Celebrating Pride month

I just had the immense pleasure of interviewing author Sarah Cypher about her book THE SKIN AND ITS GIRL.

This debut novel, set primarily on America’s west coast, celebrates life in a Palestinian family with the ups, downs, and complexities endemic to extended families; as well as the particular losses and displacements in this immigrant family. Further, the novel is a wonderfully inventive celebration of queerness.

In her interview, Cypher described three kinds of intimacies in writing fiction: (1) Intimacy of the characters with one another, (2) Intimacy of readers with the page, including the author’s role in bringing readers to the “dark side of the moon,” and (3) Intimacy of the writer with self—in the best of circumstances, writing brings us to new parts of our pasts and ourselves.

It’s clear that Cypher is a terrific writing teacher, because her insights around fiction and the exuberance of writing within the queer aesthetic are inspiring. Please listen to the full interview here.

Continuing the theme of immigrants and displacement, I interviewed Joan Leegant about her new short story collection, DISPLACED PERSONS. Leegant is a fluid and engaging writer whose collection divides into two parts. The first shows the perspective of Americans living temporarily in Israel, and the second, the perspective of Jewish immigrants in the US. I interviewed Leegant for Vol.1 Brooklyn here.

Finally, I enjoyed Caroline Leavitt’s fast-paced new novel, DAYS OF WONDER, which asks important questions about whether and how our society forgives people caught up in the criminal “justice” system. The book looks at the power of young love and the shame conferred by a penal system that slants toward the wealthy. I interviewed Leavitt for the Washington Independent Review of Books here.

Sending warm thoughts and wishing you cool days. Love, Martha

P.S. ICYMI, you can read last week’s newsletter, “On the intimacy of place,” here.