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Who Is Mary Sue?
In the language of fan fiction, a 'Mary Sue' is an idealised and implausibly flawless a female archetype that can infuriate audiences for its perceived narcissism.Such is the setting for this brilliant and important debut by Sophie Collins. In a series of verse and prose collages, Who Is Mary Sue? exposes the presumptive politics behind writing and the idea that men invent while women reflect; that a man writes of the world outside while a woman will turn to the interior.Part poetry and part reportage, at once playful and sincere, these fictive-factive miniatures deploy original writing and extant quotation in a mode of pure invention. In so doing, they lift up and lay down a revealing sequence of masks and mirrors that disturb the reflection of authority.A work of captivation and correction, this is a book that will resonate with anyone concerned with identity, shame, gender, trauma, composition and everyone, in other words, who wishes to live openly and think fearlessly in the modern world. Who Is Mary Sue? is a work for our times and a question for our it is a handbook for all those willing to reimagine prescriptive notions of identity and selfhood.
103 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 6, 2018
9 people are currently reading
572 people want to read
About the author
Sophie Collins
4 books20 followersSophie Collins grew up in Bergen, North Holland, and now lives in Glasgow. She is the author of Who Is Mary Sue? (Faber, 2018) and small white monkeys (Book Works, 2017), and translator of The Following Scan Will Last Five Minutes by Lieke Marsman (Pavilion, 2019). She is a lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Sophie was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Trust Award in 2016.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
February 27, 2018
In fan fiction, a ‘Mary Sue’ is a thinly veiled version of the author’s ideal self. These hybrid poems – what Collins calls “lyric essays” – are thus about perceptions of women’s writing and how it relates to hidden identity. But the most interesting reflections on the topic come from other authors: Lorrie Moore, Sharon Olds and Rachel Cusk are among the female writers quoted in the prose sections. I didn’t mark out a single passage or individual poem, which for me is always a sign that I’ve failed to connect with the author’s style. It’s funny, but another poet I saw give a reading at the same event (Hannah Sullivan, at Faber & Faber’s Spring Party) came across as more pretentious and less accessible than Collins in person, but her work ended up being much more to my taste.
January 18, 2019
I'm pretty sure this book has changed my life.
It might not change yours, but eh *shrugs*.
This is a lovely, stray collection of poems, thought fragment and questions about the place of women in the world, in fandom, inside their own thoughts.
I'm going to read it again.
It might not change yours, but eh *shrugs*.
This is a lovely, stray collection of poems, thought fragment and questions about the place of women in the world, in fandom, inside their own thoughts.
I'm going to read it again.
April 11, 2018
Opening lines: ‘I recently read a novel that resisted a conventional representation of self.’
May 5, 2018
eerlijk gezegd vond ik vooral de essaystukjes die ze van andere mensen citeert het interessantst
February 18, 2025
Loved the poem poems, but not so enamoured with the essay-poem parts - they're good essays and they reframe the poems in interesting ways, but it does make the book feel more *interesting* than moving. The book is proactive and direct, it asks the reader to consider things, and I guess I'll go off to consider them now. My gut feeling is that I would have preferred more of the classic type poems that meet the reader halfway, but I suppose this isn't all about me. Maybe I just had the wrong expectations
March 21, 2020
Een aantal heel heel mooie dingen, maar ook veel wat een beetje langs me heen ging.
Als absolute favoriet:
Untitled
The village is always on fire.
Men stay away from the kitchens,
take up in outhouses with concrete floors,
while the women — soot in their hair —
initiate the flames into their small routines.
Als absolute favoriet:
Untitled
The village is always on fire.
Men stay away from the kitchens,
take up in outhouses with concrete floors,
while the women — soot in their hair —
initiate the flames into their small routines.
Read
August 25, 2019I adored the title poem and a few bits here and there, but unfortunately, quite a lot went over my head. I think I liked where she went with this? This might have to be a reread in a few years' time.
July 13, 2018
Who is Mary Sue?
