Episode 191 Notes and Links to Sarah’s Work
On Episode 191 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Sarah Fawn Montgomery, and the two discuss, among other things, her early reading and writing, storytelling, growing up in Central California, the ways in which blue-collar Americans have been depicted-or not depicted in literature, and salient themes in her essay collection, like nostalgia, father-daughter relationships, cycles of poverty and violence and trauma, and evolving ideas of home.
Sarah Fawn Montgomery is the author of Halfway from Home (Split/Lip Press, 2022), Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir (The Ohio State University Press, 2018) and the poetry chapbooks Regenerate: Poems of Mad Women (Dancing Girl Press, 2017), Leaving Tracks: A Prairie Guide (Finishing Line Press, 2017), and The Astronaut Checks His Watch (Finishing Line Press, 2014). Her work has been listed as notable in Best American Essays many times, and her poetry and prose have appeared in Brevity, Crab Orchard Review, DIAGRAM, Electric Literature, LitHub, New England Review, The Normal School, Passages North, Poetry Foundation, The Rumpus, Southeast Review, Terrain, and numerous other journals and anthologies. She holds an MFA in creative writing from California State University-Fresno and a PhD in English in creative writing from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is an Associate Professor at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.
Buy Halfway from Home: Essays
Sarah's Website
Review of Halfway from Home: Essays from Kirkus Review
Split Rock Review-Review of Halfway from Home
At about 2:20, Sarah talks about her early relationships with reading and writing, and about how she wanted to write stories about often-overlooked working-class people
At about 4:20, Sarah cites some early favorite books and writers, and she analyzes the ways she reads a favorite, Joan Didion, now differently than she did then
At about 7:00, The two discuss class and how it is talked about in our society (or not) and represented in literature
At about 9:00, Sarah discusses how she got excited about writing-she shouts out to a high school teacher who gave a meaningful and transformative journal assignment and invited Sarah to keep writing
At about 13:00, Sarah references nonfiction writers who thrilled her in college-like Audre Lorde, Sandra Cisneros, and Jamaica Kincaid-and thrill her today, like Chen Chen, Ada Limón, Donika Kelly, Saeed Jones, Dorothy Chan, and torrin a. greathouse
At about 14:40, Sarah recounts the genesis of her Halfway From Home collection and answers Pete’s questions about making the individual essays cohere
At about 17:40, Pete summarizes the book’s first essay and its “dig sites” and focus on her father’s whimsy and her love of dirt-it’s called “Excavation”
At about 19:00, Sarah speaks to the significance of “excavation” in the first story and beyond
At about 21:00, Pete compliments the story’s “imagined ending” and Sarah speaks about its significance and background
At about 23:25, Sarah discusses the power and symbolism of fire and light, cold and darkness, as featured in her book
At about 26:10, The two discuss ideas of homes, serenity, and respite from traumas and chaos
At about 31:30, The two discuss her essay on cartography
At about 35:40, Pete muses
At about 37:00, The history of Sarah’s family in mines is discussed, along with the multiple meanings of “descendants”
At about 40:50, Sarah talks about “complicating humanity,” especially with regards to her grandfather and grandmother
At about 42:15, Pete asks about the end of an essay and how Sarah approached its second-person address
At about 44:20, The two discuss nostalgia and its connections to the essays, the intriguing concept of saudade, and nostalgia’s history as something to be discouraged
At about 48:35, Pete recounts how nostalgia has informed the podcast’s ethos
At about 50:45, Sarah confesses to being “anti-time” (!) and the two reference a classic Saved by the Bell scene
At about 54:45, Cycles of violence as depicted in the essay are examined
At about 56:45, Sarah reflects on how she sees and saw he father throughout her collection and in more recent times
At about 1:01:00, Pete notes the ways in which women in Sarah’s family are portrayed in her collection
At about 1:02:30, Pete compliments a beautiful scene with father and daughter and Sarah talks about the nostalgia associated with parents and childhood-Pete
At about 1:04:45, Sarah shares an interesting new project involving combatting ableist writing as default
At about 1:05:50, The two fan boy/girl over Alice Wong’s work
At about 1:06:15, Sarah shouts out her publisher Split Lip Press as a place to buy her book
At about 1:06:45, Sarah gives out social media/contact information
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Please tune in for Episode 192 with Donovan X Ramsey. He is a journalist, author, and indispensable voice on issues of identity, justice, and patterns of power in América; When Crack Was King: A People's History of a Misunderstood Era comes out on June 11, i.e. the day this episode with Sarah has been published.
