rapt online audience. Her intention, she explains, is to “coauthor a work with the public…to start a dialogue with the viewer…in real time.”
Woo Woo is both a clever send-up of the art world's pretensions and a sincere exploration of living for one’s work. Over email, Ella Baxter and I discussed adapting puppets for the screen, the novel as entertainment, and committing to the rapture.
Describe your book in three words.
Feral, layered, fecund.
If your book is adapted, who would play Sabine?
I have zero interest in who plays Sabine but I am obsessed with what the puppets will look like. I’ve got a folder of puppet faces on my computer as reference material because I am highly anxious the puppets will be portrayed wrongly and it matters to me very much. I am certain that they must look more sex-robot-flesh-faced than marionette-ventriloquist-apple-cheeked if that makes sense.
What were you watching/reading/listening to when you wrote this book?
I was watching a lot of CCTV footage of stalkers, I was also listening to a lot of Grime, and reading the novella, ‘Snake’ by Kate Jennings.
Do you outline or wing it or somewhere in between?
Wing it for half the time and then the rest is militant structure. I spend a lot of time tidying the rush of work. Every project is different, no formula seems to make itself known. Working on Woo Woo was an incredible experience. I did a lot of research into craft and structure and plot. I tried very hard to be in service to the idea of the novel, and I’m grateful it was such a demanding project. My work is better for it.
Are there any books you feel Woo Woo is “in conversation with” as they say?
I think it is in conversation with every piece of art mentioned inside it, and in turn the artists who made the art. It was a direct response to my stalker, so it is also in conversation with the letters they sent me.
Best writing advice you’ve received?
One of my best friends is a theatre enthusiast and actor and writer, and he told me to not be afraid of entertaining the reader. We do not need any more dry, suffocating and laborious books. His advice brings me back to the page, what am I saying and how am I saying it. Otherwise, sometimes, I can float away a bit with ideas and nonsense.
If you were a literary critic, what would you say about Woo Woo?
Five stars. Goes hard.
Where’s your dream writing retreat?
Three months at the Grand Hyatt in Shibuya, Tokyo.
How do you want readers of Woo Woo to feel?
I want them to feel possessed by art. I want them to feel as if they have transformed alongside the protagonist. My intention for Woo Woo was to go all in, to fully commit to the rapture, intrigue and desire of revenge.
If you could get a drink with any fictional character, who would it be?
Isserley from Under The Skin by Michael Faber. She always seemed to me very complex and lonely. If we drank together, I believe she would open up to me.
What’s a book you wish you’d written?
I Love Dick, but it had to be Chris Kraus.
What’s your relationship to self-promotion?
I fundamentally don’t understand what is required of me. Often, I rely on publicists to tell me what to do and I love that, and I do whatever they say most of the time, willingly. Someone once said I should write a Substack and do giveaways and just the thought of it exhausted me. I also don’t want to be a dickhead but I believe my creative energy dips when I do self-promotion. I exist to make things and then I push them in the world and hope that they sell at a high enough price to publishers that I can afford to make more things. The intricacies of marketing have never revealed themselves to me, however, I am open to learning.
What author’s (dead or alive) persona is aspirational?
I have never found any authors to be aspirational.
Favorite Artist.
Ana Mendieta. She was groundbreaking. Her art was unbelievably impressive. I love her approach to art making, and how she created from a place that was so continuously interconnected and embedded within the natural elements. She was unable to separate herself from the earth and every piece of art she made is a testament to that. She was thirty-six when she died. I mourn her, but I also mourn all the art she was robbed of making. I believe her creative instincts will go, forever, unmatched.
One word to describe what you’re working on now?
Screenplay.
