Written Author Interview
Tell me about yourself. What do you like to do outside of writing. What is a day in the life like for you?
My name is S. Salazar, and when I’m not being an author, I’m being a full-time graduate student and full-time public service worker. I’m an MFA candidate attending Western Connecticut State University, with emphases in Poetry and Grant Writing. My public service job resides within re-employment services. My day to day life looks like sleeping in as long as I can without being late, being in a gray office building for 9 hours a day to assist people with finding employment (which is challenging right now with the continual layoffs stemming from the feds), finding time to exercise (weight lifting is my favorite, though I’m currently learning aerial silks and love it!). When I get home at a decent hour, I love to work on writing projects, read, and talk to my parrot, Gizmo. I also enjoy hiking, painting, and spending time with my grandparents.
What inspired your first novel? What was the thing that got you into writing in the first place?
My first book is a collection of poems titled Raíces, Relics, and Other Ghosts (published by Kelsay Books in 2023). This book is inspired by the mystery surrounding mis abuelos (my Latine grandparents on my dad’s side who both died before I was born). I wanted to know more about them, and I wanted to know more about my Puerto Rican heritage because my dad didn’t seem to know anything about it. I felt frustrated about how no one knew the answers to the questions I had, and no one in my life felt the same pull to know these things as I did. This sparked a genealogical quest online where my dead-ends continued. I also reached out to family members I didn’t know existed, finding a few answers to my questions, but mostly finding connections with new people I get to love. My poetry collection explores the disconnection and attempts to reconnect with this part of my identity, while simultaneously coming to terms with what’s been lost to time forever. Themes this book covers include: diaspora, Latinx heritage, familial loss/grief, generational trauma, and identity.
What got me into writing in the first place was a middle school English class project where we “wrote” a book of poems. We typed up poems, printed them out, glued them onto construction paper, etc. I loved the process of writing a book and holding my poems in my hands. I’ve been writing on and off ever since. Poetry has always been my first love, and a genre I always return to, but I write prose as well. I’m querying a YA contemporary fiction novel, and I have several novel drafts too.
How do you come up with characters? Are they spontaneous or meticulously planned?
I don’t have characters, so I will interpret this question for “speakers” in poetry. My speaker in each poem is deliberate in voice and tone, some pieces feeling lost, grieving, empowered, angry, etc. Many of the poems have myself as the speaker, some versions of “past me” and other versions of “potential me.” Some speakers are more omniscient.
What are some of your favorite genres to read? Are there any books you’d recommend to first time readers or people looking for something new?
Even though my first book is a collection of poems, I don’t just limit myself to poetry. I read a lot of historical fiction, memoir, and contemporary fiction. Growing up, fantasy and science fiction were my favorites, and I occasionally dabble in that too. The quality of writing is what captivates me, not the genre per se. Character growth or thematic progression hook me, so I can get sucked into any well-crafted story.
Some of my favorite poetry collections are How to Pull Apart the Earth by Karla Cordero, The Carrying by Ada Limon, A Grito Contest in the Afterlife by Vincent Rendoni, Obit by Victoria Chang, and Brute by Emily Skaja. My favorite fictions are All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Everything Within and In Between by Nikki Barthelmess, and any novel by Noelle Salazar (who happens to be my cousin, that is strictly happenstance). My favorite memoir as of late is Educated by Tara Westover.
What’s the most difficult thing about being a writer?
The most difficult part about being a writer for me is balance/discipline. I’m not able to be a writer full-time, so oftentimes, I have to put writing off to the side. To keep a roof over my head, I have to prioritize work projects and limit my time off to conduct marketing/networking opportunities, attend workshops, or read at venues. I am sometimes emotionally so burned out from compassion fatigue that I cannot dig into the emotional energy required of my writing. As I near the end of my MFA program, I hope to find ways to find career paths that allow me more time to utilize my emotional energy for my writing practice.
