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: Stephanie Anderson
Title of Pieces Published in Sweet: “Flight Animals”
Issue: 9.1
You can find Stephanie in Boca Raton, Florida – teaching, writing, and playing with her Italian greyhound puppy, Augie. Find out more about Stephanie on her website.
What are some major accomplishments you have had since your Sweet publication?
I started as Assistant Professor of Creative Nonfiction at Florida Atlantic University this fall – I am so happy to be back in the classroom working with creative writers! I’ve published a number of essays and short stories that vary in form and subject since “Flight Animals” appeared with Sweet in 2016. And I’m humbled to have won several writing awards, especially the 2020 Margolis Award for nonfiction writers of social justice journalism.
Can you tell us about a current/ongoing project that you’re excited about?
My second nonfiction book comes out November 19, 2024. It’s called From the Ground Up: The Women Revolutionizing Regenerative Agriculture. I’m thrilled to share this book with readers because it offers a message of hope and action about our food system and climate-smart agriculture. It highlights diverse women working all across the food system to bring about change that benefits all of us. From North Carolina to South Dakota, and California to Washington, D.C., women are leading the way!
Who is your favorite author?
Naming just one seems wrong! Let’s go with four authors whose books I’m teaching this semester: Mitchell Jackson, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jordan Kisner, and T Kira Madden.
What is your favorite poem/essay/book?
Another tough one, but I keep coming back to Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer for nonfiction and The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerr for fiction. And anything by Lauren Groff is gold.
What inspires you to write?
Often I’m trying to share information and/or tell the stories of people who are doing unique or change-inspiring work. I like the role of literary journalist, someone who follows and conveys ideas readers may not have heard about before. But I also enjoy the creativity, the way a little mosquito of a narrative will bite me and I have to scratch the itch.
What are you reading right now?
Student work, which is a joy. Also essays by Eula Biss, Nicole Walker, and Katrina Vandenberg for next week’s class. For fun, I’m reading Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte.
What is your favorite sweet?
I think I said this in a past Sweet Connections, but the sugar cookies my family makes during the holidays are my absolute favorite sweet treat. The recipe is from an ancient Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. My siblings and I always made them with my mom growing up, and we still do whenever we’re spending the holidays at the family ranch in South Dakota. You can see from the photo that the recipe has been well loved over the years. I prefer them unfrosted, but you do you.
Thank you, Stephanie, for taking the time to reconnect with us again! Congratulations on the book. We look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!
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