Staci Kleinmaier

Reminiscing About School Days

Selections from the Archive

Our August issue looks at the way endings and beginnings are intertwined. This time of year the summer is winding down, and parents and children are gearing up for school. I miss the long cycle of the school year: the end and the new start. I rummaged around in The Sun archive for some pieces that could bring back that first-day feeling.

Where the Hunger Leads

Kate Osterloh on Building a New Life

The Sun has published three short stories by Kate Osterloh. Her writing is warm and rich, and her characters feel real and complex. But after reading each of her pieces, I found myself increasingly curious about Kate’s life and experiences. I knew little about her, except that she is a former US foreign diplomat, which only made her seem more mythical. I was thrilled when Kate agreed to talk with me about her essay in our July 2024 issue, “New Life,” which recounts how she created a fresh start for herself, moved west, and became a mother. In conversation she was inviting and compassionate, and we talked for an hour, but we could have easily continued for another.

Say the Hardest Thing

Cameron Dezen Hammon on Spirituality and Sexuality

Cameron Dezen Hammon’s essay “Kissing Strangers in the Street” is her first publication in The Sun and is about how she experimented with witchcraft and the sexual practice of BDSM to manifest change in her life. I spoke with Cameron about her essay by video call. It was one of several conservations we had as her manuscript went through the editing stages. From our first interaction Cameron was open, inviting, and easy to talk to, which I especially appreciated since I was asking about her sex life and her religious beliefs.

Is This Desire?

Clarissa Smith on the Intersection of Human Sexuality and Pornography

Being honest or open about your Pornhub habits is not the same as telling someone, “I’ve just seen Call My Agent! on Netflix. I think you’d like it.” Part of the reason for that is that most people don’t spend terribly long on Pornhub.

Nature and Nurture

Selections from the Archive

Our January 2024 issue looks at how our environments and circumstances shape us and how we are shaping our environment. Collectively the voices in the issue grapple with not only the idea of nature versus nurture, but also with how we can nurture nature. These are questions that Sun contributors have contemplated for years, and I’ve pulled a few of my favorites from our archive.

A Game We Play

Leona Sevick on the Craft of Poetry

By her own admission, Leona Sevick is a latecomer to poetry. She was trained as an American literature scholar and never took a creative-writing class. We published her poem “I Eat My Words” in our October 2023 issue. Leona and I met on Zoom, and we spoke about bamboo wives, pregnancy pains, and poetic meter. At the end of our conversation she read her poem out loud, and even though I knew how it ended, I still got chills.

Camille Guthrie on Writing Fiction

Camille Guthrie sent her short story “Dating Profile” to The Sun in response to a submission call for humorous writing. “Make us laugh,” we said, and she certainly did. I spoke with Camille about books, TV shows, and the challenges of writing humor, and she even offered a small preview of what’s next for the narrator of “Dating Profile.”

Losing Our Religion

Molly Worthen On The Modern Search For Meaning

It seems every year a new survey comes out in which the category of “no religious affiliation” grows larger and larger. A small portion of those people embrace the label atheist or agnostic, but the vast majority don’t, and some would say the phrase “spiritual but not religious” applies to them.

Rachel J. Elliott on Twenty-Five Years with The Sun

Rachel Elliott started at The Sun as an editorial office assistant in 1997, processing the mail and fulfilling book orders. Now, as editorial associate and photo editor, there is not much of the magazine production process that Rachel isn’t involved in.

Finding the Story

Elana Kupor on Pain and Identity

Elana Kupor is the author of “The Thistle Steps,” an essay featured in our October 2022 issue. Kupor has been hard of hearing since birth, and in her essay she interweaves her present-day experiences with scenes from her childhood. Sun Editorial Assistant Staci Kleinmaier recently spoke with Kupor about writing, identity, and disability.