What is your process to completing a novel from outline to final product?
When I’m writing a novel, I am a planner through and through. I have a 3-Act chart I have printed on my wall, and I’ll plot sticky notes in each of the parts to help me determine the best character arc for the story. I plan 15 minutes of writing every day that I can get home before 8 PM. When I’m writing a poetry collection, I have an idea for what I’d like to write, and then I experiment with poetic forms, motifs, and images to see which poems hold the most energy. I then strive for that level of energy across multiple poems. To be honest, my poetry writing process ends up being more fluid in the drafting stage than my novel writing process, though my novel plans often need rewriting too.
What’s the most unhinged thing you’ve written in your novel? Don’t worry, we don’t judge here.
My poetry collection is fairly narrative in nature, not as unhinged as some of my other works. I think the most unhinged pieces in my poetry collection are the shape poems. I have a poem with a hole in the middle, a poem shaped like a shovel, a poem shaped like a house, and a poem in a snake shape that is also a parentheses poem (where the parentheses add a whole other level of meaning to the poem). Playing with poetic form is one of my favorite parts of the genre, and it’s something that prose writing just doesn’t do for me.
What’s one thing about being a writer that absolutely drives you up the wall?
Marketing, full stop. Poetry is a hard genre to sell, as many readers feel ostracized by the genre starting in grade school. I wish I could share how cool poetry can be, how varied the genre is beyond Shakespearean sonnets. I think a lot of writers feel like they’re just screaming into the void when they market their book or try to network, and for poets, I think this feeling is amplified due to the misunderstanding people have about the genre to begin with.
What does being a successful writer look like for you? What type of life do you want to live as a writer?
To me, being a successful writer looks like always having a project of some sort. We don’t have to be writing all the time, but dreaming, thinking, reading, collecting and plotting are a must. Once we stop working toward writing, I believe writers aren’t working toward a successful and sustainable career. The life I’d like is to work part-time or per-contract as a grant writer, development coordinator, editor, or social media manager remotely. I’d like to travel, study, and write for the other part of the time. I would also be happy being a full-time writing professor, as being surrounded by writing is inspiring to me even if I’m not spending as much time generating writing.
Describe your writing journey. If you had to write a story centered around it, do you think you could pull it off?
My writing journey has been thinking I’d walk on a path and realizing it’s an overgrown backcountry trail. I’ve been told I’m not a “naturally talented writer,” or that writing is a waste of my time when I could be spending all my energy at the office and striving for a promotion there.
I consider each of these comments a large cedar falling across the hiking route, or perhaps a rocky patch to scramble up, my feet sliding down the hillside as my hands reach for a solid hold. These comments impact me seasonally, sometimes a harsh wind and sometimes a winter storm.
Other times, they are raindrops running off my jacket. All seasons are important, as all moments in this journey are important. In this story, I never reach “the top,” as there is no arriving in the writing journey. There is simply the discovery and the trip itself, and it’s a series of books I will write until I, myself, end.
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About
Raised in the Pacific Northwest, S. Salazar has always felt at home in the mountains. As an English teacher, she strove to show students that success isn’t defined by background. S. is a mixed Puerto Rican author who’s been published in Harpur Palate, The Acentos Review, Booth Journal, Poet Lore, and elsewhere. She’s an MFA candidate currently juggling multiple poetry manuscripts that explore generational trauma, identity, Latinx heritage, diaspora, and mental health. Her debut poetry collection Raíces, Relics, and Other Ghosts (Kelsay Books, 2023) examines topics of disconnection and reconnection to her Puerto Rican roots through trial and error, genealogical exploration, and the search for long-separated familia. When she isn’t writing, she can be found hiking with loved ones, talking to her parrot, Gizmo, and gushing over every dog she sees.
Social Media
Website: http://www.writessalazar.com
Facebook: @writessalazar
Instagram: @writessalazar
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TikTok: @writessalazar
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