Q&A with Sue William Silverman

 

 

Sue William Silverman is the author of the new essay collection Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader. Her other books include How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences. She is the co-chair of the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of the Fine Arts. 

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the essays in your new collection?

 

A: Approximately four years, on and off. I was working on two books, back and forth, during the same time frame. I started during the COVID lockdown when I had a lot of time to write—and a need to write as a way to stay centered. Writing gave me a positive emotional focus during a very scary time.

 

Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The book went through a series of working titles, but finally the theme seemed to speak to my various misdemeanors.

 

Let me hasten to add these are emotional misdemeanors—not crimes in the legal sense. I never served jail time!

 

Rather, some essays, for example, are about relationships with inappropriate men. One is about the evening I spent alone, drinking, in a seedy bar in Galveston, and I, in a spur-of-the-(drunk) moment, decided to get divorced. So the misdemeanors are my transgressions, miscalculations of love, and betrayals.

 

Q: The writer Paul Lisicky said of the book, “From piece to piece this book constructs a constellation of wonder, each point of light written with resilience, wit, heartbreak, and a stunning forthrightness.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Well of course I love it! Paul is an amazing writer, and it means the world to me that he sees these elements in my book.

 

I’m particularly gratified that he sees both “wit” and “heartbreak,” or what I think of as “traumedy,” a melding of comedy (gallows humor) with sadness or tragedy. In writing, sometimes our narratives can be sad and tough, but I try to find at least some irony in any given essay.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: My hope is that if I write about my pain, it will touch your pain. If I write of my loss, it will speak to your loss. My joy will resonate with yours.

 

Creative nonfiction is about the self, yes, but it’s also about discovering the universality of the human condition. We’re all in this together. How can we show compassion for one another except by sharing our narratives, our essays, our stories.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m trying to figure out how to write a more journalistic (albeit personal) piece. I mean, I can write essay collections as well as 250-page memoirs, but, for the life of me, I really struggle to write journalistic articles.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader is a collection of flash essays. For those not familiar with this form, I want to mention that a flash essay, while short, is also revelatory. A flash essay is a structure whereby we show our epiphanies in quick, shimmering moments.

 

In this way, a flash essay can offer universal, metaphoric meaning as much as a full-length memoir. So while the outer form is small, the interior is vast. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Sue William Silverman.