Photo by Lyndsey Rankin, UC Riverside
San Luis Obispo County’s 2026 “Book of the Year” is Susan Straight’s tenth novel, Sacrament. The National Book Award finalist recently responded to a few questions from SLO Review that act as a preview of what you might expect to hear at “An Evening with the Author” on Tuesday, April 28, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Harold J. Miossi Cultural and Performing Arts Center at Cuesta College.
SLO Review: We always hear that writers should be readers. Do you agree? What (or who) are you yourself reading right now?
Susan Straight: Writers always begin as readers, and great writers read all the time! It’s like athletes watching other athletes at their sports. I read every single night, after working and taking care of friends and family, after grading papers. Right now I’m reading Claire Keegan’s excellent story collection Antarctica, set in Ireland, and Walter Mosley’s Blood Grove, set in LA.
SLO Review: What is your primary piece of advice for beginning creative writers?
Susan Straight: I’ve taught beginning writers for 36 years at UC Riverside, and I pass on three things:
• James Baldwin, when I was his student in graduate school, taught me the importance of secondary characters, and how they are essential for fiction. Secondary characters in their dialogue and interactions and movements assist the plot in so many ways!
• Use the setting and landscape in fiction almost as a character itself: how does the heat of a summer field, or the night shimmering ocean, or the inside of a hotel room, or an old garage full of classic cars affect the characters, and the plot?
• Dialogue is your best asset; so much gets done in dialogue that is far better than author exposition.
SLO Review: What do you hope those attending the Book of the Year event will take away from your discussion?
Susan Straight: I hope people who come to the event get to listen to real stories of Californians in many landscapes that are so vividly our state: the date gardens of Coachella Valley, the freeways of southern California during COVID feeling abandoned and taken over by street racers, and the hospital parking lots where families wait for a glimpse of their beloved inside.
Editor’s Note: The author, a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside, will sign copies of her book following the presentation. The event is sponsored by Cuesta College Friends of the Library and County of SLO Public Libraries. Tickets are available online, with the event being livestreamed in real time as well.