Leticia Sala, writer: "When I gave birth two people were born, my daughter and me as a mother, and one died, my self-not-mother"

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Until 2016 Leticia Sala (Barcelona, 1989) was a successful young lawyer, who practiced private law for one of the big four, those four large consultancies that audit and advise global capital. But from one day to the next, he decided to quit. She told her bosses that she was going to New York to pursue a master's degree in international law at Columbia University, to which she had indeed been admitted, but which she had not the slightest intention of pursuing.

"I had stretched my gum too long for fear of losing the recognition I had in my profession, but I was being hypocritical with myself. I was unhappy," explains to YO DONA who is today one of the most followed literary voices in our country. Thanks, first, to the popularity of his poetic epigrams on Instagram, where he went from 200 followers to the more than 100,000 he has now. And from there to his first book, 'Scrolling After Sex' (2018). His collaborations for 'Vogue' gave him in 2020 the opportunity to publish with the American publisher Simon & Schuster, a milestone for a Spanish author. 'In Real Life' was the story in prose and verse of an internet love between Barcelona and New York, a "novel in poems" that that same autumn was published in Spain by Destino. Now, Leticia Sala presents her third title, 'The Swans of Macy's' (Reservoir Books), a collection of 25 stories and six micro-stories, where the autobiographical texts in which she turns the experience of her recent motherhood meander between pieces of pure fiction that explore the lights and shadows of the contemporary world.

The government of emotion

"When I started this book, being a mother wasn't among my short-term goals, but it suddenly happened. And, from that moment, I connected with another function of writing," he explains. "I wanted to make this book from the emotion that prevailed in me, and that has been the common thread. I asked myself if I wanted it to work through fiction or an autobiographical story, and I've been a bit of a hooligan, because I've mixed one and the other so that reality and fiction are put on the same level. In the end, in both cases, the important thing is literature."

The experience of being a mother made her discover a new purpose in writing, "perhaps the most primal: to write when you have no other choice, as a way of survival." In one of the stories, '04/08/2021', date of birth of his daughter Cleo, "I tell my experience in the neonatal intensive care unit, possibly the hardest of my entire life. I remember being there, taking notes of what I saw, and thinking that if at that critical moment I was writing it was because I really am a writer. Resorting to writing at such an extreme time was a test of authenticity."

Cleo spent three weeks in the unit, "but there are parents who can spend months there with their children. I was interested in being like the camera that was watching what was happening in that place. It is something that I had not found in literature, and one of the things for which literature should serve is to put light. For a writer it's almost a responsibility."

Has motherhood changed the way you understand writing? I used to have a lot of time to write. The creative process consisted of many dead hours, walks and ramblings. When a baby appears, everything changes. You like to think that all the time you're not with him you're taking advantage of. In addition, the world of care and games is something completely different from writing, which works in the world of ideas. Motherhood has forced me to limit my moments of creativity, but it has also allowed me to be a more productive person. Now there is no time to lose. I see a change for the better, more clarity and determination to go where I want. It's like a new force, like a power. It has taught me to write not so much from reverie but from a deeper place. It is something that also has to do with the grief that occurs when you become a mother. It seems contradictory, because motherhood is life and mourning has to do with death. The arrival of my daughter was like a meteorite that blew everything up. I realized that when I gave birth two people had been born, my daughter and me as a mother, and one had died, my non-mother-self. The first year is a kind of transition, of integral change. Your different identities, as a writer, partner, daughter or friend, must adapt to the new situation. It is the so-called motherhood: the passage from non-mother woman to mother woman is very similar to adolescence because of the hormonal, physical and cerebral changes that it brings. I wish my book could help women who go through it not feel alone. In my case, having my mother close helped me a lot. Talking to her I discovered perhaps the best kept secret of humanity: that the woman's brain forgets the harshness of childbirth and postpartum.

Sala comes from presenting her book in Madrid, where she was overwhelmed by the response of her readers. At this point there is little doubt that it was a wise move to follow his instinct and get off the corporate world. Along the way, in addition, unexpected detours have emerged, such as her role as a songwriter for artists such as Rosalía or Aitana. "I felt I could help artists find the right word. I like to be like a bridge. Connecting with others in the studio through the same idea is a very beautiful experience. And it's great to get out of yourself from time to time and write with others."

Obsessive with details

Back to literature, "Macy's Swans reflects the predilections and influences of its author: the brilliant conciseness of a genius of the story like John Cheever; the luminous prose of Lucia Berlin, "master at writing sad things without victimhood, of sublimating the hardness of life and of finding beauty in the everyday, which is what I try"; and, of course, in substance and style, Joan Didion. "From her I have learned that being obsessive with details", mentioning a precise element, such as the turtleneck cardigans of the Barcelona boutique Santa Eulalia that one of her characters uses, "opens universes to the reader and has an enormous evocative power".

His new book is a milestone of maturity in a literary career that has only just begun. "The difficult moments have allowed me to make peace with the darkness, to assume that it coexists with the light and that both are constantly needed," reflects the author. "As a writer it has been very good for me, because for me literature is constant ambivalence. The stories that resonate are those in which the writer has managed to work that gray area that the reader will take to one side or another, to the light or to the shadow.

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