Emma Ensley’s collection of short stories, The Computer Room, proves that there are still a few out there with a sense of humor. This book is a must read for Millennials and Gen-Z although readers from any generation (yes, Boomers you will relate as well) would appreciate Ensley’s stories. Prepare to be transported back in time to dial-up internet, Blockbuster Video, Sims, The Back Street Boys, Myspace (why did we get rid of it?) and the Heidi/Spencer/Lauren (OMG!) drama that played out on MTV’s Laguna Beach. Though the stories, witty and light-hearted, depict a more innocent time, hanging over the reader is the knowledge that there was a “before” and we now are the “after.” What was touted to be the communication era was actually the advent of a communication breakdown.
Dawn Major: As a rule, I never use LOL. I am, however, making an exception for you because I was LOLing the entire time I was reading your book. Yet even though many of your stories are upbeat and simply hilarious, I also felt like you were using humor to comment on bigtime social and cultural issues: anorexia in “ur such an inspiration,” closeted homosexuality in “Cousins,” young kids trying to make sense of religion via fan fiction in “Is Any1 a Christian???” and the replacement of the nuclear family with a SIM family in your title story. Humor is a wonderful way to engage readers without force-feeding them and you did an incredible balancing act with your stories.
But in an age where it feels like you have to be so careful with your words fearful of being offensive did you ever find yourself backing off? How did you balance addressing really serious issues with comedy?
Emma Ensley
Emma Ensley: I’m so honored. I love to read these stories aloud and hear people laughing—it’s been one of the most meaningful parts of releasing this book. I honestly didn’t think too much about being offensive. When it came to the topics you mentioned—anorexia, homosexuality, and complicated relationships to religion—these were all things I grappled with as a younger person, and I think just writing honestly about my own experiences helped me feel secure in what I was saying.
Each of my narrators is a bit like me, while also being a bit of a fictionalized version of me. They each have their flaws and limited perspectives, but they are all seeking something beyond the world and community they’ve grown up in—a goal that the internet helps them achieve. The humor, I think, came naturally from the gap between what felt monumentally important to my younger self and what actually mattered, and from the earnestness with which young people approach everything. Growing up is just really funny! You’re constantly realigning your worldview in such a sincere way. I think I’ve managed to stay connected to that feeling in a way that fades for a lot of people as they get older.
DM: Many of your stories foreshadow what I referred to in my introduction as a communication breakdown. Of course, that’s my opinion but do you agree we are in a communication breakdown or has communication simply evolved? And considering that every reader has their one takeaway (for me, a commentary on communication) what are some other themes you explored in your collection?
EE: I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Shortly after my book came out, I spoke to a freshman writing class nearby and one student asked if my relationship to, or views on, the internet had changed. My gut reaction was to say no, to defend the internet and say that despite the current world we live in, I feel the internet is still a net positive—something that connects people and builds bridges where there would otherwise be none. A place that has brought me friendships and community and opened up my world in ways I couldn’t have imagined. But, man, I don’t know. The internet is also a dark, dark place and getting darker. I do think that tipping point, that communication breakdown you speak of, has occurred and we are living in its aftermath now. I wrote this book because coming of age in the early internet era shaped me—mostly positively, sometimes negatively, sometimes just humorously. I don’t know what it’s like to grow up now where the internet is everywhere, but I know what it’s like to exist with the current internet as an adult and it is daunting and overwhelming and scary. So yes, it’s deeply complicated.
As for other themes—beyond communication, I was really interested in identity formation and the way young people try on different versions of themselves. The internet gave us this incredible laboratory for that. I also explored loneliness and the search for belonging, particularly for kids who felt like outsiders in their immediate communities. And there’s a thread throughout about the gap between how we want to be seen and who we actually are.
DM:
Day 8: The song that feels like the first cold day in early October and it makes you want to cry from nostalgia but also smile with hope for the future and the combination makes your arm hairs tingle–though it could just be the cooler weather doing that.
