I’m very grateful to Kathryn Walsh Kuitenbrouwer for her incisive, insightful questions in this interview about With My Back to the World for Hamilton Review of Books.
Intuitive Surrender
KATHRYN WALSH KUITENBROUWER INTERVIEWS SALLY COOPER
Sally Cooper’s third novel, With My Back to the World, published by Wolsak &Wynn, was released in spring 2019. She is the author of the story collection Smells Like Heaven (ARP Books, 2017) as well as two acclaimed novels. Sally is a senior editor with Hamilton Review of Books.
Sally Cooper. With My Back to the World. James Street North Books. $22.00, 376 pp., ISBN: 9781928088806
Kathryn Walsh Kuitenbrouwer: Sally, thank you for the opportunity to read and immerse in your compelling new novel, With My Back to the World. I have a lot of questions about the subject matter and the impulses that drew you to it. My first one is about art-making and motherhood. I loved reading about Agnes Martin’s art—and Rudie’s documentary filmmaking—processes. Is there, do you think, an analogy to be made between the urgency of art-making for Martin and the willful desire toward motherhood for Rudie?
SC: I love this first question as it touches the heart of what’s driving these two women and what draws Rudie to Agnes.
Click here for the full interview.