The character that everyone despises and greatly fears: the woman who fights back so she’s too bitchy; the quiet woman away from the centre of the party who would rather stay at home reading, so she must be a hipster; the mother who has lost all identity to that one, single identifying trade; the hard-working woman with plain features who wears no make-up; the high-end, upper east side wife who wears too much; the writer who writes about herself, so she must be self-centered; the poet who questions, so she must be entitled. Mary Sue is, thus, every woman: every real woman who is quickly dismissed based on a few traits, a few decisions, who can’t, shouldn’t defy her but still, at the eye of the beholder, do. The beholder being, most often than not, men.
And Who is Mary Sue’s Sophie Collins? It is hard to say. I think collections like this are the reason why people (myself included) find poetry so daunting. Most of the poems just flew right through me, leaving no lasting impact, leaving me speechless only because I had nothing to say. Poetry is, in my understanding, such an intimate and personal journey, you either connect to it, or you don’t -- which is also why I find collections that focus on self-identifying traits such as race, identity and other universal senses of human longing so much easier to read and enjoy. It is essential, to me, that I identify with whatever the poet is trying to convey.
And while I knew Sophie Collins wasn’t going to tackle the aforementioned themes (at least not directly, or not as the central theme), what she set out to do was just, if not more, interesting to me: it had the potential to be a powerful, riveting and funny collection that looked at feminism through a very common pop culture lense; and it did, sometimes. Every now and then, in some of the poems, I saw the light, but it quickly fizzled away when compared to the rest of the poems, that felt completely out of place (funnily enough, the ones I enjoyed the most were the ones I thought didn’t belong). Alas, as I finished the last poem and closed the book, I didn’t feel it accomplished what it was trying to do.
All in all, this is an interesting collection that might need a second (or third) re-read in order to fully gasp and identify all the themes and nods it portrays to women writers (some which I was happily able to identify).
The character that everyone despises and greatly fears: the woman who fights back so she’s too bitchy; the quiet woman away from the centre of the party who would rather stay at home reading, so she must be a hipster; the mother who has lost all identity to that one, single identifying trade; the hard-working woman with plain features who wears no make-up; the high-end, upper east side wife who wears too much; the writer who writes about herself, so she must be self-centered; the poet who questions, so she must be entitled. Mary Sue is, thus, every woman: every real woman who is quickly dismissed based on a few traits, a few decisions, who can’t, shouldn’t defy her but still, at the eye of the beholder, do. The beholder being, most often than not, men.
And Who is Mary Sue’s Sophie Collins? It is hard to say. I think collections like this are the reason why people (myself included) find poetry so daunting. Most of the poems just flew right through me, leaving no lasting impact, leaving me speechless only because I had nothing to say. Poetry is, in my understanding, such an intimate and personal journey, you either connect to it, or you don’t -- which is also why I find collections that focus on self-identifying traits such as race, identity and other universal senses of human longing so much easier to read and enjoy. It is essential, to me, that I identify with whatever the poet is trying to convey.
And while I knew Sophie Collins wasn’t going to tackle the aforementioned themes (at least not directly, or not as the central theme), what she set out to do was just, if not more, interesting to me: it had the potential to be a powerful, riveting and funny collection that looked at feminism through a very common pop culture lense; and it did, sometimes. Every now and then, in some of the poems, I saw the light, but it quickly fizzled away when compared to the rest of the poems, that felt completely out of place (funnily enough, the ones I enjoyed the most were the ones I thought didn’t belong). Alas, as I finished the last poem and closed the book, I didn’t feel it accomplished what it was trying to do.
All in all, this is an interesting collection that might need a second (or third) re-read in order to fully gasp and identify all the themes and nods it portrays to women writers (some which I was happily able to identify).
August 29, 2021
I keep trying to understand my personal criteria for what makes good poetry or good writing, but it’s a moving target. I think Collins delivers some real genius, avant garde writing here, while waving the Feminist flag. I debated whether to give 4 or 5 stars, but writing my review made me decide to round up.
