Recent publications, classes, and newsletter

Lots has happened since I last updated this page because I am generally pretty lazy about giving updates across the many (many!) platforms we’re all supposed to be on. But I’ve been recently reminded by Seth Werkeiser, creator of The Social Media Escape Club, that your website is not a billboard, it’s a hub. So I hope to do a quarterly update on publications, classes, and projects on here. (It feels weird to call it a blog. Are blogs still a thing?)

Anyway! All of this exciting stuff happened over the summer:

• I started seeing clients for creativity and writing coaching. One of my favorite parts of teaching college is office hours—where students come talk to me in my office and I have the opportunity to give them 100% of my attention. Rather than having to think about the needs of eighteen people, I can just focus on the need’s of one person. Creativity and writing coaching is a bit like office hours. I Iove giving people creativity advice that’s personalized just for them, along with the fullness of my attention. I’m looking forward to expanding coaching next year.

• Tricycle published my essay “Failure As Liberation.” It’s about growing up in a queer family, Ati Yoga, shelving my first novel, failure, “the false self,” and the liberation of writing whatever the you damn well please.

• Another essay of mine, “Your Mind Is The Lover: Eros, Amor, and Mahamudra” was published in The Canelands Magazine at the University of Kentucky. You can read the original essay in The Canelands, or read a slightly abridged version of this essay which I re-titled as “How Falling In Love Teaches Us How to Meditate,” available through my newsletter.

• I taught a class on Writing Into Wonder & Amazement at StoryStudio in early October. I had an awesome time teaching this class in-person and I’m stoked to be teaching an online version of it through Substack in early 2025.

• Here’s the description: What makes us feel awe and wonder when we read something amazing? “The numinous” is a word often used in relation to the spiritual; it describes a tremendous experience that fills us with mystery, wonder, awe, fascination, and sometimes even terror.

  Within a text, a sense of the numinous is created through an engagement with poetic language that disorients us into amazement. Although this is evoked through the medium of language, we’re left as readers with a feeling of speechlessness.

  We’ll deepen our understanding of the numinous by reading writers and poets such as Clarice Lispector, Ada Limón, Ocean Vuong, and Carson McCullers. We’ll reflect upon the occasions that the numinous is most often engaged and why. Using in-class writing exercises, we’ll explore the kind of attention that separates a numinous experience from a mundane one.

  Students will leave with a few pages of writing on a new or pre-existing project, ideas on how to connect to the numinous in their own work, and hopefully, a renewed sense of enchantment. This workshop is open to both prose writers and poets.

• I also taught a professional development class for the staff at StoryStudio, “The Art of The High Stakes Conversation: How Goodwill, Curiosity & Integrity Resolve Conflicts.” This class offers guidance on how to resolve conflicts when there is a lot to lose and/or there is a lot emotional tension. Also: how to resolve conflicts when the stakes aren’t high but someone wants them to be.

  How can you maintain a sense of integrity and calm when someone else is trying to pull your into a melodrama? We used breathing exercises, a boot-leg version of metta meditation, creative writing, and thoughtful discussion to respond to high stakes scenarios.

  Says StoryStudio’s Executive Director, Jessica Keller, "Sarah provided one. of the best professional development sessions I've been a part of. This training incorporated elements that were applicable to all our staff—spanning age groups and job functions.  In addition to the topic that was very needed for us, it was also a relaxed team building environment that was much needed for our hybrid staff.  I'd highly recommend this or any training Sarah leads."

• In the past few months, I’ve written about desire, the erotic, and spirituality, the limits and perils of secular meditation, why writing mediocre poetry helps me write better fiction, how rest feeds our creative subconscious, and why “compassion” doesn’t do it for me. You can find all these pieces in my newsletter.

• Lastly, I finished another draft of my novel manuscript. I can tell the final draft is actually there, and fit feels like I’m sinking my hands into wet clay and feel some kind of treasure. And that feels good.

