Cameron Crowell interviews Sara Woods

by Jen Tynes

“I started writing [Sara or the Existence of Fire] in 2011 after reading C.A. Conrad’s “Book of Frank”; in it, he has written a series of these little blocks of prose that are moments in this character Frank’s life that ultimately add up to reveal something. I wanted to try that, so I made up a character named Sara and started writing spontaneously these little moments about her. A lot of times a word would come to mind, or I would ask someone to give me a word and I would write a poem about it. Eventually, my ex-partner told me that if I put these in a certain order I could have a narrative. Once it was put together I realized it was echoing a lot of things going on in my life that I wasn’t really talking about with a lot of people, like my marriage, mental health and my gender identity.“