Chat #11 - Amy S. Kaufman
"Find your fellow weirdos"
Amy S. Kaufman is the author of The Traitor of Sherwood Forest, a Robin Hood retelling based on the medieval ballads (Penguin Books, 2025). Amy holds a PhD in medieval literature and has written about the Middle Ages for both academic journals and popular websites, including The Washington Post. She is co-author of The Devil’s Historians: How Modern Extremists Abuse the Medieval Past (University of Toronto Press, 2020).
29/10/2025, 20:06 - Finbarre: Amy S Kaufman! Welcome to Tarot DMs from wherever you are in the world! Where... are you on the globe at the moment?
29/10/2025, 20:07 - Amy S. Kaufman: Hi Finbarre! I’m in lovely Vancouver, BC.
29/10/2025, 20:08 - Finbarre: I have never had the pleasure of visiting, but some good friends of mine escaped from Nottingham and went all the way to your part of the world and I have to say (along with most folks) that it looks utterly splendid there. Especially this time of year. What have you been up to today?
29/10/2025, 20:09 - Amy S. Kaufman: Oh fantastic - whereas I live here and write about Nottingham! It’s International Robin Hood Day today, so it’s a good day to talk! (Although I admit I spent the morning working on a new novel that has nothing to do with Robin Hood.)
29/10/2025, 20:11 - Finbarre: It’s International Robin Hood Day? My wife and kids went out camping near Sherwood forest over the last few days. Taking bows and cloaks and the like. One second, I’ll show you one of my tinies wandering mysteriously through the trees
29/10/2025, 20:11 - Finbarre:
29/10/2025, 20:12 - Finbarre: They will be buzzing that this special day fell on the same week. Is there something we’re supposed to do to celebrate?
29/10/2025, 20:14 - Amy S. Kaufman: What a perfect image! I was going to ask whether it’s a big celebration where you are, but I guess the answer is no. I think I’m probably the only person in Vancouver to know it’s happening.
Although there are some Robin Hood fans here in BC - look at this neighbourhood I was in last week!
29/10/2025, 20:14 - Amy Kaufman:
There was even a deer waiting for me.
29/10/2025, 20:17 - Finbarre: Next to Jester’s Way too no less! That looks like such a wonderfully leafy neighbourhood. You can tell it is fancy because even the deer looks a little peeved. An expression of “Well, excuse me!”
29/10/2025, 20:20 - Amy S. Kaufman: The whole area has Robin Hood themed streets - Maid Marian, Nottingham, etc. And some of the houses are in the millions (ironically) so yes, this is a very fancy deer!
29/10/2025, 20:21 - Finbarre: Speaking of horned beasties (yes, I know that’s a doe but I’m trying my best for a segue) I have your first card here for you Amy and I’m afraid we’re still in Devil Season. This one being from the “Modern Witch Tarot” by Lisa Sterle https://www.lisasterle.com/mwt
29/10/2025, 20:21 - Finbarre:
29/10/2025, 20:21 - Amy S. Kaufman: Oh those cards are *awesome*!
29/10/2025, 20:22 - Amy Kaufman: I absolutely love these! I have to get them.
29/10/2025, 20:23 - Finbarre: Aren’t they? One of those saw-and-bought-in-minutes decks that is responsible for my shelves being full of card-sized boxes.
29/10/2025, 20:23 - Finbarre: So, your question. Have you encountered forces (academic inertia, commercial pressure, ideological misuse of history) that you felt constrained by?
29/10/2025, 20:24 - Finbarre: I wrote that and realised this is something you could talk about all day. Ah, no regrets - I’d love to hear your thoughts.
29/10/2025, 20:29 - Amy S. Kaufman: I’ll try to stay focused, but yes, that’s dissertation-level territory!
It’s interesting though - I have had this on my mind a lot over the last few days when it comes to my creative work, specifically. Over the last few years, writing fiction transitioned from something I did for myself, playful and experimental, to something that had to be monetized and sold. And while I’m really lucky to have made that shift, I have also felt incredibly constrained by the marketing side of things, and by the market itself. So I guess capitalism is the big, bad constraining force in this situation.
29/10/2025, 20:30 - Amy S. Kaufman: I particularly like the institutionalist chains in the version of the card you have there. That feels fitting.
29/10/2025, 20:32 - Finbarre: Reading your reply there I was thinking that playfulness is a wonderful way to loosen those chains and blur the line between art and market. You mentioned that you were working on a new project this morning, are you able to give any clues as to what it is about?
29/10/2025, 20:32 - Finbarre: Or is it super secret?
