Sarah Berger, the Little Patuxent Review’s new editor, is a classical singer, a writer, and a teacher. A graduate of Oberlin College and the Peabody Conservatory, she teaches in the undergraduate writing program at the University of Baltimore.
You’ve just launched your first issue of the Little Patuxent Review. Was there anything that surprised you in the process?
I was surprised, and delighted, by how much I fell in love with some of the pieces I read. There was so much variety, originality and humanity in the submissions that I was overwhelmed, in a good way.
What was the toughest part of getting that issue out?
Timing. This first time through the process, I didn’t have a sense of the whole “story arc” of getting an issue from the reading phase to the sending-designed-pages-to-the-printer phase. There is a vital and exciting back-and-forth among the genre editors, copy editor, design editor, contributors, and me; next time I’ll pace myself better and enjoy the whole process a little more.
How did you learn about the job as LPR editor?
Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, my predecessor in the role, is one of the most important people in my writing life, starting with our friendship years before I was ready to “come out” as the fiction writer I always secretly was. She was a mentor and teacher to me in the University of Baltimore MFA program, and when she mentioned that she was going to be moving on from her position as editor of LPR, I pricked up my ears. This was in summer 2023, when I had recently graduated from the program and was looking for ways to stay active and connected in the larger writing community.
What attracted you to the position?
I was fresh off the intense experience of writing, revising and workshopping my own MFA thesis and those of my UB cohort, so I felt ready and excited to bring my expertise to this job. As a multi-genre artist, I also loved the idea of having a hand in curating LPR’s multi-genre collection.
Looking at your website (orangesloth.com), I see that among other things you’re a visual artist, a soprano, and a writer of fiction, essays, and poetry. How would you classify yourself as a writer?
Although I’m very comfortable writing creative nonfiction or memoir, and I am not afraid to write poetry when the spirit moves me, my genre of highest personal calling is literary fiction. The magic of literary fiction is that it challenges the reader to trust and engage with a very specific story in a very specific voice, and it demands that the reader be a partner in pulling out and putting in meaning. The payoff is a paradox: it’s just a pinhole, but the reader gains access to a universe of humanity through that pinhole.
What books are on your night stand?
I’m reading two novels at the same time (we can talk about the ethics of two-timing in another interview) and I’m about halfway through both of them. One is Erasure by Percival Everett, the novel adapted by Cord Jefferson into the screenplay for the recent movie American Fiction. The other is Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I notice that the former features a (fictional) novel-within-a-novel, and the latter is a thoroughly original retelling of another novel. It’s pretty meta on my nightstand right now.
Recently your work won the interestingly named Plork Prize. Can you tell us more about what “Plork” means?
“Plork” is a portmanteau of “play” and “work,” and it’s the hallmark concept of the University of Baltimore creative writing program. UB requires that students not only produce a manuscript, but that they create it in the form of a fully designed and printed book. We learn to use publishing and design software, and electives include bookmaking and literary magazine publishing. We are also encouraged to create a handmade accompaniment to our professionally printed manuscripts. My MFA thesis collection is entitled The Magic Tampon Machine and Other Stories, and in true Plorky fashion, I enlisted my 10-year-old kid to create 3-D printed stylized plastic tampon earrings, the sale of which benefitted The Pad Project.https://thepadproject.org/
Sarah Berger was interviewed by LPR board member George Clack.
Little Patuxent Review 