“Joyful Effort: Practice & Play”

New Substack post + A professional development workshop at StoryStudio

I wrote about the Buddhist concept of "joyful effort" as it relates to practice and play in writing. I also discuss the importance of ritual in my writing practice, Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rule, the Sanskrit word “lila,” and Van Gogh’s mediocre (and maybe just plain bad) early drawings. I'm delighted that so many people have found this article to be encouraging!

Excerpt from “Joyful Effort: Practice & Play”

I also taught a secular version of this mindset in a professional development workshop StoryStudio, a nonprofit creative writing based in Chicago where I work as a consultant. The instructors and staff are incredibly talented and hardworking. In this hybrid online/in-person workshop, we discussed strategies on how to teach practice and play in the creative writing classroom, and why these mindsets are so important in our own writing practices.

If you’re a business or nonprofit leader who would like this training adapted for your staff, please reach out using the contact form.

Below is the description for the training:

Our most dedicated students often experience the same complaint that we feel in our own writing: this work is hard.

We should acknowledge that writing takes discipline and effort, but how can we also encourage our students to infuse their writing process with joy and playfulness? What are ways in which the time spent “warming-up” for the big game invites new possibilities, spontaneity, and surprising directions? How can we communicate to our students that writing, like any other artistic discipline, takes hours of practice? And that practice is essential to mastery?

In this professional development workshop, we’ll form our own unique pedagogies around the idea of practice and peer-share some of our favorite writing exercises to help students reframe the hard work of writing as a form of play.

Thank you to everyone who showed up, online or in-person! (And thank you program curator and author, Ananda Lima, for the photos!)

Reading at Tuesday Funk on 3/2/24 + New post on Substack

Hello world!

I’m very excited to be reading at the Hopleaf tomorrow night, 3/2/24, for the Tuesday Funk Reading Series. I love, love, love the Tuesday Funk. It is never boring! I promise to read something that will transfix and delight you—and it won’t go on for too long.

Also, I have a new post on Substack, The Antidote Is Love: Relieving Chronic Pain & Less Through Meditation. Bodies are wonderful, but damn if it doesn’t hurt to have a body sometimes. This post includes Mexica/Aztec host figurines, Tibetan Body Mandalas, somatic bliss, chronic pain, my mother’s disability, holding pain with love, and the limits of healing narratives. I hope it brings a sense of comfort and freedom.

This Is All Going Away: a Substack

I’m very excited to share my thoughts on Vajrayana Buddhism in a newsletter and not just on iPhone notes! I’ll be posting observations, short essays, and sneaky-secular Dharma once a month.

You can read and sign up for This Is All Going Away here.

Or read the About page to see if this newsletter might be for you.

My first post was definitely one that made me feel a bit more vulnerable than I expected. (A new vibe for me, since I’m used to fictionalizing my emotions and dressing them up as other people). I wrote about how, as a college student, I couldn’t afford to study Dharma at a center in my hometown, and how I nearly started dancing as a stripper to study abroad in a Buddhist country.

You can read the full essay, “What Strip Clubs Can Teach Us About Dharma,” here.

Artist in Residence at Northwestern University, Fall 2020

I just wrapped up my first quarter teaching a fiction class as an Artist in Residence at Northwestern. The students were lovely — hardworking, talented, and thoughtful. Above all, I was impressed by how they attended to each other’s work during this incredibly challenging time.

We used Thrill Me, by Benjamin Percy, as a core text. It’s an entertaining and witty guide to writing that focuses on creating suspense and tension. Percy offers easy-to-apply antidotes to some of the trappings of literary fiction (e.g. long wistful gazes out of kitchen windows, “epiphanic dew,” an overreliance on flashbacks), and he’s funny as hell.

Looking forward to teaching another class in the spring!

Love this book!

AWP Panel: Worry About It Later: Strategies to Finish What You Start, 3/5/20

An armadillo listening to Selena

With Christine Sneed, Juan Martinez, Kendra Fortmeyer, and Amy Gentry

Starting is often the easy part—it’s what comes after that’s so difficult for many writers. In this panel, we’ll discuss strategies for completing the first draft, along with our experiences of sending out and eventually publishing work that in some cases went through many drafts. We’ll also discuss how to deal with self-doubt and how to write through potential problems. Lastly, we’ll share advice about when to set a project aside.

