Sarah Fay
Contact: sarah.fay@northwestern.edu
Books
Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses (HarperCollins, 2022)
Cured: The Memoir (Substack, 2023)
Representation
Literary agent: Kim Witherspoon, Inkwell Management Literary Agency
Speaking agent: Washington Speakers Bureau
Education
Ph.D. English Literary Studies, The University of Iowa, May 2013
Dissertation title: “The American Tradition of the Literary Interview, 1840–1960: A Cultural History”
M.A. English Literary Studies, The University of Iowa, December 2010
M.F.A. Creative Writing, Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, July 2006
B.A. with distinction Women’s Studies, University of Michigan, April 1994
Teaching Positions
Adjunct Lecturer, Northwestern University, 2014–present
Adjunct Professor, DePaul University, 2013, 2017–present
Visiting Assistant Professor, DePaul University, 2014–2015 (fixed, one-year position)
Lecturer, DePaul University, 2015–2017 (fixed, three-year position)
Graduate Teaching Assistant, The University of Iowa, 2007–2011
Faculty, The University of Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, 2010–2012
Instructor, The University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival, 2009–2011
Faculty, Fifth Avenue Committee, Brooklyn 2002–2005
Writer-in-Residence, New York City Public Schools, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2000–2007 (taught literature and creative writing to students with severe mental and physical disabilities in low-income neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs)
Distinctions, Fellowships & Awards
Notable Mention, Best American Essays 2021, “On Loneliness (and Solitude and Isolation [and Brackets]),” 2021
John C. Gerber Award for Excellence in Teaching, The University of Iowa, 2013
The Mellon Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Narrative Theory Fellowship, 2012
Prairie Lights Dissertation Research Scholarship, The University of Iowa, 2011
Jakobsen Conference Presenter Award, The University of Iowa, 2011
Edwin Ford Piper Research Scholarship at the Pierpont Morgan Library, The University of Iowa, 2010
Stanley Research Grant, The University of Iowa, 2009
Yaddo, Resident Artist, 2008
12th Annual Poetry Prize (judge: Billy Collins), Poetry Center of Chicago, 2007
The Puffin Foundation, Grantee, 2006
Chapbook Award, The New York City Center for Book Arts, 2004
The MacDowell Colony, Writing Fellow, 2003
Vermont Studio Center, Writing Fellow, 2000
Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Tennessee Williams Scholar, 1998
Hopwood Award, Dennis McIntyre Prize, University of Michigan, 1994
Mental Health & Peer Recovery Specialist Certifications
Mental Health First Aid
Mental Health Peer Specialist, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
Dialogic Practice in Open Dialogue (crisis intervention for suicidality and psychosis), The Institute for Dialogic Practice, Yale School of Medicine
Certified Personal Medicine Coach, Pat Deegan and Associates
Emotional CPR (crisis intervention for psychosis), Behaviour Aid: Mental Health, Wellness, and Crisis Response
Selected publications
Essays
“I Am So Much More Than a Diagnosis,” Oprah Daily, May 2022
“I received six psychiatric diagnoses in 25 years. They were a dead end” (op-ed), Los Angeles Times, May 2022
“The Fully Fact-Checked Memoir: Backing Up Facts, Standing Behind Truth,” Poets & Writers, March/April 2022
“Teaching Writing to Children with Autism While in the Grip of Anxiety,” Lit Hub, March 2022
“On Loneliness (and Solitude and Isolation [and Brackets]),” Longreads, March 2020
“When the Happy Pill Ends,” Michigan Quarterly Review, January 2020
“Latana Foods Strawberry Hummus,” McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, January 9, 2019