“Who Is Mary Sue?” is actually the 22-page title poem. While a Karen is a pejorative term for a spoiled, privileged, hate-mongering white woman, Mary Sue, also pejorative, is a female literary character that critics (mostly men?) perceive as an idealized version the author has created of herself. Really? Male authors would never create the perfect action hero, perfect detective, etc. or at least never be projecting their ideal of themselves? As the dust jacket says, Collins “exposes the presumptive politics behind writing and readership: the idea that men invent while women reflect: that a man writes of the world outside while a woman will turn to the interior.” She brilliantly quotes some women author to overturn this nonsense:
“Sharon Olds
I would use the phrase apparently personal poetry for the kind of
poetry that I think people are referring to as ‘confessional.’ Apparently
personal because how do we really know? We don’t.
Rachel Cusk
The misuse of the term ‘narcissism’ in relation to my work is
nauseating. My life is the trash going into the incinerator to power
the book I’m trying to write.”
I also want to say a few words in praise of white space. Many of these poems go on for many, many pages, but Collins often puts just a few lines on a page (as she did for the two authors quoted above)
and jumps to a clean page. Here's your personal space to digest and reflect on what was said, rather than losing it in the stew of ingredients.
To conclude, here are a couple of passages from Collins’ poems about identity confusion that I particularly enjoyed.
“I share an apartment with my twin sister
Enclosed is a photo of us on a tandem bike
I forget which one I am
Sometimes I wake up believing I am her
she is me
and there is nothing about the day to indicate otherwise…”
(“Dear No. 24601”)
“ My autobiography always arrives from somewhere outside me; my
narrating is really anybody’s, promiscuously. Never mind the coming
story of my life; simply to enunciate that initial ‘I’ makes me slow
down.”
(“A Whistle in the Gloom”)
“Who Is Mary Sue?” is actually the 22-page title poem. While a Karen is a pejorative term for a spoiled, privileged, hate-mongering white woman, Mary Sue, also pejorative, is a female literary character that critics (mostly men?) perceive as an idealized version the author has created of herself. Really? Male authors would never create the perfect action hero, perfect detective, etc. or at least never be projecting their ideal of themselves? As the dust jacket says, Collins “exposes the presumptive politics behind writing and readership: the idea that men invent while women reflect: that a man writes of the world outside while a woman will turn to the interior.” She brilliantly quotes some women author to overturn this nonsense:
“Sharon Olds
I would use the phrase apparently personal poetry for the kind of
poetry that I think people are referring to as ‘confessional.’ Apparently
personal because how do we really know? We don’t.
Rachel Cusk
The misuse of the term ‘narcissism’ in relation to my work is
nauseating. My life is the trash going into the incinerator to power
the book I’m trying to write.”
I also want to say a few words in praise of white space. Many of these poems go on for many, many pages, but Collins often puts just a few lines on a page (as she did for the two authors quoted above)
and jumps to a clean page. Here's your personal space to digest and reflect on what was said, rather than losing it in the stew of ingredients.
To conclude, here are a couple of passages from Collins’ poems about identity confusion that I particularly enjoyed.
“I share an apartment with my twin sister
Enclosed is a photo of us on a tandem bike
I forget which one I am
Sometimes I wake up believing I am her
she is me
and there is nothing about the day to indicate otherwise…”
(“Dear No. 24601”)
“ My autobiography always arrives from somewhere outside me; my
narrating is really anybody’s, promiscuously. Never mind the coming
story of my life; simply to enunciate that initial ‘I’ makes me slow
down.”
(“A Whistle in the Gloom”)
July 27, 2021
Really enjoyed some parts (the beginning), a bit confused towards the end… Would be curious to read more from Collins!
November 20, 2022
mixed feelings! will read it again and possibly adjust my rating
January 27, 2019
I note that, in literary fiction, when a female writer's female protagonist is considered up to scratch, she is often taken to be a thinly disguised version of the author's non-idealised self.
Something like: a woman who tries to invent in literature will fail, whereas a woman who succeeds in writing is believed to have done so to the extent that she has been able to accurately portray the details of her own life.
