Sara Backer

This blog was originally created to publicize my novel AMERICAN FUJI published in 2001 with a reissue in 2009. Now, I am all about poetry and I use this blog to show where you can read my poems.

Saturday, August 20, 2022

For Tinker Bell

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My small sonnet For Tinker Bell appears in the Muddy River Review.  You could spent all day on this web site of archived poems!

Pollen

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SurVision #11 has published my ecologic-science fiction poem Pollen . Be careful when you sneeze.
Monday, July 18, 2022

3 poems in White Enso

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White Enso an online journal of Japan related writing published three of my poems: "Breath" -- one of many ways to breath in chao...
Friday, July 15, 2022

Freight

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  Poetry Northwest was the first renowned journal that accepted one of my poems. I'm very happy to have a second poem in PN years late...
Tuesday, May 31, 2022

This Sooty Darkness

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Paul Cezanne's The   Stove in the Studio  made me think about the process of art and writing. Read This Sooty Darkness on the site of T...
Friday, May 13, 2022

Future publications

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 More of my poems will be published in 2022. Watch for: Poetry Northwest, Muddy River Review, Bamboo Ridge, The Comstock Review, Penumbric, ...

My Addiction to Impressionist Snowscapes

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 Oh, yes, this is true. I can't get enough of snowscapes in the impressionist tradition.  My poem, "My Addiction to Impressionist S...

As I Turn Off the Light

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 I am pleased and honored to have continuous support from Turtle Island Quarterly for my environmental poetry.  " As I Turn Off the Li...

Apocalypse Women

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 My right foot leads with literary poetry, but my left foot follows with speculative poetry. I rarely write from prompts, but I couldn't...

Grudge Day

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 "Grudge Day" is a fun prose poem with a surreal twist. Published in Coastal Shelf (Spring 2022).

Moonhood

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 "Moonhood" is a poem for women without children. Published in Writing in a Woman's Voice (Mar 12, 2022).

I Rock the Ulu

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 "I Rock the Ulu" (a curved blade for cutting fish) was published in One Art Poetry ( Mar 9, 2022).
Thursday, May 12, 2022

"When in Doubt" and "Bedridden"

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 Here are two poems--a ghazal (which seemed appropriate for "Bedridden"), and a light hearted poem about taking chances ("Whe...

First publication in 2022!

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 What luck to land in the premier issue of Land Luck Review (Issue 1 2022) which published my prose poem  A Russian Scientist in LaunderLan...
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About American Fuji

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Sara Backer
Most Americans who move to Japan are already in love with their idea of Japan. My feelings were neutral. I had a fresh graduate degree and jobs for English majors were scarce. I was lucky to get a prestigious Visiting Professorship at a national Japanese university and I was up for adventure. I didn't know I would be the first woman and the first American to hold that job. I was in for more groundbreaking than I imagined, but while Japan's invisible expectations were stressful, my students made my job the most fulfilling one I've had. I wanted to show aspects of Japan I hadn't found in books written by men (who experience an entirely different culture), but I didn't want to add to the cliche genre of personal memoir about gaijin in Asia. Fiction was the way I could show the humor and charm of a country that seems crazy and frustrating to a Western ex-pat. This blog explains how my actual experience informed my novel.
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