Discipline/Field: Fiction

Based in: Culver City, CA

About: Sophie Newman was born in Berkeley, California and raised on the Monterey Peninsula. She holds a BA in English from Rice University and an MFA in fiction from The Ohio State University, and serves as deputy editor for the literary magazine Identity Theory while also freelancing as a ghostwriter. Her writing interests lie at the intersection of place, science, and spirituality, the boundaries where facts and knowledge confront the unknown. At Yefe Nof she will do a thorough read-through of her novel and make final changes before submitting it to agents and presses.

Project Title: Interweaving the perspectives of a flailing graduate student and a washed-up LA film producer, Natural State is a novel about grief, longing, purpose, desire, and the lengths we will go to save nature and be saved by it. Set in Big Sur, CA, it explores how we move from a mentality of conquering and controlling nature to one of radical acceptance of change; how we let go of what we think we know and observe what is and what will be.

Relevant links: sophielnewman.com; Twitter