Date: Thursday, March 5th, 2020

Time: 9am-10:15am

Place: Henry B. González Convention Center, Room 141, San Antonio, TX

Online Intro to Fiction class with moi, October 8th-November 5th

I’m teaching an online Intro Fiction class this fall at StoryStudio and you should definitely sign-up! We will read brilliant, masterful short stories and rob them of every good technique we possibly can. This is a great class for anyone who has been wanting to write fiction for a while but doesn’t know where to start, or for fiction writers who’d like to brush up on the foundations. Register here. Below is the full description.

You have a story you want to tell, but what exactly makes a compelling story? In this five-week workshop with acclaimed short story writer Sarah Kokernot, you’ll learn the building blocks of writing fiction: character, conflict and plot, dialogue, and point of view. We’ll examine stories that teach us the rules, and stories that teach us how to bend them. By the end of class, students will have one or more stories in development.

Each class session will involve writing exercises and outside readings. Some writing assignments will be peer-reviewed and all assignments will receive instructor feedback. Out-of-class readings will include works by Alice Munro, Jorge Luis Borges, ZZ Packer, Katherine Anne Porter, Clarice Lispector, Anton Checkhov, and Jhumpa Lahiri.

Week 1: Who’s This? Get to know your characters and their world through empathetic and playful writing exercises. 

Week 2: What Happens Next? Build conflict and find your story’s beginning, middle, and end.

Week 3: Tell Me About It. Write dialogue that reveals character and energizes your narrative.

Week 4: Out Here, In There. Find a point of view that allows for just the right amount of distance.

Week 5: Everyone Has An Opinion. Receive positive, constructive peer feedback on your work and learn strategies on how to integrate feedback into revision.

This class is open to all genres but readings will focus on literary fiction. Sign-up at StoryStudio.

NOTE: New materials become available each week on Tuesday, but lessons can be completed any time during the week. You do not need to be online at a certain time/date.

Northwestern University Summer Writers' Conference: Good Writing Is Revising

I’m looking forward to an insightful, fun conversation on revision with Randall Albers, Eric Charles May, and Donna Seaman. Come see us at NU this Saturday!

Northbrook Writes: "Revision Is Everything," Saturday, 3/16

I’m looking forward to teaching a class on revision at Northbrook Public Library this Saturday, March 16th from 1:00-2:30pm. Here’s the full description:

Writers often talk about rewriting their work 4, 7 or 11 times. But what does "rewriting" actually entail? In this workshop, acclaimed short story writer Sarah Kokernot will provide revision strategies on how to rewrite your work until it is your best work. You'll dive deep into issues of point of view, exposition, dialogue, and the importance of loose first drafts.

Register here!

StoryStudio Gig

I’m very pleased (and very late) to report that I accepted a position as Program Curator at StoryStudio last summer!

StoryStudio offers a variety of creative writing classes to adults and youth. Imagine an à la carte MFA program where you don’t go into student debt or quit your day job. The instructors are incredibly talented writers with serious teaching chops. My job is supporting instructors while they develop concepts for their classes, and helping to ensure that student learning needs are met.

In addition to working at StoryStudio, I’m growing my business as a freelance writer and editor. Contact me for more information and rates.

Generative Writing Workshop at StoryStudio this summer!

I am excited to teach a creative writing class this summer at StoryStudio! The course description is available here and also below.  

Writing is a serious kind of play—it requires experimentation, spontaneity, and an openness to try again. This four-week, all-levels class taught by acclaimed short story writer Sarah Kokernot will cover playful, generative writing techniques that will help you feel a renewed interest in your own work. We’ll borrow and steal from poetry, visual art, and our favorite writers. Such activities include:

• Poetry Bath: We’ll bring in a few of our favorite books of poetry and incorporate lines into new or ongoing work.

• Syntax Imitation: We’ll choose a paragraph from a work we admire and do our best to closely imitate its syntax.

• Sentence Hopscotch: We’ll read through old magazines, pick sentences that intrigue us, then build a paragraph or scene around those sentences.  