“How to Talk to Shakespeare, H.G. Wells, and Emily Dickinson,” The Atlantic, March 14, 2013
“Vladimir Nabokov and the Art of the Self-Interview,” The Paris Review Daily, July 2, 2011
“Delivering Gatsby,” The Paris Review Daily, August 18, 2010
“Things Inside My Head,” Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, spring 2007
Reviews & Literary Criticism
“Finding Asylum: Esmé Wigun Wang’s ‘The Collected Schizophrenias,’” The Millions, March 28, 2019
“The Transcendentalist,” The New York Times Book Review, June 15, 2012
“Introduction,” Critical Insights: Slaughterhouse-Five,” Salem Press, 2012
“Sex and Prophecy,” The New Republic, January 10, 2012
“Women of Masada,” The New York Times Book Review, October 21, 2011
“A Cheating Husband’s World,” The New York Times Book Review, March 25, 2011
“Memory’s Harvest,” The New York Times Book Review, July 30, 2010
“Love, Labor, Loss,” The New York Times Book Review, April 30, 2010
“Fiction Chronicle,” The New York Times Book Review, November 20, 2009
“Men of Steel,” Bookforum, February/March 2009
“East Meets West, East Loses West,” The New York Times Book Review, January 2, 2009
“Choosing their Disappointments,” The New York Times Book Review, September 7, 2008
“A Manuscript of Ashes by Antonio Muñoz Molina,” Bookforum, September 2008
“How to Be a Man,” The New York Times Book Review, March 16, 2008
“Sleepless Nights,” The American Scholar, spring 2008
“Homing In,” The New York Times Book Review, November 25, 2007
“Sarah Fay on Jill Bialosky’s The Life Room,” Bookforum, September 2007
“Wide World,” The American Scholar, summer 2007
“Missing,” The New York Times Book Review, March 25, 2007
Arts & Culture Journalism
“What’s Missing from Oprah’s Book Club 2.0,” The Atlantic, June 18, 2012
“The Precarious State of the Literary Interview,” The Atlantic, May 23, 2012
“Could the Internet Save Book Reviews?” The Atlantic, May 7, 2012
“Book Reviews: A Tortured History,” The Atlantic, April 24, 2012
Literary Journalism: Long-form Interviews and Profiles
“Javier Marías: The Art of Fiction No. 190,” Longform, 2016 (reprint)
“Fiction Born of Rival Impulses: A Conversation with Wells Tower,” The Iowa Review, spring 2011
“Interview with Michael Silverblatt,” The Believer, June 2010
“A Lowly Humble Bookworm: A Conversation with Michael Silverblatt,” The Iowa Review, spring 2010
“Ha Jin, The Art of Fiction No. 202,” The Paris Review, winter 2009
“Kay Ryan, The Art of Fiction No. 94,” The Paris Review, winter 2008
“America’s Busiest Poet,” TIME Magazine, July 23, 2008
“Marilynne Robinson, The Art of Fiction No. 198,” The Paris Review, fall 2008
“Kenzaburo Oe, The Art of Fiction No. 195,” The Paris Review, winter 2007
“Interview with Pankaj Mishra,” The Believer, March 2007
“Javier Marías, The Art of Fiction No. 190,” The Paris Review, winter 2006
“Jack Gilbert, The Art of Poetry No. 91,” The Paris Review, fall 2005
Anthologies (reprints)
“Ha Jin: The Art of Fiction No. 202,” Writers at Work Around the World: Interviews from the Paris Review, Paris Review Editions, 2019
“Interview with Pankaj Mishra,” Oh Yes, That’s What I Was Doing: Conversations about Writing from the Believer Magazine, eds. Vendela Vida, Ross Simonini, and Sheila Heti, San Francisco: McSweeney’s, 2013
“Marilynne Robinson, The Art of Fiction No. 198,” The Paris Review Interviews IV, New York: Picador, 2009
“Jack Gilbert, The Art of Poetry No. 91,” The Paris Review Interviews I, New York: Picador, 2006
Poetry
“Room,” “Box by the Door,” Twyckenham Notes, 2018
“Recovery,” The Madison Review, fall 2018
“Monogenetic,” The Midwest Review, fall 2018
“Sunrise in the Emergency Room of Wyckoff Medical Center,” “Waitress Stills Nos. 7 & 9,” Swink, 2007
