Several times a month we connect with our contributors showing where they have been, where they are now, and what’s up for the future.
Name: Sarah Carey
Title of Pieces Published in Sweet: “In The Hollow”
Issues: 14.1
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?
I’ve survived probably the most difficult year in my life, with my mother going into assisted living in October and dying in January. I think surviving and beginning to get my emotional strength back is actually a pretty big accomplishment, given the stress of the situation and the difficulty of navigating such a profound loss. Writing really helped me through that period. I’ve been fortunate to have had a few poems published along the way, some of which dealt with what I was going through. Poems published since last September, when In the Hollow appeared in Sweet Issue 14.1, have appeared in Five Points, Aquifer/The Florida Review, and Split Rock Review, and a handful of other publications are pending. These acceptances have really buoyed my spirits.
I also was thrilled to be asked to participate in the SWWIM reading series with the Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach in March, and had the opportunity to read my work at that magnificent hotel, along with the wonderful poet, Chet’la Sebree. I took a couple of days off of work, flew down for a day and evening, and made an adventure of it. The whole experience was such a treat!
Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?
I recently completed my first full-length book manuscript, The Grief Committee, and have begun circulating it, with fingers crossed.
Who is your favorite author?
Too many to mention! I love Alice Munro’s short stories. I am eclectic and love mysteries and fiction by authors ranging from Michael Connelly to Jo Nesbo, Greg Iles, S.A. Cosby. I’m reading The Round House by Louise Erdrich. It’s my first book by her and it’s stunning. I love so much contemporary poetry that I don’t know where to start, but recently I’ve been reading work by Kasey Jueds and Molly Spencer, also Jill Osier. All great poets, all unique. I’ve always been moved by Naomi Shihab Nye’ and Linda Pastans’ work and her “A Dog Runs Through It” really captured my heart, being a devout dog person.
What is your favorite poem/essay/book?
Hmm, I’m going to hedge. Too many to list (OK but The Book Thief is book that took hold of me and haunted me for years.) “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye is a poem I return to again and again.
What inspires you to write?
Discovering work by another writer that knocks my socks off and makes me want do what they did. Having an encounter that may be chance but doesn’t feel like chance. I tell people that I live to write and write to live. Writing is a way of claiming and reclaiming, defining and redefining identity and what it means to live — who I am and where I’ve been, maybe where I hope to go. Of making peace with the fact that there will always be unfulfilled longings, always questions there will never be answers to. And of course, the idea and hope that I might leave a part of myself behind for someone else to one day remember and be moved by.
What are you reading right now?
See above
What is your favorite sweet? We would love for you to share a recipe or link to place that serves it. Pictures are great, too!
Well, in 2015 my girlfriend and I went to Ireland for a cooking class with Rachel Allen at the Ballymaloe Cookery School. We got to make several recipes and it was just a phenomenal trip all around. One of my favorite recipes was this amazing lemongrass coconut cake. You can make it without real lemongrass, but I like the real thing (I don’t grow it but have friends who do!) Here’s the recipe: https://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/recipes/2012/0911/744905-lemongrass-coconut-cake/
That sounds like an amazing adventure!
Thank you, Sarah, for taking the time to reconnect with us. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
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[…] Soon after I learned from Sweet’s wonderful co-founder and managing editor, Katie Riegel, that my poem had been selected as a finalist, I read about the journal encouraging past contributors to share updates about their lives and work since their Sweet publication. Last fall, my poem, “In the Hollow” appeared in the journal, so I filled out the form the editors offered and basically recapped what’s been going on with me since that time. I pretty much said my biggest accomplishment had been….surviving. But there has been some good poetry news, and that trip to Miami I made at the invitation of SWWIM to read my work at the Betsy Hotel in March was a remarkable adventure, so I mentioned that too. And they published it! If you’d like to read my “Sweet Connection” feature, click here. […]
[…] Soon after I learned from Sweet’s wonderful co-founder and managing editor, Katie Riegel, that my poem had been selected as a finalist, I read about the journal encouraging past contributors to share updates about their lives and work since their Sweet publication. Last fall, my poem, “In the Hollow” appeared in the journal, so I filled out the form the editors offered and basically recapped what’s been going on with me since that time. I pretty much said my biggest accomplishment had been….surviving. But there has been some good poetry news, and that trip to Miami I made at the invitation of SWWIM to read my work at the Betsy Hotel in March was a remarkable adventure, so I mentioned that too. And they published it! If you’d like to read my “Sweet Connection” feature, click here. […]