Students will leave with stories in development or new material for an ongoing project, in addition to feedback from the instructor.

Be prepared to work on and share new material in class, give positive feedback to your peers, and complete short assignments at home.

"Best Worst American" by Juan Martinez

Juan Martinez has a book of short stories out!

I would love this book even if I wasn't married to the author. The stories are darkly funny and beautifully imagined. But, don't take my word for it. Here's a glowing review from the less biased experts at Tor: "... you will emerge changed by his imagination, ready to see the world in a different light."

Buy a copy from Small Beer Press or through your local independent bookstore, such as Women and Children First in Chicago.

"Pleasure To Make Your Acquaintance" Distinguished in Best American Short Stories 2016

I was excited and proud to discover that "Pleasure To Make Your Acquaintance" is a distinguished story in Best American Short Stories 2016. It's been a crazy, hectic summer and to tell the truth it's been hard to carve out time to write between raising a toddler and making a living. Acknowledgements like this are a huge encouragement. Thank you Heidi Pitlor and Junot Diaz!

Thanks also to Crazyhorse for originally publishing this story in their Spring 2015 issue. 

Word Lab at 826CHI

A few weeks ago I led a visual-arts and writing themed summer camp for English Language Learners -- and it was one of my favorite teaching experiences ever. The quality of written material that young students generate from their own visual art is simply amazing, and I wish this kind of arts-driven literacy curriculum was more available in schools. Our students created extraterrestrial self-portraits, imaginary cities,  and floor-plans for dream hotels. Many thanks to all the dedicated volunteers and interns who worked one-on-one with this awesome crew of students!

You can read more about 826CHI programs here.

Students writing compliments about each other's paintings.

"M&L" in Best American Short Stories 2015!

I'm so thrilled that Heidi Pitlor and T.C. Boyle chose "M&L" to appear in The Best American Short Stories 2015. It's a huge honor. I've been a fan of the series since Walter Mosley's 2003 edition. I was so deeply impressed by how alive and urgent each of those stories were. I read the book front to back in a single day, and by the time I was done I knew I wanted to write short fiction.

I'm deeply grateful to the editors of West Branch for believing in "M&L."

Wings of Isis New Age Gifts and More

Proud and honored that Front Porch nominated "Wings of Isis New Age Gifts and More" for a 2015 Pushcart Prize. Here's a review from New Pages: Sarah Kokernot’s fiction contribution has a killer first paragraph, starting with, “Tuesday afternoons between three and four o’clock are the slowest time at Wings of Isis New Age Gifts, so that’s when my sister Lula goes into the backroom to conjure the dead.” Each line is a treat; it continues: “My sister speaks in two voices. One is her own, calm as a 911 operator and sunny as a tour guide. The second is the voice of the dead, nasal and throaty, like she’s recovering from the world’s worst sinus infection.” When their Mimi dies, she sets a test to see if Lula really can speak with the dead. It’s unpredictable, original, and well-crafted, a must-read.

You can read "Wings of Isis New Age Gifts and More" in its entirety here.

I <3 my job!

Come volunteer at 826CHI during After-School Tutoring & Writing! Here's an interview about what we do and how we do it.

Reviews of "Odd Variations on the Species"!

The nice thing about writing speculative short fiction is that people read -- and actually review -- speculative short fiction. From Locus Online Reviews: "Like much comedy, this one has a sort of manic intensity, with multiple themes competing for reader attention and complicating the plot... Funny and amusing stuff."

And there's another one at the SFRevu Review.

New Publications in Fall 2014

2014journal_photo

This fall I have three stories coming out all at the same time.

I would like to think this good fortune is due to hard work, an early bedtime, and some badass editors who carefully read through the slush pile.

Thanks y'all!

• "M&L" at West Branch
• "Wings of Isis New Age Gifts And More" at Front Porch
• "Odd Variations On The Species" at Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet

I work here now!

In January I started working as the Program Coordinator at 826CHI, a non-profit writing and tutoring center. The spirit of my job is best captured by this fantastic video made by designkitchen:

826CHI // One Sentence from 826CHI on Vimeo.