“Disremember,” “Fix in April,” The Bellingham Review, spring 2005
“Second Period at Specialized Institutional Environment No. 3,” Margie, 2004
“Saw Horses,” Black Warrior Review, fall/winter 2004
“Zoo Avé,” Slant, 2003
“Tall Widow,” Diner, fall 2003
Press: Pathological
Reviews and Mentions
16 Great Books About Mental Health for Empathy, Insight and So Much More, Parade Magazine, August 2022
New Memoirs Bristling with Wit, Warmth and Spiky Intelligence, The New York Times, 2022
“Pathological: A review of a compelling new memoir on psychiatric error and hubris,” Psychology Today, June 2022
“Why Are We So ‘Ill’? A Review of Sarah Fay’s ‘Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses,’” New City, May 2022
Starred Kirkus Review: Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses, March 2022
Interviews
The Rumpus, June 2022
Forbes, May 2022
WGN Morning News, May 2022
NPR’s Watching America, May 2022
NPR’s KERA/Think, April 2022
NPR’s 1A with Thomas Insel and Paul Appelbaum, April 2022
Salon, March 2022
+ many podcasts and more—lick here
Readings, Lectures, and Talks
Texas Book Festival, with Rachel Aviv, November 2022
Mad in Brasil 2022 Conference, with Dr. Allen Frances and Andrew Scull, November 2022
Keynote speaker—On Our Own of Maryland (peer-operated behavioral health organization) 2022 conference, Pathological: What 25 Years of Living with Mental Illness Taught Me About Self-Stigma and How to Eradicate It, 2022
Harvard Bookstore reading with Leslie Jamison, Cambridge MA, March 2022
Powell’s Bookstore reading with Anthony Swofford, Portland OR, March 2022
Book Soup reading with Porochista Khakpour, Los Angeles CA , March 2022
Print Bookstore reading with Mira Ptacin, Portland ME, March 2022
“The Literary Interview: A Conversation between Michael Silverblatt and Sarah Fay,” Graduate Nonfiction Writing Program, The University of Iowa, 2011
“Writing and Publishing Book Reviews,” Nonfiction Writing Program, The University of Iowa, 2010
“The Art of the Interview,” Nonfiction Writing Program, The University of Iowa, 2010
“What Makes an Interview Literary?” Nonfiction Writing Program, The University of Iowa, 2009
“Why Chapters in Novels Are Like Short Stories Only Different” (fiction—live link to lecture) The University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival, 2010
Academic Conference Presentations and Panels
NonfictioNow Conference, “Facts and the First-Person Voice: The Truthtelling Crisis in Journalism and Creative Nonfiction” with Martha Nichols, Miles Harvey, Damon Young, and Jacqueline Keeler, December 2021
Modern Language Association Convention (MLA), “The Rise of the Interview and the Rise of Interview Studies” with Rebecca Roach, Harold Vesser, and Jeffrey Williams, January 2021
Teaching Life Writing Conference, “The Rise of the Interview and the Rise of Interview Studies” with Rebecca Roach, Harold Vesser, and Jeffrey Williams, December 2020
The University of Chicago Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science, “The Writer at Work: Race, Gender, and Authorship in The Paris Review Interviews,” November 2019
The University of Chicago Graduate Conference: “Craft Talk: The Paris Review Interview and Literary Practice in Post-WWII American Literature,” 2011
The University of Iowa Jakobsen Conference, “A History of the Literary Interview,” 2011 (Presenter Award)
The University of Iowa RLA Conference, “Attention to Detail: The Interpolated Traveler as Ties that Bind in Dickens’s Little Dorrit,” 2010
Professional Experience
Substack Growth Strategist, 2023–present
Founder/Director, Substack Writers at Work, 2022-present
Advisory Editor, Paris Review, 2007–2010
Program Associate, The University of Iowa, General Education Program, 2011–2013
