Emma Van Straaten on Writing Mixed Race Identity, Female Rage, and Obsession in ‘This Immaculate Body’
A conversation about fiction rooted in truth, the complexities of motherhood, and finding rhythm in the writing process.
This week on Sick Sad Lit, I’m joined by writer Emma Van Straaten, whose debut novel This Immaculate Body is one of the most unsettling, intimate, and thought-provoking books I’ve read in a long time.
We talk about what it means to write fiction that pulls from your own emotional history - and how identity, motherhood, obsession, and memory collide on the page.
Emma opens up about the writing process behind This Immaculate Body:
How she developed her protagonist Alice, a woman both haunted and hungry
What it means to write about mixed race identity and family dynamics
The challenges of writing while parenting
And what it feels like to take your most personal material and send it out into the world
We also dig into the realities of the publishing journey, the pressure to write into cultural conversations about identity, and the joy of finding your rhythm…even when life refuses to cooperate.
If you’ve ever felt the tension between care and control, or tried to write a character who scares you a little, this episode is for you.
🎧 Listen now below or wherever you get your podcasts.