Δυνατή συλλογή όχι λόγω της πρωτοτυπίας των θεμάτων, των θέσεων, της μορφικής κι υφολογικής υπόστασης, αλλά κυρίως γιατί κρατάει ανοιχτό το πεδίο του διαλόγου περί γυναικείας λογοτεχνίας, περί των προσχηματικών Mary Sue ηρωίδων, περί της αντιμετώπισης της κριτικής των γυναικών συγγραφέων.
January 3, 2024
A curious, winding, and gripping collection - reading almost as a diary. Very enjoyable and highly recommend.
February 24, 2018
I really enjoyed this and especially the mix of prose/poetry
February 2, 2025
This is my second time reading 'Who is Mary Sue?' after being recommended it by a lecturer in my first year of university. I was curious to see if my feelings towards it and engagement with the text would have shifted after 5 years - and in all honesty, they haven't really.
The conceit of this book is excellent, a topic worthy of exploration and with great intent and ideas behind it. There are some points where the text really engages with ideas of femininity, what women have to do to be considered on the same level as men, and the concept of a Mary Sue. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the work just misses the mark for me. It suffers from the instagramification of poetry, where passionate symbolism and raw emotion are substituted by inconsistent spaces between lines and observation without commentary. I would neither recommend or not recommend this - I think that there are some really high quality sections that unfortunately are brought down by other pieces that feel included to pad the page count rather than contributing to the text as a whole.
The conceit of this book is excellent, a topic worthy of exploration and with great intent and ideas behind it. There are some points where the text really engages with ideas of femininity, what women have to do to be considered on the same level as men, and the concept of a Mary Sue. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the work just misses the mark for me. It suffers from the instagramification of poetry, where passionate symbolism and raw emotion are substituted by inconsistent spaces between lines and observation without commentary. I would neither recommend or not recommend this - I think that there are some really high quality sections that unfortunately are brought down by other pieces that feel included to pad the page count rather than contributing to the text as a whole.
October 15, 2019
[rating = C-]
Though I think that the topics of "women in society" and how they are perceived (especially female writers) are important, this collection did not fulfill what it set out to do. The first section (with the interviews with various women writers) was the best; innovative and informative, it really gave concrete examples of "Mary Sue-ing" in today's soceity. The blend of poetry, prose, and nonfiction was at its best here: her blending of genre the real achievement emerging from the entirety.
Her poems, at times, were confused and overconcerned with themselves and with taking on a role that they then lost themselves in, to the reader's distress and distrust. Many poems read with the utmost cryptic behavior (which was ironic for Collins is trying to address issues that need clearer examples to correctly identify and then inform the reader). One successful poem was about a woman finding a bag of ham in a river and taking a bite to only then let it go down the river. This, of course, is a metaphor for a placenta, of the mother (ultimately) rejecting this duty or the idea that she must someday perform this tradition/ritual.
I was blown away when I realized this and naturally thought I had missed all other sorts of similar allusions. Because, in another earlier section, there is a conversation between three committee members (two men, one woman) about college enrollment, and the men dislike the "weird or strange" writing of several women applicants (obviously not understanding their "feminine" observations and contemplations). With that in mind, the book was still odd and left me bereft of any final answers to Who this Mary Sue is, though I do understand what it traditional is a portrayal of.
Though I think that the topics of "women in society" and how they are perceived (especially female writers) are important, this collection did not fulfill what it set out to do. The first section (with the interviews with various women writers) was the best; innovative and informative, it really gave concrete examples of "Mary Sue-ing" in today's soceity. The blend of poetry, prose, and nonfiction was at its best here: her blending of genre the real achievement emerging from the entirety.
Her poems, at times, were confused and overconcerned with themselves and with taking on a role that they then lost themselves in, to the reader's distress and distrust. Many poems read with the utmost cryptic behavior (which was ironic for Collins is trying to address issues that need clearer examples to correctly identify and then inform the reader). One successful poem was about a woman finding a bag of ham in a river and taking a bite to only then let it go down the river. This, of course, is a metaphor for a placenta, of the mother (ultimately) rejecting this duty or the idea that she must someday perform this tradition/ritual.