The episode will air on July 18.
Episode 157 with Ilana Masad: Literary Critic, Former Podcaster, and Author of the Funny, Stirring, Meditative, and Thought-Provoking All My Mother’s Lovers
Episode 156 with Dr. Namrata Poddar, Extremely Well-Read Literary Critic, Professor, and Crafter of the Unique and Beautiful and Profound Border Less
Episode 155 with Robert Jones, Jr., Exemplary Literary Citizen, Reflective Changemaker, and Founder of the Powerful Son of Baldwin Platform and Author of 2021 National Book Award Nominee, The Prophets
Episode 154 with Ian MacAllen: Versatile Writer and Creator, Student of Foods and Cultures, and Author of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American
Episode 153 with Luivette Resto, 24/7 Poet, Wordsmith, Versatile and Profound Chronicler of Family and Home and Identity, and Writer of Living on Islands Not Found on Maps
Episode 152 with Tommy Dean: Master Editor, Reflective Teacher, and Craftsman and Student of Powerful Flash Fiction
Episode 151 with Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, National Book Award Nominee for Poetry for Look at This Blue and Renaissance Woman
Episode 150 with Elizabeth Williamson, The Reflective, Dogged, Balanced, and Well-Researched Journalist for The New York Times and Author of Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth
Episode 149 with Erika T. Wurth: Author of White Horse and Expert Student of, Teacher of, and Practitioner of Horror, Suspense, Psychological Thrillers, and More
Episode 148 with Chen Chen, Writer of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency and Brilliant Thinker, Craftsman, and Highly-Awarded and Esteemed Poet and Educator
Episode 147 with Jonathan Escoffery, Master Builder of Suspense, Empathy, Aversion, and Keen Chronicler of Survival, Identity, and More in The Masterful Collection, If I Survive You
Episode 146 with Sandy Ho, Discussing the Work and New Book (Year of the Tiger) of Alice Wong, Partner in Meaningful and Change-Inducing Work in Disability Circles and Beyond
Episode 145 with Vanessa A. Bee, Reflective, Creative, and Multitalented Writer of Home Bound: An Uprooted Daughter’s Reflections on Belonging
Episode 144 with Gustavo Barahona-López, Master Crafter and Chronicler of Grief, Masculinity, and Beauty in his Poetry Collection, Loss and Other Rivers that Devour
Episode 143 with Neema Avashia, Dedicated Educator, Mentor and Chronicler of Moving, Heartbreaking, and Reflective Stories in Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place
Episode 142 with Sadie Shorr-Parks, Lifelong Poet and Creator, Aesthete, and Educator, as Well as Author of the Wonderful Collection, Honey Month
Episode 141 with Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Brilliant Storyteller and Master of the Ethereal and the Concrete, and Author of the Stunning The Man Who Could Move Clouds
Episode 140 with Oscar Hokeah, Author of Calling for a Blanket Dance and Storyteller of the Old Made New, Subtle Master of Dialogue and Realism, and Builder of Unforgettable Characters
Episode 139 with Felicia Taylor E., Renaissance Woman, Creator, Storymaker, Raconteur, Poet, and Writer of Southern Spiced: A Brown Girl’s Tale
Episode 138 with Dr. Miguel Valerio, Brilliant Researcher and Student of Language, Philosophy, History, and author of Sovereign Joy: Afro-Mexican Kings and Queens, 1539-1640
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