29/10/2025, 20:35 - Amy S. Kaufman: I can give a few clues, although it’s mostly secret - it’s a comedy set in the 1990s! So the playfulness is definitely there, although we are also getting it ready to sell. I’m trying to forget about the market side of things to get into the spirit of it.
I’m cracking myself up writing it, although if experience is any indicator, that may mean absolutely nothing!
29/10/2025, 20:37 - Finbarre: You just had me thinking about that line in the Matrix where the 1990s are depicted as being the peak of human civilization. Are you listening to any good 90s tracks while you’re coming up with ideas for the story?
29/10/2025, 20:42 - Amy S. Kaufman: Oh, so many 90s tracks! I’m listening every single day! I’d forgotten how good some of the music was - and how absolutely awful some of it was. Pearl Jam, Filter, 90s hip hop: better than I remember. All those loud yelling guy bands that blend into one: worse than I remember.
(As for The Matrix, I’m sure I scoffed at that movie line when I saw it, but I feel a whole lot differently about it 25 years later.)
29/10/2025, 20:43 - Finbarre: *currently bopping in my chair to Groove Is In The Heart by Deee-Lite thanks to you*
29/10/2025, 20:43 - Amy S. Kaufman: YESSSSS! Classic! *sigh* We had so much fun back then!
29/10/2025, 20:44 - Finbarre: (I have never listened to Filter though, I’ll give them a go afterwards)
29/10/2025, 20:44 - Amy S. Kaufman: I did kind of like those edgier bands. Though my taste is/was all over the place.
29/10/2025, 20:45 - Finbarre: Time for your second card and I would like to try something different. With this being The Wild Card that is picked while we speak, I would usually shuffle the deck and wait for you to tell me to stop. I’m going to reverse it. Could you grab yourself a deck, start giving them an overhand shuffle and I’ll say when to pick one?
29/10/2025, 20:45 - Amy S. Kaufman: yes! okay, starting now.
29/10/2025, 20:46 - Finbarre: Stop
29/10/2025, 20:46 - Finbarre: Take a snap of it. Hope you pulled a good ‘un
29/10/2025, 20:48 - Amy S. Kaufman: Hmm. I forgot how many of these cards are naked😳. Okay. censor at will.
29/10/2025, 20:48 - Amy S. Kaufman:
29/10/2025, 20:49 - Finbarre: These folks weren’t appropriately dressed either, we’re OK
29/10/2025, 20:49 - Amy S. Kaufman: Oh right! I’m so used to naked cards, I didn’t even notice.
29/10/2025, 20:50 - Finbarre: Temperance eh? A card of healing, for diplomacy over extremes. Thoughtfulness, sustainability. Never a pull you necessarily want but one you always need! Let me think…
29/10/2025, 20:51 - Finbarre: Thinking of your book The Traitor of Sherwood Forest, how do you keep your work accessible to general readers?
29/10/2025, 20:54 - Amy S. Kaufman: Hmmm interesting because in some ways, that’s been the struggle: most people go in expecting the heroic Robin Hood of childhood, and finding the medieval one in my book - who is much more of a grey character - has been jarring to some people.
29/10/2025, 20:55 - Finbarre: I did see this comment on Goodreads “I really appreciate the candor of an author willing to admit that a man can be both a reprehensible weirdo and still sort of alluring”
29/10/2025, 20:57 - Amy S. Kaufman: Oh, that’s gold. I missed that one! (I generally try to avoid reviews because of my sensitive little writer heart, but I don’t mind the good things.)
I think it definitely helps when I talk about the inspiration behind the project - the story I wanted to tell (or stories, since my main character, Jane, is my own invention and I delve into each of the Merry Men and the sheriff as well). But ultimately, well - is it okay to twist your question about this card a little bit?
29/10/2025, 20:58 - Finbarre: Of course!
29/10/2025, 21:01 - Amy S. Kaufman: I think the balance and sustainability I’m looking for is not to try to please everyone. I’ve learned since release that there are people who this story speaks to deeply, and others who find it’s not what they’re looking for, and that has to be okay. Especially as I’m working on the next project: trying to find that magic formula to get every reader to love your story is inevitably going to water down your work. In fact, I say that now in my book tour stops when people ask me advice on writing retellings: “You can’t please everyone. All you can do is tell _your_ version of the story, and find your readers.”
29/10/2025, 21:03 - Amy S. Kaufman: There is so much focus on market and social media presence and reviews nowadays that it can have a chilling effect, but I think we can also miss the readers we really connect to if we’re focusing on sheer numbers. And I can see I’m in danger of sounding like those cranky ‘no one reads literature anymore!’ guys, which is not what I mean. It’s more like: find your fellow weirdos.