I was blown away when I realized this and naturally thought I had missed all other sorts of similar allusions. Because, in another earlier section, there is a conversation between three committee members (two men, one woman) about college enrollment, and the men dislike the "weird or strange" writing of several women applicants (obviously not understanding their "feminine" observations and contemplations). With that in mind, the book was still odd and left me bereft of any final answers to Who this Mary Sue is, though I do understand what it traditional is a portrayal of.
March 14, 2018
books of this type always fascinate me... a not-so-random assemblage of things - photos, poems, quotations, ideas, ramblings, selected textual fragments, commentary - that falls under a title referencing the assumed autobiographical nature of fiction by females... and strangely, one is led to the uncomfortable question/thought of reiterating the premise here... i say this knowing it matters not in the least, but more as a thought that occurs... with Foucault, i try, in vain at times, to disregard the author (when appropriate) and read the text as text, not as personal outpourings and sketches of the author's life in published form... but at the same time, the idea at present is to (over?)value the text BECAUSE of the author (is the text/experience/tale "authentic"? can THIS author write about THAT? who decides what is authentic? tough questions, these.)... i dislike the idea an author can only write "from experience" since part of fiction is the fictive nature of the narrative (it's not supposed to be taken as factual, unless you mean that in the sense the narrative is factually real, a real book, so to speak)... still, this book is captivating and thought-provoking and hard... something you could pull out and read somewhere and then reconsider your surroundings as a result of the text... who knows, who the author really is and does it even matter???
November 27, 2018
Coined by Paula Smith in 1973, 'Mary Sue' is perjorative term used by writers and readers of fan fiction to describe protagonists who are believed to be thinly disguised version of the fan fic author's idealised self.
There is no outright consensus as to Mary Sue's character type.
Invariably, however,
Mary Sue is female;
she is said to be difficult to identify with, poorly constructed, without depth;
she is associated with narcissism and/or wish fulfillment.
Sophie Collins explores this literary trope in a mix of prose and poetry, what it means to create and write as a woman and the amount of societal suffocation female writers endure in order to realize their work.
We say we love each other but we eat each other up.
I adored the layout of this book. Collins' writing is at first glance detached and academic, but in actuality is cutting and leaves you reeling.
There is no outright consensus as to Mary Sue's character type.
Invariably, however,
Mary Sue is female;
she is said to be difficult to identify with, poorly constructed, without depth;
she is associated with narcissism and/or wish fulfillment.
Sophie Collins explores this literary trope in a mix of prose and poetry, what it means to create and write as a woman and the amount of societal suffocation female writers endure in order to realize their work.
We say we love each other but we eat each other up.
I adored the layout of this book. Collins' writing is at first glance detached and academic, but in actuality is cutting and leaves you reeling.
March 16, 2019
There's a great deal that I liked and appreciated about this book - especially in the shorter verse pieces, some really surprising images and movements that get right to the point without being on the nose - quite a skill. There's also a fine sense of uncanniness and haunting of the 'I' / eye, religion, transformation which I liked.
I appreciate the broader project of trying to put back what is lost in the figure of the 'Mary Sue'. At the same time I feel a little bit tired by so much that is referential to a self that is enmeshed in poetics, literary criticism etc - it slightly reminded me of the parts of Nuar Alsadir's 'First Person Singular' that went into complex explanations of what the work is doing. I don't think this is BAD per se - just not my bag at the moment, I would like more roughness and movement.
I appreciate the broader project of trying to put back what is lost in the figure of the 'Mary Sue'. At the same time I feel a little bit tired by so much that is referential to a self that is enmeshed in poetics, literary criticism etc - it slightly reminded me of the parts of Nuar Alsadir's 'First Person Singular' that went into complex explanations of what the work is doing. I don't think this is BAD per se - just not my bag at the moment, I would like more roughness and movement.
September 17, 2018
Sophie Collins’ debut collection ‘Who Is Mary Sue?’ was one of my most anticipated releases of 2018 after reading some of her poems in the first Penguin Modern Poets set. The collection, with its formal scope and thematic precision, is like a poetic pick-and-mix prompting shifting responses to questions about female identity, especially in art/creation. The titular poem (/“prose collage”) is perhaps chief amongst the poems in terms of engaging with these questions, teasing out some of the nuance and laying everything out for the reader. But it’s ultimately (the?) ‘Postface’ that leaves the deepest impression, wrapping up identity and shame and longing and being lost, on the turning point from dejection to hope and resolve.