Radio Moderator and Interviewer, “Live from Prairie Lights” Reading Series, Iowa City, IA, 2008–2010 (hosted readings by Wells Tower, John Koethe, and Eileen Myles, among others; conducted post-reading interviews with authors; moderated panels, including the “Why Translation Matters” event with the National Book Critics Circle Reads program)
Writing Tutor, The University of Iowa Tippie College of Business, Iowa City, IA 2011–2013
Writing Consultant, New York City Public Schools, 2004–2005
Founder/Curator/Producer, Downtown Poetry Walk, New York, NY 2002
Selected Courses Taught
Creative Nonfiction and Literary Journalism
Northwestern University
ENG 208-CN Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction (13 courses)
ENG 308-CN Advanced Creative Nonfiction (8 courses)
DePaul University
ENG 484 Graduate Workshop: The Art of the Book Review and the Literary Interview
ENG 484 Graduate Workshop: Writing and Social Justice
ENG 309 Advanced Workshop: Digital Storytelling
ENG 306 Advanced Creative Nonfiction
ENG 290 Intermediate Creative Nonfiction
At-Large
The Art of the Interview, University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival
Beyond Writer’s Block, University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival
The Craft of Creative Nonfiction, University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival
Fiction
DePaul University
ENG 484 Graduate Workshop: Writing and Social Justice
ENG 484 Graduate Workshop: Conflict, Tension, Risk
ENG 399 Independent Study
ENG 309 Advanced Workshop: Engaged Storytelling (writing fiction that engages with social justice issues)
ENG 291 Intermediate Fiction Workshop
ENG 218 Reading and Writing Fiction
Multi-Genre & Poetry
Northwestern University
ENG 206 Reading and Writing Poetry
DePaul University
ENG 484 Graduate Workshop: The Art of Revision
ENG 484 Graduate Workshop: The Art of Writing for Television and the Internet
ENG 309 Advanced Workshop: Beyond the Page
ENG 309 Advanced Workshop: The Writer at Work: Deep Revision
ENG 309 Advanced Workshop: Conflict, Tension, Risk
ENG 201 Introduction to Creative Writing
English Literature
DePaul University
ENG 221 Reading Prose
ENG 101 American Literature and Social Justice
ENG 101 Introduction to Literature: Race, Justice, and the Digital
University of Iowa
ENG 3800: (guest instructor) Topics in Literature and Culture of Twentieth-Century America: First and Last Books of Poetry
ENG: 2100: (guest instructor) Topics in British Literature before 1900: The Autobiographical Self, Madness, and Revolution in Eighteenth-Century British Poetry
ENG 1350: Topics: American Lives: The American Tradition of the Literary Interview—Craft and Celebrity in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature
General Education Program/Liberal Studies Program
DePaul University
LSP 200 Multicultural Voices in U.S. Literature and Film
LSP 200 Social Justice in American Literature and Documentary Film
LSP 200 Ethnic American Literature
LSP 112 Talk Show: The Art of Conversation from Plato to Facebook to Fallon
LSP 111 Honors Explore Chicago: Telling Chicago Stories
LSP 111 Explore Chicago: Telling Chicago Stories
LSP 110 Discover Chicago: Writing Chicago Neighborhoods
University of Iowa
HONORS 1200: Interpretation of Literature
Survey of American Literature: Race, Ethnicity, and the American Dream
Body Trouble: Women, Gender, Sexuality, and American Literature
Images of Women in Literature
Being Human in Literature and Film
Beyond Montaigne: The Essay in All its Forms
ENG 1200: Interpretation of Literature
Introduction to Global Literature
The American Tradition of the Interview—Celebrity and the Media
Multicultural U.S. Literature
Speculative Fiction