Authors Answer: Sonia Daccarett
Authors Answer Q&A #555
Author interviews almost always focus on questions regarding an author’s latest publication (and that’s great because it’s how readers discover new books!) but sometimes it’s fun to ask authors to talk about their lives beyond the book they’ve just written. Authors Answer (started as a blog in 2020, moved onto Substack in 2025), is an attempt to give authors space to wax eloquent about the other influences on their writing. The questions posed here move beyond the formulaic classics like, “What books are on your nightstand?” or “What book inspired you to be a writer?” and even “You’re having a dinner party….which three authors (dead or alive) do you invite?” There are 20 standing questions. Authors pick FIVE that they want to answer.
Are you an author? Visit the Questions page to learn more about participating.
Today’s post features Sonia Daccarett.
Sonia Daccarett is a writer and communications professional. Born in Colombia to a Christian Palestinian father and a Jewish mother, she moved to the United States and received an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a master’s degree in international and public affairs from Columbia University. For more than two decades, she worked on strategic communications initiatives with corporate and non-profit clients and currently writes and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sdaccarett_author/
Not all books are for all readers. When you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
Someone once asked: “What makes you think anyone is interested in your life?” which is a fair point if you can disengage from the tone of the question. Memoir is not for everyone, and not everyone likes every memoir. But if you’re intrigued by real people and the experiences that shaped them, along with what they learned along the way, then memoir is a never-ending, wondrous unfolding of stories about people living through ordinary and also extraordinary things. I read a lot of memoirs, and I can usually get through them all - even if I don’t necessarily connect with the writing or the narrative - because I want to know what happens, and what the author learned from their experience. I have a harder me getting through a novel I don’t like…so I usually give it 10-20 pages, and then move on.
What’s your favorite comic strip or graphic novel?
Roz Chasts’ “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant” is among my favorites. The book is poignant, funny, and heartbreaking, all at once, and anyone who has cared for their aging parents should read it to feel less alone.
What’s the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?
To me, a writer is someone who writes, which I’ve done for decades. An author is a writer who is published. I’m still in writer mode, even though my first book is about to be published, and shifting gears feels strange.
What piece of clothing tells the most interesting story about your life?
The dress I’m wearing on the cover of my book was a bathing suit cover up that my mother made me. She used to sew my clothing, and at the time it felt embarrassing; I wanted store-bought things that felt more modern. My parents grew up in struggling immigrant households in Colombia, and my grandmothers were both talented knitters and both ran stores that sold sundry items like fabric and thread. There was an appreciation for hand-made, artisan crafts that they passed on to me (though I didn’t understand it until later). Now, I love the details in hand-made things: the buttons someone took the time to pick, the fabric purchased separately, the color of the thread used to sew the piece. I wish I had that bathing suit coverup!
Do you speak a second language? Do you think differently in that language? Does it influence your writing?
My first language is Spanish, but I’ve spent most of my adult life working and writing in English.
When you speak two or more languages, you understand intuitively that there are at least two words or expressions for everything, and many different ways of saying the same thing. I’ve always been interested in words and what they mean, how they sound. I love reading in both languages, but with a lyrical form of expression that goes straight to the heart, such as poetry, I generally prefer to listen and read in Spanish.
Endnotes!
This newsletter is a passion project started by me, Elizabeth Rynecki, to try to help shine a light on new-to-me authors. I am also an author (and a documentary filmmaker and podcaster) and if you want to learn more about me, you can visit my website or read my personal newsletter, Ink Trails: A Chronicle in Creativity.
I’ve never made Authors Answer specific social media accounts, but you can find me on Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.