An Interview with Cecilia Savala

Cecilia Savala is a Shrek-obsessed Latinx poet, teacher, and mom who writes about gender, body image, generational trauma, and cultural detachment 1200 miles from home. She is a morning person, a cat person, and an instructor with ASU Writing Programs. Her work can be found in Red Ogre Review, the Boiler, and Poetry South, among others. Her first collection, How to Be a Girl, was a finalist for the 2024 Trio Award for First or Second Books. Follow Cecilia at @cecsav on Instagram.

What inspired you to start writing this book?

It all started with a prompt from my undergraduate mentor, Jenny Molberg. It was part of an assignment called a “text quest,” and the focus was examining obsession through poetry. I was missing my work as a personal trainer and felt that I had a strong knowledge base to work from. The collection began to take shape toward girl-ness in my work in my MFA program.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The title poem(s), How to Be a Girl, was originally a sestina. In a Deep Revision class, with Alberto Rios, I revised it into one long 12-page poem and then broke it up into 10 or 11 individual poems. I hit a wall when I was organizing the collection and felt I couldn’t go any further without a title, so I enlisted support and advice from several poets close to me. My friend, Justin Petropoulos, actually suggested that I name the collection after that series of poems.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

“Feel Good” by Ryan Nealon, “Fat Funny Friend” by Maddie Zahm, “Jaded” by Miley Cyrus, and “use me” by Charlotte Sands. I’m actually in the process of creating an official Spotify playlist, so I’d love other suggestions!

Describe your dream book cover.

I’d love How to Be a Girl‘s cover to feature art by Jenny Saville. Her work so closely represents the themes in the poems. I think I’d like muted colors, nothing too frilly or pretty,. The font should be reminiscent of tattoo lettering, I think. I want the cover to convey the difficulties that go with being a girl/woman in society.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I’ve been in commercial real estate research. I’ve assembled computer circuits. I’ve been a substitute teacher. I think the most surprising job I’ve held though, is my time spent as a personal trainer. In addition to working in gyms, I ran my own fitness challenges, online and in person, in both professional and personal environments.

What books did you read (for research or comfort) throughout your writing process?

The two major books I relied on were C.T. Salazar’s Headless John the Baptist and Torrin Greathouse’s Wound from the Mouth of a Wound. I also read Samantha Zighelboim’s The Fat Sonnets, Analicia Sotelo’s Virgin, and Fat Girl Forms by Stephanie Rogers, among many other contemporary poets.

Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.