Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award - Sara Taylor

This week, I’m publishing interviews with the authors who have been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. In keeping with the theme of the awards, I’m asking questions about how the authors got started, their inspirations and their literary ambitions.

Next up is Sara Taylor, whose debut The Shore is an interlinking series of short stories which was nominated for the Bailey’s Prize. Born in Virginia, she completed an MA in Prose Fiction at UAE, where she is currently working on her PhD. You can read a review of The Shore over at the excellent blog The Writes of Woman.

When did you first start writing seriously?

When I was ten or so I started nicking marble composition notebooks from my mother’s school supply cupboard so I could write novels in them. By the time I learned to touch type a year or two later I’d gotten in the habit of spending an hour a day writing. I wish I still had that level of discipline – but I suspect it was a product of having a hellishly boring and regimented life.

What was the first novel you ever finished, and was it published?

It was a (pretty bad) fantasy novel about a brother and sister stumbling through parallel universes, written when I was eleven. I bound it in blue calico for my younger brother. And now I realize I should probably go back to the U.S. and hide all of those calico-bound books before they embarrass me…

What where the books which inspired you to write?

It was mostly the work of three great women: E. Nesbit, Joan Aiken, and Diana Wynne Jones. Having mostly unfettered access to the local library also helped.

Is there anyone you would consider your literary mentor?

Whenever I start something new, short story, novel, or what have you, I inevitably go looking for a pre-existing book to see how it should be done. The mentors change with what I’ve read and what I’m writing. 

Did you do any formal training – creative writing courses or similar?

At university I took the writing option and had fiction workshops in addition to straight literature; immediately after that I went to UEA for the fiction Masters, and technically I’m still there being taught how to write – so it would seem like I’ve had quite a bit of formal training. Except my reflex in both places was to be told how to do something and then immediately go off and see if I could successfully do the exact opposite. So I’m not certain how much good it did me, and I’m pretty certain that several of my university professors were ecstatic to get rid of me.

What is your ideal place to go when you write?

I’ve had the best luck either at my desk in absolute silence with something to drink, or in cafés with comfortable chairs and a decent level of background noise.

What’s your ambition for your fiction?

My first ambition is for it to come to life on the page, to be worth reading at all. If it’s successful in that way, I want it to speak to someone, to grip them or transport them, to give them hope for their own future or a moment of escape.

Who are your favourite contemporary writers?

Margaret Atwood, Ali Smith, Alice Munroe, Helen Simpson, David Mitchell, Lauren Groff. There are probably several names I’m forgetting – I’m horrible with both names and titles.

Do you have a muse, and if so what form does it take?

If my muse took human form it would be as a seven foot tall Amazon warrior, threatening physical violence if I don’t hit my daily work quota. I’m more likely to be overwhelmed with things I want to be writing than to be looking for inspiration.

Can you pitch your book to someone who hasn’t read it?

It is a novel in pieces about a family in pieces, living on a series of remote islands and doing whatever they must – up to and including murder – to survive. It spans generations, from the antebellum past to the post-apocalyptic future, and involves an inordinate amount of sex, drugs, and wild ponies.