Ask the Author: Sara Baker
Answered Questions (8)
Sara Baker
A friend of mine said yesterday that she recently reread David Copperfield, which gave her great hope during these difficult times. So that is at the top of my list. Then, A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles, LaRose, by Louise Erdrich, Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout. On the nonfiction side, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More Than Human World by David Abram, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, The Earth has Soul by C.G. Jung. I'm currently reading and enjoying Ann Patchett's This is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Thank you for asking!
Sara Baker
I love this question. Kitty and Levin in Anna Karenina by Tolstoy is by far my favorite couple. They are each flawed humans who manage to eventually find happiness with each other after many missteps. Awkward Levin bungles his first proposal to Kitty, and instead of trying again, tucks his tail between his legs and falls into a funk. Kitty, infatuated with the dashing Vronisky, is deeply humiliated by his rejection. Kitty finally agrees to marry Levin, but they fight a great deal. Yet they grow in understanding of each other, and begin to act less selfishly. Kitty shows courage and compassion when caring for Levin's dying brother; Levin transcends his own self-doubts in his love of his son. They fumble forward, make mistakes, try again, and in the process acquire the necessary humility required to have a happy marriage. I find that this portrait of a marriage is as fresh and contemporary today as it was when it was written, and is, in its way, very reassuring.
Sara Baker
That is a hard question. I think most writers have certain themes that preoccupy them for years, then an image or event comes along that seems to trigger a story that will work out a preoccupation. For me, I was interested in grief and middle-aged disappointment, as well as the struggle of family members to communicate with and love one another. I was also interested in how a community responds to hard times, and how that affects families.
Sara Baker
Franz Kafka wrote: "Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not wait, be quite still and stationary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has not choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet." In other words, pay attention. There is so much beauty, pathos and humor in the world. Just pay attention.
Sara Baker
A book of short fiction.
Sara Baker
Stay open and engaged and curious. Keep working. Be open to feedback, but retain ownership of your vision.
Sara Baker
As a fiction writer, I can create a world. I can work out in it feelings and observations about the world we live in. When it goes well, there is nothing better in the world.
Sara Baker
I have a lot of projects going at once. If I get stuck on a story, I work on a poem. The other thing is, I go to my desk every morning for four hours. It is my job. Even when I don't feel like it. Another thing when facing a block, is to get engaged with the world in some way.
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