8 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
A Q-and-A with a ‘half-assed hussy’
Local author Diana Kirk
discusses her book and what it
means to be a ‘bad-ass woman’
By DAN HAAG
FOR COAST WEEKEND
iana Kirk’s book, “Licking Flames: Tales of a Half-Assed Hus-
sy,” is a personal, irreverent collection of essays about family,
travel, sex, adventure and poking fun at everyday hypocrisy.
Kirk, a new Astoria resident, has been published in The Pro-
gressive and has a regular column on “The Psychology of It” and
“Five:2:One,” a literary magazine.
Eager to learn more, Coast Weekend sat down with Kirk for a
chat. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Coast Weekend: How would you describe your book?
Diana Kirk: I consider it a book of personal essays with a
feminist twist. An intentional part of the book was showing a girl/
woman making her own choices. I would describe it as a memoir
of parts of my life, where epiphanies happened and moments in
time clashed together, and there was either a learning experience
on my own or I grew in some way.
CW: So what is a “half-assed hussy?”
DK: I often ask people what they think a hussy is. The word
“hussy” comes from the German word “house,” meaning “wife.”
Hussy was like “little wife,” which has a connotation of a loud-
mouthed little wife.
I love the word because we often turn women who speak loud-
ly into whores. I love the word because it’s used incorrectly from
what it originally was. And “half-assed” is because I’m kind of
half-assed about a lot of things. Even me being a loud-mouth: I’m
not the most loud-mouthed.
CW: What makes it easy for you to talk about things people
don’t always talk about?
DK: My mom was really social and allowed me freedom to be
around adults. I grew up in this world of adults that allowed me
to speak my mind. That fostered this ability to be very confident.
I’m sometimes wrong in arguments, but I’m not broken by being
wrong; I like to learn from them. I want to talk about all subjects,
and I’m curious about people’s responses.
I’m often quite surprised at their reactions,
that they’re more scared to speak their minds,
especially women. If I can be the woman who
speaks up, maybe they’ll see that you don’t
die from your words.
CW: You recently had a class you were
going to teach, “How to Write Like a Bad-
Ass Woman,” canceled for you not being the
“correct” description of a “bad-ass woman.”
(They defined it as “vulnerable and compas-
sionate.”) How do you describe a “bad-ass
woman?”
DK: I think any woman who isn’t scared of
the repercussions of what she says. We’ve been
silenced for so long, and I think this is a brave
new world that we’re in now, where women are
speaking up, but we kind of still don’t know what
that means. Even I’m not sure I would describe a
bad-ass woman as anything in particular.
I am a real estate investor by day, and I have
COLIN MURPHEY/THE DAILY ASTORIAN
Author Diana Kirk enjoys a cocktail at an establishment in Astoria.
MAYBE MY DESCRIPTION OF A BAD-ASS WOMAN
WOULD BE A WOMAN WHO KEEPS GOING — WHO
DOESN’T BECOME BITTER FROM ALL THE OUTSIDE
INFLUENCES THAT ARE ALWAYS TRYING TO CHANGE
YOU, OR PUT YOU IN A BOX OF WHAT SOCIETY EXPECTS