Late to the Party

What we owe the gods

Sanjena Sathian — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:39:34 GMT

Another reminder that applications to my workshop are due AUGUST 14TH! Scholarships are available, including at least one full ride!

Fine, I'll bite: on A.I. and writing

Sanjena Sathian — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 23:20:18 GMT

A reminder that you can still apply to the Banyan Writers’ Workshop anytime before August 14th. Scholarships are available! Please share with anyone you know who might enjoy more writing community and feedback!

On my whirlwind tour of America this summer, I have had perhaps a hundred conversations about A.I. Most of these discussions are taking place with people over the age of 30. Many folks are curious about how I, as a writer and a teacher, feel about the future of the arts, the future of education, and the future of arts education.

A few years ago, writers had an easy line when asked about A.I. and writing — a line that no longer works.

Announcing the Banyan Writers' Workshop

Sanjena Sathian — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:02:02 GMT

Friends, I’m running another class this fall! In fact, I’m launching a whole online workshop with classes for students of all levels.

First up is a classic prose workshop, open to writers of fiction and nonfiction alike. No experience or publication necessary. All you need are some pages to submit. We’ll meet on Tuesday evenings, 8-10 pm ET, between Sep…

A really good workplace soccer comedy

Sanjena Sathian — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 21:49:17 GMT

It turns out that you can STILL register for my class right up till 6 pm ET on Tuesday, July 7th (TOMORROW)! You can take it asynchronously or join us live.

The Devil Wore Upcycled IP

Sanjena Sathian — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 02:54:56 GMT

These authors’ books are SO good! Come discuss their work with me in July!

One more reminder that I’m teaching an online course this summer called Writing the Short Story. We’ll study the work of four brilliant short story writers — Maria Kuznetsova, Aimee Bender, Senaa Ahmad, and Tony Tulathimutte. Those writers will then join us over Zoom. I’ll offer writing prompts along the way. Here’s a link to sign up. Registration remains open all the way up to one hour before our first session on Tuesday, July 7th at 7 pm ET. I hope to catch you online!

My July class is still open

Sanjena Sathian — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:15:56 GMT

Friends, a reminder that I’m teaching a four-week online course this summer called Writing the Short Story with the magazine Off Assignment. It’ll be a monthlong exercise in reading for craft, as we study the work of four brilliant short story writers — Maria Kuznetsova, Aimee Bender, Senaa Ahmad, and Tony Tulathimutte. Those writers will then join us o…

Take a class with me this summer!

Sanjena Sathian — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:41:23 GMT

Friends, a quick announcement about an online course I’m teaching this summer called Writing the Short Story. The class will run through the magazine Off Assignment.

It’s a four-week program, meeting once a week; at each session, we’ll read the work of a published author and then that author will Zoom in to discuss their story live with us. It’s a very …

What I read and loved this spring

Sanjena Sathian — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 02:23:40 GMT

This spring, I taught a class here in Hong Kong called “Feminist and Queer Literature in Asian Contexts.” Over the past few months, my students have discussed metamorphoses in the work of Han Kang and SJ Sindu, dutiful daughters in stories by Cho Nam-joo and Souvankham Thammavongsa, and wild world-building in the speculative fiction of Ysabelle Cheung a…

Two great classes!

Sanjena Sathian — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:31:54 GMT

Friends, I am looking up from some end-of-semester busyness to send a quick note about two classes run by two great friends of mine!

For freelance-curious journalists: Learn how to build a viable, rewarding freelance career in FLYING SOLO, a six-week intensive taught by Charley Locke and Megan Greenwell, starting April 15. Between them, Charley and Megan…

Do men (on Love is Blind) know where babies come from?

Sanjena Sathian — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:20:41 GMT

Goddess Complex, my novel about procreative choice, is in paperback on Tuesday! Nab a copy here!

My latest: on making "The Baby Decision"

Sanjena Sathian — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:05:04 GMT

Goddess Complex is out in paperback on March 10th. Nab a copy today!

