English Teacher Sarah Sawyer discusses writing, motherhood, and her debut novel
As an English teacher for 24 years and the founder and director of 91大神鈥檚 Writing Center, Sarah Sawyer has taught thousands of students to express themselves through writing. At the same time, she鈥檚 been busy writing novels herself, including The Undercurrent, forthcoming this October via Zibby Books. Set in Texas, her novel follows a new mother, who is facing the boredom and exhaustion of early parenthood. She becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of a girl who went missing in her neighborhood when she was a kid, uncovering secrets from her own past along the way. Sawyer says that publishing a book is a long-held dream, although she didn鈥檛 start penning long works of fiction until after she turned forty. Her advice for emerging writers: 鈥淭he most fun part is writing the book. That excitement, hair-on-fire, typing-away feeling is the reason to do it.鈥
What inspired The Undercurrent?
A lot of it has to do with watching my own daughter grow up. It鈥檚 so amazing to see the number of shifts that girls go through in their lives. This kind of radical reinvention happens over and over again. Your body changes so dramatically: You鈥檙e a girl, and then you鈥檙e something in between a girl and a woman, and then you鈥檙e a woman, and then you鈥檙e possibly a mother, and then you鈥檙e perimenopausal. There are so many adjustments to your personhood.
Why did you examine the notion of boredom and motherhood?
I was so bored! I love my children, and I actually really love babies, but the hours of caring for a newborn were so long. And that, in combination with the sleeplessness鈥擨 just literally could not believe it. I thought, 鈥淲as this what my own mother did?鈥 It feels like a form of insanity, because you鈥檙e in this weird state of solitude, but you鈥檙e actually with another person. And you have the world telling you it鈥檚 a precious, wonderful time, and that if you鈥檙e not enjoying every second, there鈥檚 something wrong with you.
How has teaching students to write influenced your own writing?
I find it really satisfying to give my students feedback and give them the tools鈥攍ogic and precision鈥攖o help them express themselves. I鈥檝e noticed that as an adult, I鈥檓 not as open to feedback as they are. Putting myself in that spot has been really interesting. What does it mean to take somebody鈥檚 suggestion, even if you don鈥檛 totally understand it or see the end point? It makes me appreciate even more when my students say, 鈥淥K, I鈥檒l try the thing that you鈥檙e asking me to do.鈥
What鈥檚 your approach to writing and being an author?
I had a brief and lovely email correspondence with George Saunders about his book A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, which I loved. I emailed him to tell him how much I loved it, and he wrote me back, which was so kind. I was talking about writing books, editing books, and not selling books, at the time. And he said, 鈥淵ou have to proceed with joy, not fear.鈥 I wrote that down on a Post-it note that鈥檚 now on my desk. I鈥檓 trying to proceed with joy, as opposed to resistance and fear and all those things that are not productive. In terms of inspiring myself as a writer, it comes from reading and thinking, 鈥淲hat are the places that wake my heart up a little bit? And how could
I frame them?鈥
What are you reading?
The latest by Tana French: The Hunter. I love me some Tana French.
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