Sara Zarr and I are very, very different people, writing very different kinds of books.
Nevertheless, we became friends a few years ago at Image journal‘s summertime arts conference, The Glen Workshop, which takes place in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We met in the fiction workshop taught by the magnificent novelist and short story writer Erin McGraw. We’ve been back every year since then, become fast friends, watched our dream of becoming published novelists come true, and now… we’ve had articles published in back-to-back issues of Image, my favorite periodical on the arts.
And oh, yeah… she’s been a National Book Award finalist. And I haven’t. But hey, who’s complaining?
Congratulations to Sara! You can read her blog here, and her essay appears in the new issue, and on the website! Not only that, but this gorgeous portrait appears as a banner on the Image website.
And you’ve also followed each other around in The Other Journal (www.theotherjournal.com)!
Well, kind of.
You’ve had a review and interview in The Other Journal, and her Image essay that you’ve linked to is featured in the forthcoming book “Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical,” which is being published this summer by Cascade Books in partnership with The Other Journal.
I read her Story of a Girl recently, mainly because of your recommendation. Wow. Just wow.