– “30-Day Song Challenge”
That line in particular hit me with a wave of nostalgia. But your whole collection felt nostalgic to me and even deliberately so. It was like opening a time capsule. And my God, the amount of time I spent picking the perfect background and “soundtrack” for my Myspace page is embarrassing.
Do you think your role as a writer is to immortalize a time period or even a generation? Were these the moments that shaped you as a writer. Is this a loss of innocence collection?
EE: I have a complicated relationship to nostalgia and I do think this collection explores that. I
also think being a kid/teen and literally coming of age during the internet’s rise was a unique experience. But I don’t think I’m immortalizing a generation, per se. One of my favorite things about releasing this book has been hearing other people’s niche internet stories. They’re all so different but feel related, these moments of coming up against yourself, your identity, sometimes just having fun. It was a special time that I do miss and feel lucky to have such strong memories of.
DM:
My Sim is pregnate again because I made her Woo-Hoo in the heart-shaped hot tub nine times in a row until her sleep bar was so low, she had to take a nap and missed her job at the newspaper. – “The Computer Room”
Dawn Major
I about died laughing when I read that line and then I realized that this was the same infamous hot tub from your cover and furthermore that you illustrated your own cover. That’s so awesome but not necessarily the norm with authors and publishers.
Two questions. 1. What was it like not only getting your collection published but also getting your own illustration on the cover? 2. Here’s the chicken and the egg question. Since you are also an illustrator, did the image inspire the story or did the story inspire the image?
EE: Thank you! The hot tub felt like the perfect symbol for the whole collection. It’s cozy and inviting but also pixelated and artificial, a little too adult for the kids playing with it. My original idea was to just take the exact Sims 2 hot tub but after some concerns with copyright, my publisher and I decided it was best if I recreated it. My day job is graphic design, so having control on what my final cover looked like was really important to me and I’m lucky I was allowed that control.
DM: I’ve passed Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, GA, the Cabbage Patch doll factory, so many times but I’ve never visited. Total bucket list after reading your story. I must share. When Cabbage Patch kids came out my mom claimed she wouldn’t buy me one because she thought they were ugly. The truth at that time my family was struggling; we couldn’t afford one. All my friends had them and I was so jealous. And then my mom did the unthinkable she had a fake one made!! I told my husband that story and a couple of years ago he bought me the real deal. I’m 53 years old. How sad am I?
I loved, loved, loved “Babyland.” That’s a short story writer’s dream story. Beyond the humorous aspect there’s a real creepiness when you think about that place. I got this pseudo-Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale vibe. Was that just me?
Who is your go-to short story writer? Or writers. Favorite collections?
EE: That story about your husband is so sweet…you deserved that Cabbage Patch Kid! I’m so happy to hear the love for “Babyland.” I went to Babyland General once as a kid and only much later in life did I start to question it – wondering at one point if I had imagined the whole thing. A couple of years ago, my partner and I went to a wedding nearby in Helen, Georgia and stopped in and it was even wackier than I remember. I took a lot of videos which helped with writing that story.
It’s definitely a creepy story! You’re not wrong there. Some of my favorite short story collections are “Trash” by Dorothy Allison, “Earth Angel” by Madeline Cash and “Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Machado. Some of my favorite recent books, in general, are Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas, Tell Me I’m an Artist by Chelsea Martin and Brutes by Dizz Tate.
DM: Are you currently working on anything new that you’d like to share with our readers?
EE: I’m working on something longer, a novella or possibly even novel, about an AV kid who films the morning announcements getting roped into filming reality TV in the early 2000s. I’ve had a lot of fun with it. Apparently I can’t stay away from the time period.
DM: Thanks for the interview and on behalf of Southern Literary Review, best of luck with The Computer Room and your future writing (and illustrating) endeavors.
EE: Thank you so much!!! <3
About the Author
Emma Ensley is a fiction writer, artist, and graphic designer living in Asheville, North Carolina. She grew up in North Georgia and on the internet, and considers both places equally influential to her work. Her short fiction has appeared in Joyland, XRAY, and Peach Mag. Her collection The Computer Room was published with Loblolly Press in September 2025.
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