There are three sections on this Substack, here’s a brief summary of them all!

Incapable of Her Own Distress

Incapable of Her Own Distress is all about Shakespeare’s Ophelia. I’ve been fascinated by Ophelia since I first read Hamlet in high school, curious how this character was so known despite how few lines and moments of action she has in the play. As an English major with a minor in Theatre and Film, looking into the character of Ophelia and the ways the character has been performed just seemed to make sense.

The title for this Substack comes from Act IV scene vii of Hamlet when Queen Gertrude is telling Laertes about his sister’s downing,

“As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element. But long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,

Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.” (IV, vii, 174-181).

Surprising Saints

Once upon a time, I was Catholic. Still am, technically, though it’s been many a year since I’ve been to church. But I was pretty into the whole church thing. I altar served, I went to Youth Group, I got confirmed and chose a saint name (Joan of Arc is the best choice, obviously). But while researching saints all those years ago, I learned that there sure are some strange ones that the church conveniently forgets to talk about. So I thought it was about time we highlight some of the surprising ones!

What Girls Do

This one started out as a podcast that I gave up on, but the topic interests me so maybe writing about it will be more interesting. A long time ago (alright it wasn’t that long ago, it was January 2019) I read a book called Dead Girls: Essays on an American Obsession by Alice Bolin and was ultimately disappointed by it. Instead of focusing on the trope of fictional dead girls in media as it was marketed the book instead focused on the authors own life, primarily moving to Los Angeles, and Joan Didion. Disappointed that I hadn’t read a book deconstructing this trope, I decided to try and do it myself in the form of a podcast. That obviously failed, but maybe it will be successful as a Substack section?

Who Am I?

My name is Sarah and I’m a Canadian writer and playwright. I’ve had articles published in The Hamilton Spectator and The Sartorial Geek, short stories in Incite Magazine and The Hamilton Youth Anthology: Volume 1, and my plays have been performed in the HamilTEN Festival, Mind Play Theatre Festival, and Emerson Arts Fright Night: A Night of Horror. Most recently my short story “On the Rocks” was the prose winner for Dawson City’s Author’s on Eighth Writing contest. In 2015 I co-created Stuck in a Story Productions with her sister and their three web series can be watched on YouTube.

If you want to check out some of my other writing, you can take a look at my website here.