Who doesn’t love a novel about a wedding that implodes before the flower arrangements start to wilt? Kat Stoddard’s Wasp’s Nest is a compulsive, witty debut set in the rarified sea air of Waspy Cape Cod. Tess, the bride-to-be is all set to start her second marriage to Warren, an almost state senator who wears a suit even in 90-degree weather. When the novel starts out, Tess is putting the final touches on her dream wedding at her parents’ oceanfront estate, her only seeming problem how to keep her stoner brother from hiding in the hydrangea bushes to vape.
Meanwhile, in New York, Tess’s first husband, Peter, receives an anonymous invitation to the wedding and, thinking it’s from Tess, decides to attend. He brings along a handsome new acquaintance as his date, an aspiring writer named Mitch who plans to undertake “anthropological research” about the upper classes. When, to Tess’s surprise, the duo shows up in Cape Cod, a scintillating triangle starts to form.
Wasp’s Nest draws its inspiration from The Philadelphia Story and begins with an epigraph from the movie: The time to make up your mind about people is never. The novel plays out this sentiment beautifully over the ensuing week as Tess, Peter, and Mitch come to recognize what they want from each other and from themselves.
We caught up with Kat in advance of her launch next week.
I was so taken by your characters and loved moving back and forth between their perspectives. Did any of them come to you first or did they appear as a group?
The book always hinged on a trio: a wealthy bride-to-be, her first husband, and an interloper who complicates things for everyone. Figuring out the rotation between points of view came pretty naturally—miraculously, I didn’t overthink that and just went with my gut. Mitch’s voice appeared on the page basically fully-formed. Tess was a little harder to find; she’s pretty withholding and prickly. And Peter took some experimentation. I really had to balance how observant he is with the ways he’s in denial. It was a lot of fun to play the main trio off each other as I continued to develop their individual characters.
The narrative voice and dialogue have such wit. There’s also a lot of pain and emotional depth. Did you think about how to balance those energies from scene to scene and between characters?
Thank you so much! Balancing heavier moments with humor and maintaining each character’s emotional throughline was definitely a challenge. I had a general idea of everyone’s arc and where I wanted the story to end up, but I discovered so much about each character while writing. I usually dedicate a full revision to emotional fine-tuning. Little moments of tenderness and humor take on such new meaning with every draft, with each new detail I’ve discovered about past events and relationships.
I really liked Peter’s friendship with Eileen and Laurie. Could you talk about their bond?
It was really important to me that Peter, as a queer person and someone in recovery, had intergenerational friendships and a queer community to help ground him. Eileen’s art is a point of connection with Peter; she gets him in so many ways that other people don’t. Eileen and Laurie are also one of the only stable married couples in Peter’s life, and their marriage is a window into what a relationship could look like for Peter in future. He’s not someone who sees himself getting remarried, but he does wonder if he’ll experience true romantic intimacy again. Eileen and Laurie become his family over the last several years, and they also model what queer community care can really look like.
The setting was beautifully described. How did Cape Cod end up as the site for the wedding?
The setting was one of the first things I knew about the book, and those visuals were originally drawn from childhood memories. I attended a Cape Cod wedding when I was seven, and the images of a house on the water and a big white tent on the lawn have stuck with me for almost thirty years. I spent some time on Cape Cod again while writing the book, which was such a fun way to inform the experiences the characters have throughout the course of the story.
I’ve been reading a lot of sad fiction lately, so it was fun to read a literary take on romance. There’s nothing formulaic about this novel, but the reader does want to know from the get-go who will end up with whom! Do you tend to read a lot of love stories yourself and what are some favorites?
Literary love stories are one of my favorite things to read! Some of my favorites are They All Fall in Love at the End by Haili Blassingame, Heart the Lover by Lily King, Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, and Maurice by E. M. Forster. All of these books combine beautiful prose and an engaging narrative voice with a propulsive romantic narrative (or two).
I grew up on movies from the 30s and 40s (I’m not quite that old but my father was!) So Philadelphia Story is a longtime favorite. Can you tell me about your relationship to that film and why it ended up inspiring a novel?
It’s such a phenomenal movie! I adore the family drama elements as well (boy do I have some thoughts on Seth Lord’s behavior and the way it affects his wife and daughters), but the triangulated romantic dynamic between Tracy, Dexter, and Mike is so rich and queer-coded and that’s what made it an instant favorite for me. I know I’m not the only queer kid who watched that movie and felt the impact of two queer stars and an iconic queer director. The chemistry between Dexter and Mike has always made me wonder about a version of the story that closes that side of the love triangle. There’s an aspect of WASP’S NEST that’s me saying to The Philadelphia Story“the queerness in me recognizes the queerness in you.” The film is a masterclass in circumventing the Hays Code, and there were critics who objected to the “irreverent” (clever and subversive) ways director George Cukor and writer Donald Ogden Stewart depicted sex, sexuality, and the institution of marriage. We’re currently in a new era of censorship and anti-queer sentiment, and it’s important to remember that artists have always worked around the restrictions forced on them.
If you were throwing a dinner party for your characters and the characters from Philadelphia Story, who do you think would most get along? And what would your hostess nerves focus on?
I’ve never considered this before and now I can’t stop thinking about it. Mitch would flirt shamelessly, including with Tracy’s mother Margaret. Tess and Tracy would be fascinated by each other (though Tess would try to play it cool), and Peter would be intrigued by whatever Dexter and Mike have going on. I’d seat Liz Imbrie next to Nia—I think they’d really get each other. Dinah and Sebastian in the same room would be a recipe for chaos. Sebastian would bring up ethical non-monogamy to Tracy, which would delight Dinah as soon as she figured out what that meant. I’m sure both Tracy and Tess would have something devastating to say about my hosting abilities, but I would be honored to be on the receiving end of a barb from either of them.
Impressive! Now I need to know what you’d serve.
Probably some variety of risotto, since that’s one of the not-totally-basic dishes I make well. Crème brûlée for dessert, just to see how everyone breaks the crust.
Let’s talk a little about Baltimore. How long have you lived here and how does it nurture your writing?
I’ve lived in the Baltimore area since 2013, and in the city proper since 2016! I love working here and raising my daughter here. I’ve never lived in a place that’s felt so neighborly. I think the more I’m able to connect with the people around me, the more I pay attention to details, which makes me a better person and a better writer. And there is always inspiration to be found via our incredible museums and historic architecture.
We love Enoch Pratt Free Library (shoutout to my friends at the Hamilton branch), and our favorite indie bookstores (Snug Books and Greedy Reads). A perfect weekend includes a bookstore visit, brunch at Silver Queen Cafe, and a walk around Lake Montebello. Ideally it ends with us cuddled on the couch with our cats and a stack of books.
You mentioned the importance of a queer community for your characters. What about you?
I really enjoy attending queer book clubs and sapphic socials to find community. One of the great things about Baltimore is that it’s a really queer city, and has been for a long time. I find other queer people pretty much everywhere I end up, which is a big reason I’ve long considered Baltimore my home city.
Baltimore Launch Event
At Greedy Reads with Jane Delury on June 30, 7 pm:
https://www.greedyreads.com/events/50541
At the Enoch Pratt Library on July 11th, 9 pm:
https://calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/kat-stoddard-wasps-nest
