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| photo: Melissa Lukenbaugh | |
Sarah Perry (she/they) is the author of After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, a Daughter's Search, which was named a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Her writing has also appeared in the Huffington Post, Elle magazine, the Guardian, Cake Zine, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University, was the 2019 McGee Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Davidson College, and is now assistant professor of creative writing at Colorado State University. Perry's latest book is Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover (Mariner, February 4, 2025), a collection of 100 essays, each with an illustration by Forsyth Harmon, that uses candy as a means of thinking about joy, culture, art, bodies, and history.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
Surprisingly smart, frequently funny, and charmingly illustrated, Sweet Nothings makes a great gift for candy lovers and discerning readers alike. Equal parts sweet and tart.
On your nightstand now:
Alan Michael Parker's Bingo Bango Boingo, a collection of flash fiction pieces in the form of bingo cards (how cool is that?). Emma Eisenberg's Housemates, a novel about queer writers and artists navigating love and creativity, set during the pandemic and told through the perspective of an older lesbian. I have never read such excellent descriptions of faces and what they do! I also have an early copy of Jeannie Vanasco's A Silent Treatment, which is about her mother's use of the silent treatment. Inventive and moving, like all of Jeannie's work.
Favorite book when you were a child:
I was an only child who spent all my time reading, so it is hard to pick, but probably Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, which blew my hungry little mind. When I was really little, I was obsessed with this 1953 picture book called The Christmas Kitten by Janet Konkle. It was in my kindergarten classroom, and every year until fifth grade, I would check it out for the winter break. When I graduated high school, despite my having moved, my old elementary school librarian tracked me down and sent it to me, signed by all my former teachers and including kind notes about my future as a writer!
Your top five authors:
This list probably changes daily, but here are some writers whose work has influenced me: Maggie Nelson, Jeanette Winterson, Anne Michaels, Roland Barthes (especially A Lover's Discourse and Mythologies), and Tove Jansson (her adult books, although the Moomins are wonderful!).
Book you've faked reading:
I have actually never done this, because I don't believe in reading for social clout or to impress people. (I am also not into the idea of "guilty pleasure" reading. We all read for different reasons at different times. No need for guilt or feelings of inadequacy!)
Book you're an evangelist for:
Anne Michaels's Fugitive Pieces, which is so beautifully written that it thrills me every year when I reread it. Also, Stoner by John Edward Williams, a perfectly built and clear-eyed exploration of what it means to be a professor, writer, and human. Also, The Secret Life of Groceries by Benjamin Lorr, which is very disturbing and eye-opening. Written so sharply I would probably read him on anything. Okay, I'll stop now.
Book you've bought for the cover:
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, which is a beautiful object: small trim, black hardcover, no dust jacket (I hate dust jackets), with embossed gold text and celestial decoration. It's a collection of neologisms for emotions we can't yet name.
Book you hid from your parents:
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews, but this probably wasn't necessary, because my mom thought all reading was good reading, and that I was smart enough to not be unduly influenced by learning more about the world.
Book that changed your life:
Again, I have to shout out Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. I first read it during a really dynamic and important time in my life (I was 21, grieving, and studying abroad), and it revived my childhood desire to be a writer. I thought, I have to do this.
Favorite line from a book:
More a unit than a line, but: "You said, 'I love you.' Why is it that the most unoriginal thing we can say to one another is still the thing we long to hear? 'I love you' is always a quotation. You did not say it first and neither did I, yet when you say it and when I say it we speak like savages who have found three words and worship them." From Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body
Five books you'll never part with:
The Christmas Kitten by Janet Konkle, signed by all my elementary school teachers, who encouraged my early forays into writing; the specific copy of Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels that I bought when I was 21; my late mother's 1974 copy of The Dreamer's Dictionary by Stearn Robinson and Tom Corbett; The Edge of Every Day: Sketches of Schizophrenia by my dear friend Marin Sardy; The Years by Annie Ernaux.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Would you believe that an article in a women's magazine spoiled the ending of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina for me, just when I had begun it? (I did still make it all the way through.) So: un-read that article, re-read Anna Karenina.
The best candy to enjoy while reading:
You can't have anything sticky, or you'll mess up your book or e-reader. And you want something long lasting, so your hands aren't constantly busy. So I'd say: Werther's Original, which are hard but creamy at the same time. I would always eat those as a kid when reading up in my bunk bed, and throw all the golden wrappers down to the floor.