Sarah Relyea's Blog, page 2

Only Connect – Part 1: Finding Ariel

Part 1: Finding Ariel        When Ariel showed up on our block, she was young and homeless and in her mother’s care. It was midsummer. We’d known her mother for a couple of years—at least, we’d seen her around our Brooklyn neighborhood. A sturdy tabby cat with tiger markings streaked across her round […]

Only Connect: Finding Ariel

Part 1: Finding Ariel        When Ariel showed up on our block, she was young and homeless and in her mother’s care. It was midsummer. We’d known her mother for a couple of years—at least, we’d seen her around our Brooklyn neighborhood. A sturdy tabby cat with tiger markings streaked across her round […]

Coming of Age as Simone de Beauvoir: From Catholic Schoolgirl to Avant-Garde Rebel

Coming of age in early-20th century Paris, Simone de Beauvoir (b. 1908) transformed herself from a devout Catholic schoolgirl into one of the foremost intellectual rebels of the 20th century. Energetic, probing, in search of commitment and deeply suspicious of the compromises of bourgeois life, she became a major figure in 20th century philosophy. Her […]

From Protest to Plague and Back Again

On publishing Playground Zero in the summer of protest and plague Can we ever know the past? Sure, we have research—records, documents, and archaeological sites—but long-ago words and stones leave huge gaps. Sensory memory rushes to fill those gaps, dangling its low-hanging fruit. Through the strange brew of research and memory, novels can bring the […]

Berkeley in the 1960s: An Unforgettable Character

During recent visits, I have often found the city of Berkeley to be a garden on a hill, lush in its vegetation and breathtaking in its panoramas. In the stunning hill neighborhoods, redwoods soar from a neighbor’s yard as the eye feasts on tangled beach roses. Meanwhile, west beyond the flatlands and the bay, the […]

Out Rage: My Facebook, My Id

Facebook to Me: “Is This Our Classmate?” The seemingly simple plea appeared on my college class’s Facebook page: “Is this our classmate?” As Ivy League alumni, our class often had good news to share, even after a year of pandemic. We generously posted about each other’s triumphs; high-level jobs in the new administration, research accomplishments, […]

Story Circle Network presents: Three authors of coming-of-age stories

  Enjoy a recorded Story Circle Network author event with:   Sarah Relyea (Playground Zero) Shelley Blanton-Stroud (Copy Boy) Elise Schiller (Watermark)   Coming-of-Age Stories: How They Work for Women Readers and Women Writers Spend an hour with three authors of recent novels as they share thoughts on writing female coming-of-age stories for adult readers. […]

I Confess: I Killed Thing 1 and Thing 2

The Confession of Cindy Lou Who Last night Thing 1 and Thing 2 agreed to withdraw from public view after attempting to smuggle hurtful and wrong images across the border of my consciousness. I knew they’d been there because when I awoke, I felt fear and confusion. I got dressed. I wore my pants backwards, […]

Enjoy a recorded Playground Zero reading with Sarah Relyea

  Playground Zero zoom author event! Berkeley, 1968. A city in chaos. A family, each maneuvering through a labyrinth at a time when the United States was propelled into the sphere of real change.   February 16, 2021 The event was recorded and is available for viewing.   Watch now     buy book   […]

Enjoy a recorded Playground Zero author event with Sarah Relyea

  Playground Zero zoom author event! February 16, 2021 The event was recorded and is available for viewing.   Watch now     more info   buy book     The event was hosted in Mendocino, California, on February 16, 2021.