Sara Laskoski, Writer of YA Fantasy
Who I Am
I'll start with two fun facts about myself: I am a twin (with possibly real telepathic powers--we call it twin tuition), and I have bungee jumped and survived.
Now for a bit more detail. I have a M.A. in Literature from the University of Montana and love how books bring people together. My education also includes a B.A. in Environmental Studies. I'm all about exploring the outdoors and protecting the environment. I currently work in higher education where I support students in developing academic skills. I previously was a high school English teacher. I am passionate about my work and my writing.
For me, fantasy is about mingling real life within a well-developed, imagined world. I'm all about escaping into a great book, but I also seek a depth that drives literary conversations. Therefore, I include themes in my writing that are relevant to our world.
Below is a Q&A if you want to get to know me even better!
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture or to carve a statue and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look which morally we can do.
-Henry David Thoreau
Q & A
What are your favorite books?
Here are a few books I can't live without:
-Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier (and everything else by her)
-East by Edith Pattou
-Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
-A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas
-What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez
-Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
-An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
-The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
-Fable by Adrienne Young
-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
-The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
-Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (LOVE reading books by females from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries)
-Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (any fans of dystopian novels should read this NOW...you thought A Handmaid's Tale was intense)
-All short stories by Angela Carter (her fairy tale retellings are masterpieces)
-The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram (an environmental nonfiction about the importance of connecting to nature)
What do you do in your free time?
When I'm not writing or reading, I am painting, hiking, kayaking, running, learning how to rock climb (aka clinging to the rope), and basically doing everything outdoors. I love spending time with my wonderful husband and family.
What ingredients flavor your writing?
This answer varies based on the project I am working on. Below, please find a list of themes/concepts that often appear in my writing:
-Female power
-Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity
-Magic (both physical powers and the magic that exists within the imagination)
-Love for the environment
-Mythical beasts and imagined ones
-Bits and pieces of fairy tales and myths (not always a straight out retelling)
-More than a dash of romance
-A celebration of difference
Current Literary Analysis Publication and Master's Thesis:
My research in literature is all about gender theory, feminism, animal studies, and ecocriticism. I've included this section because my research reflects a lot about my interests.
Publication:
Laskoski, Sara. “The Surreptitious Supernatural: Uprooting Edmund Burke’s Sublime and Beautiful in the Gothic Novel The Monk.” Aelurus. Spring 2014, 64-83. https://issuu.com/aelurus/docs/aelurus2014
Master's Thesis:
Laskoski, Sara M., "Morphing Myths and Shedding Skins: Interconnectivity and the Subversion of the Isolated Female Self in Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride” and Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing" (2015). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. http://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/4486/
Abstract:
This project is an analysis of the utilization of mythmaking and human-animal relationships reflected in Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride” and Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing. Carter and Atwood show how societal restrictions can devalue the connections between the body, the mind, and the natural world. Through the theoretical lenses of primarily post-structuralism and ecofeminism, this project seeks to show how these two authors subvert isolated female identities through the use of the fairy tale element of the human-animal transformation. This subversion rejects dualistic tendencies of the dominant, patriarchal society, opening new ways of identifying the self through interconnections otherwise rejected or ignored out of the fear of encountering otherness. The formation of relational selves encourages both the communication with entities beyond the human realm and also the engagement in creative deconstruction that helps establish fluidity. Through their innovative uses of language, Carter and Atwood portray a movement away from normative society towards an ambiguity that promotes diversified multiplicity.