The Good Witch of the Northwest

With the release of a scorching new book and the return of her hit show, writer Lindy West finds herself at a crossroads - what happens when you don't have to be shrill anymore?

- ERIC SPITZNAGEL

Lindy West is sitting in a director’s chair — so big, she says, it’s “almost a hammock” — in a Portland, Oregon warehouse filled with cameras and an inordinate number of crew members with handlebar mustaches. As she glances up at the monitors, watching actors repeat lines she helped write, she reflects on her hypothetical death.

“I was exhausted, but I felt proud of myself,” she says of a recent six-mile mountain hike across often treacherous terrain. As she was traversing a high, narrow trail, she crossed paths with three other hikers, all young and fit.

“I had this realization that if one of them accidentally bumped me off the trail and I tumbled down this ravine, and if someone caught it on video, people would think it was funny,” she says. “It wouldn’t be ‘Woman Tragically Plummets to Her Death.’ It would be ‘Look at the Fatty Roll.’ ”

It’s hard to know whether to laugh or nod grimly when West shares stories like this. The 37-year-old writer and producer has made a career of this balancing act, pointing out injustice while also being one of the most uproarious social critics of her generation.

Dressed in a Queen T-shirt knotted at the belly and a form-fitting leopardskin skirt, West exudes fabulousness with just a hint of I’m not entirely sure about this. She’s also exhausted. They’re in the final weeks of shooting the second season of Shrill, a series inspired by her best-selling essay collection of the same name. (The show returns to Hulu in January.) The first season was beloved by both critics and viewers, and the show was promptly renewed. The pressure is on to keep the bar high.