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Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
How to pronounce Stephanie Sy-Quia: sigh-KEY-uh
Stephanie Sy-Quia was born in California in 1995 and is based in London. Her writing and criticism have been published in The Guardian, The White Review, The Boston Review, Granta, and elsewhere. Her debut poetry collection Amnion, published in the UK by Granta Poetry in 2021, received a Somerset Maugham Award and was a Poetry Book Society Winter Recommendation; was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio and RSL Ondaatje Prizes; and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. She is the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award and is a fourth-generation teacher.
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What is the real-life inspiration behind A Private Man?
My grandfather was a Catholic priest. In the early 1960s, he met and fell in love with my grandmother, a feminist theologian. They didn't tell their only child (my mother) until she was in her teens—and she didn't tell me until I was about the same age. I remember her being a bit uneasy about telling me, that it was a difficult topic for her and that it was shrouded in mystery and pain and scandal.
My grandfather died when I was 6, but my grandmother lived on into her nineties, eventually developing dementia. In the later period of her life, I was newly out of college and unemployed, so I went to live with her and care for her. I initially tried to get the 'truth' of her love story out of her, but she was very elusive and remained private about it until the very end.
I wanted to write a book about that love story—one that was so intellectual, and impassioned, at a time when cultural revolution was afoot in every sphere—but also about the experience of caring for an elderly person. Looking after my nana remains the hardest thing I have ever done but also one of the best.
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A Private Man
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