A Conversation with NYIABF Ambassador Sarah Hoover

Sarah Hoover built a career in the art world before turning full-time to writing. Her essays on motherhood, identity, and cultural expectations have appeared in Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, The Strategist, and Harper’s Bazaar amongst many others. In early 2025, she released her critically acclaimed, unflinching memoir The Motherload: Episodes from the Brink of Motherhood—an instant national bestseller, January 2025 Belletrist Book Club pick, and Times (UK) Book of the Week.

Sarah is returning as an Ambassador for the 66th Annual ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, joining a dynamic group of passionate collectors, influencers, and industry leaders who are shaping the conversation around collecting, preservation, and the cultural importance of historical materials. Ahead of the fair, we had the opportunity to ask her a few questions.

Collection & Inspiration

Which past or present figure in the literary world do you most admire?

I admire any women who told the truth as they saw it, when that truth went against the grain of what society wanted them to say—Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath are the two I most wish I could get martinis with.

Lifestyle

Which books or manuscripts are you currently researching or working with?

I’m re-reading Colette, the original hot party girl. Taking lots of notes. Not gonna go anywhere near opium, though.

What non-book object, artwork, or place currently fuels your curiosity?

Eavesdropping in hotel lobbies and writing in my journal at the symphony are my dream creativity inducing activities (that don’t include drugs).

Plugs

Do you have any projects coming down the pipeline that you can share with? We'd love to share what you're working on with our followers!

I’m writing the pilot that 20th Century Fox optioned of my debut memoir, The Motherload. Whole new skill set, whole new set of rules, whole new industry, same old me unable to shut up about motherhood.

What are you most looking forward to exploring or sharing at the next New York Antiquarian Book Fair?

Anything about ballet! Good dance books are hard to come by and I scour the Book Fair for them annually.