Sarah Thankam Matthews on a Near-Drowning

Mar 22

“When I was writing I would remember the feeling of being in the waves, but the memory was less encoded as helplessness and fear and more the sense of: you’ve done difficult things before, you lived, you lived for a reason.”

Sarah Thankam Mathews grew up between Oman and India, immigrating to the United States in her late teens. Her work has been published in Best American Short Stories and she is a recipient of fellowships from the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 2020, she founded the mutual aid group Bed-Stuy Strong. All This Could Be Different, Mathews’ debut novel, was named an NYT Editor’s Choice, chosen for multiple high-profile Best of 2022 lists, and shortlisted for the National Book Award.

Jordan Kisner

Sarah Thankam Matthews on a Near-Drowning

“When I was writing I would remember the feeling of being in the waves, but the memory was less encoded as helplessness and fear and more the sense of: you’ve done difficult things before, you lived, you lived for a reason.”

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