Sarah Seltzer is the author of the novel The Singer Sisters, now available in paperback. She is an editor at Lilith magazine, and she lives in New York City.
Q: What inspired you to write The Singer Sisters, and how did you create your character Emma?
A: The initial inspiration for the Singer Sisters was seeing the McGarrigle-Wainwright family play folk music together. How interesting it was to me, as someone whose family is not in the arts, that the family wrote songs, included each other in songs, and then performed those songs about each other to each other!
Emma is a creature of my own experience and imagination. She’s sort of a classic ‘90s angry rebel without a cause in combat boots and bellbottoms, a big pile of potential energy. I wanted to also express this idea of someone who senses that something is not right with her family but doesn’t know what it is.
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Emma and her mother, Judie?
A: They’re artistic personalities and performers…so they butt heads! It’s a tense relationship although there is love underneath. Ultimately there are secrets between them that have to be aired in order for them to progress, and that’s the story of the novel.
Q: How did you research the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: I read a lot of memoirs and musical biographies, not just of folk artists, to get a sense of the era and these giant lives.
Honestly the drug use, the sex, the rock bottoms people hit, the insanity of the ‘60s and ‘70s as described by those who lived it is too wild to novelize; people would say it was too sensational and didn’t feel real. Carly Simon’s autobiography has some particular gems.
Q: The Chicago Tribune said of the book, “Full of fractured relationships, deceit, love and mystery, the page turner reads like a confessional full of music that readers can almost hear.” What do you think of that description?
A: I love it! That writer, Jae-Ha Kim, really “got” what I was trying to do with the book, which is lovely and flattering since she’s a talented music writer and big music fan herself.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Shuffling my way through a very rough draft of another book, but also trying to focus on having a great summer with my kids and my job being an editor at a Jewish feminist quarterly, Lilith magazine.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: The paperback just hit shelves and it’s lovely! And to go with it, two songs from the book are now available on streaming platforms thanks to the artist goodkitty. If you liked the book or you just like music, you should check it out!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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