29/10/2025, 21:07 - Finbarre: Oh absolutely, this is part of the reason why I love speaking to fellow weirdos around the world - especially the ones that mention bands I had completely forgotten about. I’m listening to Jurassitol by Filter at your recommendation here and realising I heard this way back when in The Crow 2! Finding ways around the social networks and building connections without Mr Zuckerberg or Musk feels liberating! Chatting to real readers who are holding your book in their hands must be >amazing<
29/10/2025, 21:09 - Amy S. Kaufman: You know, I don’t think I ever saw 2! Or if I did, I don’t remember it. But the original The Crow soundtrack is fantastic, if you haven’t listened in a while.
And yes, the conversations with readers have been so fulfilling! I am all in on finding ways to talk without social media, because I am really genuinely terrible at social media.
29/10/2025, 21:12 - Finbarre: Your third card Amy was picked by my last guest, the graphic designer and illustrator Frank Duffy (who makes amazing folk-art style linocuts) and this is one they created themselves
29/10/2025, 21:13 - Finbarre:
29/10/2025, 21:14 - Amy S. Kaufman: Oh, that’s beautiful!
29/10/2025, 21:17 - Finbarre: That blue! Traditionally this is a call to rise above the past, or standing at a crossroads. Honesty and courageous evolution. Somehow the shift in tone in Frank’s card captures that holiness too.
29/10/2025, 21:18 - Amy S. Kaufman: It really is an inspirational card - his version of it, I mean. It’s very reassuring!
29/10/2025, 21:18 - Finbarre: Your last tarot question. In your creative journey, what was the most memorable second chance you were offered?
29/10/2025, 21:22 - Amy S. Kaufman: This is an easy one for me: the chance to start a second career at middle age.
I used to be a tenured professor in Georgia and Tennessee, spinning out academic articles while wistfully dreaming about writing novels. And then I dropped it all to move out west and pursue writing. There was absolutely no guarantee that this was going to work! And sometimes I’m in total disbelief that it actually did. It feels like an impossible gift.
29/10/2025, 21:24 - Finbarre: This is the absolute dream that you read about on Substack (and take with a pinch of salt that people do this) but you DID this? How long ago did you make that choice?
29/10/2025, 21:25 - Finbarre: Giggling over 90s silliness must be a far better way of spending your day that marking yet another essay.
29/10/2025, 21:29 - Amy S. Kaufman: A long time ago! I think it’s been about 8 years since I resigned teaching, and everything since then has been a slow process: I did some history writing and editing and an academic book in between, so it took me a while to really let go of the old career. But I started querying... let’s see, 5 years ago, signed with an agent in 2021, signed with Penguin in 2023, and the first book came out in 2025. Publishing is VERY slow and you have to be patient!
29/10/2025, 21:30 - Amy S. Kaufman: You also have to take some hits: the book I signed with my agent for didn’t get sold (yet). Everything is about persistence.
As for teaching, yes, giggling over 90s silliness _is_ much more fun than marking! But I really do miss my students. I’ve been trying to think about ways to get the teaching bit back without the marking - or the department meetings. I definitely don’t miss the department meetings!
29/10/2025, 21:34 - Finbarre: Amy the time has flown by and hearing that it is never too late to roll the dice to what makes you happy has put a big grin on my face, thank you! Could you pull a card for the next person I speak to on Tarot DMs (hopefully they won’t be offended by your deck of nudists) I’ll share the image when I chat with them, and say it’s from you of course.
29/10/2025, 21:36 - Amy S. Kaufman:
29/10/2025, 21:37 - Amy S. Kaufman: A happy card! Although Motherpeace has mixed feelings about it, as you can see (because patriarchy).
29/10/2025, 21:37 - Finbarre: ORLY! That will make for some very interesting reading indeed.
29/10/2025, 21:40 - Finbarre: If readers of this are fascinated by the idea of a devilishly devious Robin Hood and how he underestimates the star of the story, Jane Crowe, where is the best place for them to see your work?
29/10/2025, 21:41 - Amy S. Kaufman: They can use my universal buy link! (It says digital store, but it has paperback and audiobook links too.)
https://books2read.com/traitorofsherwood
29/10/2025, 21:42 - Amy S. Kaufman: They can also find me on Substack!
29/10/2025, 21:43 - Finbarre: Fab! Thank you for spending your time with me Amy - it has been lovely chatting today.
29/10/2025, 21:43 - Amy S. Kaufman: Thank you so much for the interview, and I hope I didn’t keep you too long! This has been an absolute delight.