August 9, 2023
ik snap niet zo goed waarom dit als dichtbundel is neergezet... ik vond zelf de geciteerde fragmenten van andere schrijvers en meer essay-achtige stukken veel interessanter dan de gedichten zelf en denk dat ik het boek veel interessanter had gevonden als het alleen dit was. de combinatie van verschillende soorten schriftelijke elementen vond ik alleen maar verwarrend werken, waardoor ik veel denk ik niet goed heb begrepen.
het onderwerp is daarentegen wel heel erg interessant (ik kende zelf het begrip 'mary sue' nog helemaal niet) en ik zie de potentie hiervan wel in, maar misschien was het niet echt voor mij.
het onderwerp is daarentegen wel heel erg interessant (ik kende zelf het begrip 'mary sue' nog helemaal niet) en ik zie de potentie hiervan wel in, maar misschien was het niet echt voor mij.
May 14, 2018
I felt like there was a lot of content in this book that I didn't understand and this is definitely influencing my three star rating. I loved the mixture of prose and poetry and the insights on women writing fiction and women in fiction. Some parts spoke to me on an emotional level and left me awe-struck, but some parts only left me terribly confused. Maybe that was the intent or maybe I should read a lot more books before getting all the references. I might reread this book again in a year or so; I imagine this is the kind of book that should just 'click'.
August 8, 2018
While I really enjoyed the title poem and the whole discussion of female writers, the rest of the collection just went right over my head and I didn't really get anything out of it. Maybe I'd enjoy this more on a second read and get more out of it, but for now I want to move onto other collections of poetry.
Read
February 18, 2022collins' poems are interesting hybrids that, i think, work quite well to examine female writers' relationships with their work and to the 'I' at the centre of it.
some of the interconnected poems, specifically 'the engine', didn't interest me as much as others, but i found them all interesting in their sparseness.
some of the interconnected poems, specifically 'the engine', didn't interest me as much as others, but i found them all interesting in their sparseness.
August 5, 2023
love the concept but so much of it went straight over my head, might have to reread in a few months slash years to really be able to understand it all
one of my favourite passages:
"The village is always on fire.
Men stay away from the kitchens,
take up in outhouses with concrete floors,
while the women — soot in their hair —
initiate the flames into their small routines."
one of my favourite passages:
"The village is always on fire.
Men stay away from the kitchens,
take up in outhouses with concrete floors,
while the women — soot in their hair —
initiate the flames into their small routines."
January 5, 2019
I found a lot of the poems in this collection confusing and did not really understand them. There were a few that I liked. They included ,"Healers," "Untitled," "A Course in Miracles," "Ed," and "Postface." Also I loved the title poem.
February 18, 2019
Is good pomes. (Including prose pomes.) The modern versiciste of today is often (as here) as much interested in the play of discursive registers as in metrical formalisms, but I am after all a broad church and I am fine with that.
April 9, 2019
A writier's writer but nonetheless, Sophie Collin's 'Who Is Mary Sue?' is everything I want poetry to be in 2019. Within 5 lines the author had made the hairs on my arms stand up, and she keeps her ethos consistent.
June 20, 2023
'I was able to fall asleep anywhere except in my own bed.'
'my only reading was of signs, but I read a lot of signs.'
'the house was dim and very cold. I felt my nipples gone white, distended. They were incredibly painful, and I worried about a more permanent loss of sensation.'
'my only reading was of signs, but I read a lot of signs.'
'the house was dim and very cold. I felt my nipples gone white, distended. They were incredibly painful, and I worried about a more permanent loss of sensation.'
September 9, 2025
Only 3 stars bc tbh most of the poems went over my head but either way it’s an insightful book on the struggles female authors face based on sexist narratives and misogynistic ideology that belittle their writing - so imo still a good read
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews