What happens when your experience with death becomes thething you write about?
In Episode Two of Writers & Worlds, Madam Lether sitsdown with writer, designer and former funeral professional Cecil Fenn.
Originally from New York, Cecil apprenticed in embalming andworked in the funeral industry before moving across the Atlantic and retrainingin theatre. Their work continues to draw heavily on those experiences,exploring grief, death, the body, illness, queerness and the strange ways wetry to make sense of being human.
The conversation also dives into Cecil's debut novel, TheRestorative Artist, a contemporary gothic novel following an accomplishedembalmer whose own illness and grief begin to unravel his relationship with hiswork, his past and the dead he has built his life around.
Madam Lether and Cecil talk funeral work, writing from livedexperience, our relationship with mortality, creating horror from the body, andwhat it takes to turn all of that into a debut novel.
The Restorative Artist is out now from Lucent Dreaming.
Writers & Worlds with Madam Lether
A PrideXtra Original.
The Restorative Artist is out now. Pick up your copy usingthe links below:
The Restorative Artist by CecilFenn (Preorder Paperback, 2026) – Lucent Dreaming
The Restorative Artist a bookby Cecil Fenn - Bookshop.org UKThe Restorative Artist:Amazon.co.uk: Fenn, Cecil: 9781916632240: Books
Music Notice: All music contained in this episode consistsof original recordings created for Writers & Worlds and released by MadamLether. Music featured includes “Writers & Worlds – Main Theme” and“Between the Pages: A Writers & Worlds Theme,” composed by TheodoreBathhouse & Madam Lether. No third-party commercial music is used in thisepisode.
AI Notice: No generative AI was used in the creation,writing, recording, or production of this episode.
