Blog: “Sabrina Chapadjiev Takes on Female Creativity” by Andrea Uptmor

Two weeks ago, in a dimly lit backroom of Boneshaker Books, Sabrina Chapadjiev began to sneeze. “I’m severely allergic to cats,” she explained as she set up the projector for her talk on Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction, the all-star collection of essays, stories, comics, and photographs she edited. The Boneshaker cat, asleep on a nearby chair, barely lifted his head in apology.

Enter Minnesota Nice: a polite bicycle-helmeted man who had come to see Chapadjiev’s reading hopped on his bike, rode home, fetched a Claritin, and returned just before she started her talk. Applause erupted in the tiny room. 

“You saved my life,” said a grateful Chapadjiev, before swallowing the pill and cracking open her book to read.