Episode 179 Notes and Links to Sarah Cypher’s Work
On Episode 179 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Sarah Cypher, and the two discuss, among other things, Sarah’s early reading and writing and the artistic gene she inherited, finding herself (or not) in her adolescent and college reading, the research needed for her book, Palestine as a muse, and motifs and themes of identity, the pull of home, exile, familial strife from her wonderful debut novel.
Sarah Cypher is a freelance book editor and author of The Skin and Its Girl. She has an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, where she was a Rona Jaffe Graduate Creative Writing Fellow in fiction. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, New Ohio Review, Majuscule, North American Review, LEON Literary Review, Crab Orchard Review, and others. She grew up in a Lebanese Christian family near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife.
Buy The Skin and its Girl
Sarah Cypher's Website
Sarah’s Substack
Kirkus Reviews for The Skin and its Girl
At about 2:20, Sarah talks about her mindset as the book comes out this week and her love for those helping with the cover (check out her Substack article about the cover process), editing, and promotion
At about 4:20, Sarah points to an artistic strain in her family and connects her writing and the book’s art
At about 5:20, Sarah gives background on her love of reading and writing and relationship with language growing up
At about 7:30, Sarah speaks about queerness as often treated as “unspeakable” when she was growing up and how she “found herself”
At about 9:30, Sarah discusses “resistance” in this time of banning books and censorship and homophobia
At about 11:30, Pete and Sarah get very grammary as Pete points out some subtleties that make Sarah’s book so good
At about 13:15, Sarah reflects on “exploring voices outside of [her] own”
At about 15:00, Sarah shouts out Patricia Engel, Rachel Cusk, and Katie Kitamura, among others, as some of her favorite and inspiring contemporary writers
At about 17:40, Sarah responds to Pete’s question about muse(s) for her project and research and seeds for the book by giving background on the book’s history and her own life experiences as a second-generation Arab-American (“before 9/11 and after 9/11”)
At about 22:00, Sarah details her connection to the famous soap from Nablus in Palestine
At about 24:15, Pete quotes the book’s epigraph and asks Sarah about its significance to “return” and home
At about 26:10, Sarah speaks to the book as “epistolary/” “direct address” and muses on how queer literature often uses direct address structures
At about 28:25, Sarah reflects on the connections between the Tower of Babel story and Nuha Rummani’s take on the story’s morals and buildings/towers as motifs
At about 31:10, Pete details the book’s opening sequences and discusses Betty’s dramatic birth
At about 32:50, Pete and Sarah discuss Tashi and her traumas and her background
At about 36:15, Sarah talks about how Tashi and her life are burdens/gifts from the family’s history and lineage
At about 37:40, The two discuss coincidences and meanings with Betty being born the day that the family soap factory was destroyed; Sarah connects to The Battle of Nablus in 2022
At about 41:20, Sarah speaks to ideas of “aftermath” in her work
At about 42:10, Pete outlines Nuha’s stories and their morals and her rationale; some of these stories include the parallel storylines between Alissabat and Betty
At about 44:10, Sarah is asked about Nuha’s character with regards to ideas of openness and living her truths
At about 47:30, Pete relates the saga of Betty’s schooling
At about 49:10, The two discuss ideas of difference in its many iterations and assimilation
At about 50:00, Sarah talks about those who “bullied” their way into the story in response to Pete’s compliments about strong women
At about 53:00, Pete and Sarah reflect on ideas of “long memories” and history’s long reach
At about 57:10, The two meditate on the “pull of home” and shifting concepts of “home”
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The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.
Please tune in for Episode 180 with Jennifer Dawn Carlson. She is author of Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy, and Associate Professor of Sociology and Government & Public Policy at the University of Arizona, and a 2022 MacArthur Fellow.
The episode will air on May 2, the Pub Day for her book!
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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
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