Alana Saab
Alana Saab is a Portuguese-Lebanese-American author and award-recognized screenwriter based in NYC. Her debut novel, Please Stop Trying to Leave Me (Vintage Books) came out June 2024. This novel explores depersonalization, derealization, trauma, the climate crisis, queerness and more through an experimental, metamodern approach. She has an MFA in Fiction Writing from The New School, a Master's in Psychology in Education from Columbia University and a BA from NYU.
Saab writes about the interplay between conscious and unconscious existence, the seen and the unseen, while exploring themes of mental health, trauma, queerness and the transcendent. She is an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University. She also teaches writing workshops to survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual assault through the non-profit Here There and Everywhere.
Q: How did the idea for PLEASE STOP TRYING TO LEAVE ME come about?
In May 2021, I had a mental breakdown — a four-month long inescapable DPDR episode along with multiple panic attacks a day. I had been unwell for so long, everything terrified me. I couldn’t write. I could barely leave the house. My mind was destroying itself. In September, Laurie Sheck, an amazing writer and mentor (Shoutout to her new book, “Cyborg Fever”), gave me a simple one-page writing exercise. In doing that exercise, I unknowingly wrote the first chapter of PSTTLM, the first chapter of “The Study of Oblivion.” And once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. When I was writing Norma and her story, it was the only time, in months, that I felt safe and okay. I wrote as I got better. Or I got better as I wrote. The novel was finished in 3-4 months. I thought the manuscript was a mess, trash and just a coping mechanism, but Laurie read it and said it was actually a novel. Something real.
These Sapphic Stories Book Club author profiles are compiled by founder Aliya Bree Hall. Aliya is a freelance journalist and author who founded the book club in 2021 to uplift sapphic stories and celebrate LGBTQ+ authors. This excerpt has been lifted from an interview Aliya conducted with our June 2025 author. You can read the full Q&A by joining the book club.
