Memoirist Sari Fordham On Marshmallows As A Writing Tool, Spending Your Twenties Abroad, Chihuahua Mixes , And Changing the World Through Zoom

Who is the one person, living or dead, in your profession who you most admire?

Maxine Hong Kingston is a writer who breaks rules to tell the story she needs to tell. I teach her essay “The No Name Woman” each year, and that regularity of reading and talking about her work has created one-sided familiarity. Our backgrounds are vastly different, but I resonate with the fierce determination of the young narrator in her essay and the questions she’s asking about misogyny and secrets. When I heard Maxine was giving a reading in Riverside, I gasped. The literary event was one of those magical experiences where the actual lines up with the imagined. Maxine was as electric as I had hoped. My favorite moment was when she described giving her child a bag of marshmallows so that she could finish writing a story. As a writing-mom, I felt seen and given permission to sometimes hand over the marshmallows and give myself ten more minutes to write. 

What advice would you give to a younger person who wants to do what you do?

Travel. Better yet, move someplace new. If you can manage it, move to a new country. It will be the gift you give to yourself for the rest of your life. When you’re in a new country, you notice more, surprise yourself more, learn more about yourself and the world. You can accomplish similar things in your hometown, of course, but you will have to work at it. In a new country, personal growth is part of the deal. And you will make amazing friends in this new place and they will shape and stretch how you view nearly everything. In my twenties, I spent more time overseas than I did in the United States. I lived and worked in Thailand, Uganda, South Korea and Austria. It was the smartest thing I did. 

Do you have a pet?

We have two rescue dogs: Hula and Grapes. We got Hula as a dog for my daughter and we got Grapes as a dog for Hula. They’re both chihuahua mixes because we live in Southern California, and it was either chihuahua mixes or surfing. My father visited us recently and I asked him if he liked chihuahua mixes and he paused a very long time and then said, “Can I say that I like certain chihuahua mixes?” This is a man who not only was caught feeding Hula a piece of bread—we have a strict do-not-feed-the-dog policy—but was seen buttering it first.  

What have you seen lately that’s been inspiring?

The Yoshitomo Nara Exhibit at LACMA was stunning. I was a casual Nara fan, and the exhibit turned me into a super fan. LACMA even rebuilt a small house in one room. The anti-war art was particularly powerful.

What have you been associated with that has been inspiring?

I recently helped pass the Indirect Source Rule, an environmental regulation that sounds wonky, but will have a concrete impact on pollution. I live in the Inland Empire, where Amazon (and everyone else) builds warehouses. The trucks driving to these warehouses contribute to the murky plate of pollution that sits over our heads. We rarely see blue sky. The Indirect Source Rule will require large warehouses to electrify buildings and fleets. To get it passed, climate leaders—most of them young adults—gathered a massive and committed group of community members, and we called into every single Air Quality committee meeting until the rule passed. Imagine 100+ people sitting on a Zoom call for hours every Friday afternoon, waiting to give their one-minute comment. We outnumbered the corporation spokespeople by 10 to 1, and we won.

Sari Fordham is the author of Waiting For God To Notice. The memoir, which tells the story of her childhood as the daughter of missionaries in Idi Amin’s Uganda, was described by Philip Lopate as “gripping” and “astutely written.” A professor and environmental activist, she teaches creative writing at Sierra University.