Today, a reported piece I spent nearly a year on — the first journalism I’ve done in years — is finally out, in The Cut. It’s about a book called The Baby Decision, which was first published in 1981, and about its author, 76-year-old therapist Merle Bombardieri, who helps people decide …

GODDESS COMPLEX is coming out in paperback

Sanjena Sathian — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 14:37:21 GMT

It’s been nearly one year since Goddess Complex arrived in the world, which means it’s paperback time — otherwise known as a chance to get your hands on a more portable, subway-readable, beach-lazeable copy of the novel. If you’d like to enter to win a copy of Goddess Complex, you can do so here! If you don’t win, you can grab a copy here, which will ar…

The whole world is watching

Sanjena Sathian — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 14:40:20 GMT

I’m donating to the Immigrant Defense Network and Immigration Equality. If you have a favorite immigrant rights organization that deserves our money, LMK.

The tragicomedy of the Fourth Estate

Sanjena Sathian — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 15:06:07 GMT

For a long time, I wanted to write a sitcom set in a regional newsroom. I had all the characters in mind: the jaded cops reporter, the exhausted copy desk editor, the ambitious young breaking news intern, the penny-pinching publisher. The antagonists were easy to picture, too: a digital media venture imposing itself on the newsroom1; the ad department, p…

How to start anew

Sanjena Sathian — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 14:02:36 GMT

Here is a story I told myself about my writing process for many years: I’m not precious. I can write wherever, whenever! This story is partly true; when I’m really in a project, I can work almost anywhere — on planes, in trains, or in coffee shops. But it’s also not the whole truth.

Here’s another story I’ve told myself about my process: I am a sensitive…

How to meet your characters, part three

Sanjena Sathian — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 14:15:23 GMT

This fall, I’ve been putting together some of my thoughts on how character works in fiction, but that’s a cold crafty way of saying that I’ve been thinking through the ways we can come to know other people, and ourselves, in life and on the page. For me, that’s what “character” refers to: not the biographical sketch of a fake person, but the process of coming close to knowing, or understanding, the real people in our lives, and our inner selves.

I’ve always bristled at one of the most common ideas you hear about character in fiction: “Everyone wants something.”

I heard variations on this line when I submitted the first chapter of my first novel, Gold Diggers, to a workshop. I heard it again — a lot — when I was adapting the book for television. And I’ve started to believe that this flat concept of character — which is to say, a flat understanding of other people — is one of the more insidious ideas infecting contemporary American fiction, film, and TV.

My "2025" Bests

Sanjena Sathian — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 15:15:27 GMT

As most of you here know, I had a book come out this year. One of the hardest parts about publishing a book, for me, is what happens to the quality of my attention when I’m promoting it. (She says confidently, with a sample size of two.)

Thanks to those of you who sent me snapshots of Goddess Complex in the world!

Normally, I manage to limit my social me…

All unhappy families

Sanjena Sathian — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:45:56 GMT

My friends, I have been negligent on Substack of late; a busy travel schedule had me underwater, but I would be remiss if I did not belatedly share with you my favorite read of last month’s spooky season, Laura van den Berg’s The Third Hotel (2018). It’s about a widow who believes she encounters her husband’s ghost while at a horror film conference in C…

How to meet your characters, part two

Sanjena Sathian — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:40:26 GMT

Newsstand alert! Last week New York Magazine published my review of the new Kiran Desai novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.

Last month, in my “Only Ugly First Drafts” newsletter — the part of this Substack devoted to craft reflections, close-reads, and, sometimes, writing prompts — I reflected on Tessa Hadley’s story “Experience,” and offered a prompt about “meeting” a character by way of jealousy.

This month, we’ll think about transcendence as a route into characters’ inner lives.

Craft essays and writing prompts take a second to assemble! They’re like little classes. For that reason, I paywall the more labor-intensive installments of “Only Ugly First Drafts.” If you’re a paid subscriber, thank you for helping to make this work possible!

Subscribe now

Fisking demographic panic

Sanjena Sathian — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 14:30:51 GMT

For the past year, ever since centrists realized that the far right was obsessed with birthrates, I have watched mainstream media join the handwringing about demography. An example of this came in February, when The New Yorker published a feature on birthrate declines in South Korea, titled “The End of Children.”

This piece, which Americans are still qu…