We love celebrating new voices in the literary world, and today we have something special in store for you! We have the absolute pleasure of chatting with debut author Sarah Seltzer as she answers 20 questions about herself and her book, THE SINGER SISTERS.
But first, let’s dive deeper into THE SINGER SISTERS, a debut moving between ’60s folk clubs and ’90s music festivals, chronicling the ups and downs of stardom while asking what women artists must sacrifice for success.
It’s 1996, and alt-rocker Emma Cantor is on tour, with her sights trained on a record deal. Emma’s got no lack of inspiration for her music — chiefly her mother Judie, a 1960s folk legend whose confessional songs made her an icon before her mysterious withdrawal from the public eye. When Emma uncovers more about her mother’s past, she is vaulted to new heights as a performer. But the knowledge she gains also propels her toward a musical betrayal that further fractures her relationship with Judie.
NOW LET’S HEAR FROM SARAH!
- How are you doing today?
I am ecstatic about the arrival of spring but also somewhat sneezy! - If you could spend a day with another author, whom would you choose?
I would 100% resurrect Jane Austen. We’d spend the day drinking tea and being witty and acerbic. Or maybe I’d teach her to use social media and watch her go after the biggest egos on every platform. - Where’s your favorite place to write?
At my local coffee shop in Harlem; the pastries are outrageously buttery and they play French music all day long. - What’s been your favorite part of publishing THE SINGER SISTERS?
I love seeing the creative and artistic work that people who are not the author put into publishing a book (particularly cool with this one that itself is about music, yet another creative medium!) For instance, everything is carefully designed, including the actual pages of the book. It’s fascinating and humbling, too. - Best advice you received while writing your debut?
My husband opened my planner to the “visualize your year” page where you have to plot your year as a graph. He drew two trajectories: one was submitting the novel, which had peaks and valleys, and another was a flat line that represented just letting it sit. After some angst, I decided to try for the first path. - What’s on your TBR pile?
Right now my pile is mostly fellow debut novelists, including Ashton Lattimore’s ALL WE WERE PROMISED, Ruthvika Rao’s THE FERTILE EARTH, Fiona McPhillips’ WHEN WE WERE SILENT and María Alejandra Barrios Vélez’s THE WAVES TAKE YOU HOME. The main thing keeping me from reading these books are my never-ending DM and slack chats with my fellow 2024 debuts. I love them! - What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not writing?
My kids would say eating cheese and napping, which is not entirely false. But I would counter that I love running, walking and biking with my phone pointed at the trees, snapping pics of the changing seasons. - Favorite bookstore and/or library?
I can’t choose among New York City’s bookstores without ripping my heart into pieces, so I’ll say Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vermont, the small city where I got my MFA—they have a bookstore turtle (!) and have come back after several devastating floods. - Describe THE SINGER SISTERS in one word.
Chord. - How much about folk music did you already know going into this novel? How much research did you have to do?
I wrote the first few drafts without much research. Then, while the manuscript marinated, I read a lot–Sheila Weller’s Girls Like Us, David Hadju’s Positively 4th Street, Carly Simon’s Boys in Trees, Folk City, and a new biography of Janis Joplin to name some. I also watched films and concert footage and listened to a lot of music! - Did writing THE SINGER SISTERS change the way you view folk music and artists at all?
I think across genres, singers who write confessionally or personally have this tendency to draw all of our weird projections and deepest emotional responses (see: Beyoncé, Taylor)–and I imagine that’s a blessing but also a challenge for them! - Do you see any of yourself in any of the characters—in what ways would you say you’re alike and different?
As someone galloping towards middle age I do still feel the ache of Emma’s reluctant evolution out of rebellion and into a sense of responsibility. I also deeply identify with Judie’s ambivalence about artistry and caregiving and finding your place in the world as an ambitious woman, and with Rose’s sense of being an observer and playing catch-up all the time. Also, increasingly I find myself aligned with Sylvia’s matter-of-factness about the unsavory parts of life and insistence on getting joy (and pastrami!) despite it all.
I’d like to think I’m a bit more even-tempered than my characters; I do lose my cool, but I try to recover quickly! - If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?
I would order a platter of deli sandwiches for the whole gang and thank them for being such fascinating women to hang out with over the better part of a very fraught decade. - Was there any music you listened to on repeat when writing this book?
I had a themed Spotify playlist that was mostly folk singers’ songs about other folk singers: Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, the McGarrigle-Wainwright family, Joni Mitchell, CSNY, plus folk standards. I also listen to more ambient, intense music like Philip Glass and Radiohead when I’m really in the thick of writing. - This novel is heavily character-driven. Do you have real-life inspirations for your characters?
The Judie-Sylvia relationship borrows a touch of inspiration from my grandma Bunny and her sister Lillian, who were theatrical, erudite Boston women in the 30s. They had a lot of mutual devotion and a bit of mutual resentment, it’s safe to say! - What was your experience going from writing short form journal pieces to a novel?
Writing for the golden age of internet “thought pieces’ (around 2010-2016) was a good warm-up for drafting a novel: for years before I started THE SINGER SISTERS, I’d been writing multiple longer pieces a week, sometimes daily, so I was ready to write! But at the same I did feel adrift writing multiple drafts on my own, because as a journalist I’m used to regular back and forths with an editor, as well as instant feedback from the internet hordes. I used to know a piece had gone viral when I woke up to a mix of praise and anger in my inbox. - You write from the time period of the sixties, all the way up to the nineties—what is your favorite decade to write about?
The Nineties, baby. I lived it, Doc Martens and all! - If you were to write a spin-off about a side character, which would you pick?
Angela, a friend of Judie and Sylvia’s, is a vocalist who yearns to create a rock opus; like some of my other characters she’s a seeker, wandering from a hippie retreat in the desert to Downtown NYC to London studios. Angie’s time hanging out with my characters is just one part of her arc of artistic struggle in a racist, sexist music industry. I’d love to imagine her parallel quest for artistic fulfillment more deeply! - If you could write about anything in the world next, what would it be?
I had so much fun writing this book it’s hard to move on, but I’m noodling around with ideas about romantic love and friendship, since this one was so focused on family (not that it doesn’t have romantic moments!). - Has writing and publishing a book changed the way you see yourself?
It’s been gratifying. Of course, insecurity and regrets are never really gone. But this idea that used to nag me–that I’d been self-indulgent and lazy for trying to write fiction instead of being totally career focused? That has definitely retreated.
THE SINGER SISTERS by Sarah Seltzer; 9781250907646; 8/6/24
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