Skye C. Cleary, who holds a Ph.D. and an M.B.A., is a philosopher and author who teaches at Columbia University and the City College of New York. She was a MacDowell Fellow (2021) and was awarded the 2021 Stanford Calderwood Fellowship, as well as a New Philosopher magazine Writers’ Award (2017). In this Recently Published Book Spotlight, Cleary discusses her new book How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment (2022), its development, and her advice for other writers.
What is your work about?
How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment (St. Martin’s Press) is about Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy of authenticity. For Beauvoir, there’s no fixed authentic self, because we’re always becoming other than what we are now. So authenticity is a process of creating ourselves. And it’s collaborative because our lives only become meaningful through our relationships with other people and the world. The book is about the obstacles that thwart our quests to become authentic such as oppression and self-sabotage. The book is also about possibilities for authenticity, such as through intersubjective relationships or the fostering of a rebellious spirit.
Why did you feel the need to write this work?
Authenticity was—and still is—a buzzword. It’s supposed to be about ‘just being yourself.’ But that confused me. How do you know if you’re being yourself? What does an “authentic self” look like? How do you find it? How will you know if you find it? Does a self—authentic or not—even exist?
Some of my professors during my M.B.A. studies introduced me to existentialism. At the time, I had a lot of questions about love, and embarked on a Ph.D. examining existential perspectives on love, which I turned into my book Existentialism and Romantic Love. Of all the existential philosophers I had explored, Beauvoir resonated with me most. Beauvoir never wrote a comprehensive work on authenticity, but I had come across the term and theme in many places throughout her work. I knew Beauvoir had some ideas and a language to think about the sorts of questions which were plaguing me.
How is your work relevant to everyday life?
Simone de Beauvoir’s writing fascinated me because she wrote about both philosophy and living. In an early diary, she said “My philosophy must be from life.” And she carried on this methodology throughout her whole life. She had studied philosophers such as Hegel and Kant at the Sorbonne, and didn’t want to be a boring armchair philosopher. She also didn’t really want to be labeled a philosopher. Beauvoir was wary of what she called an obsessive elitist tradition of creating a “lunacy known as a ‘philosophical system’.” Beauvoir was interested in living attitudes and practical existential solutions. This is also why, in addition to philosophical essays, she wrote novels, a play, autobiographies, and published her diaries and letters. Beauvoir’s approach of looking closely at living attitudes is one of the reasons I have included stories from her life, her novels, and other’s lives, including my own.
The main point that I’d like readers to take away from my book that relates to everyday living is the importance of becoming the poet of your own life. Just like writing a poem, there aren’t any specific rules or goals for composing our authentic selves. It’s up to each of us to design our unique rhythms and rhymes.
Becoming the poet of our own lives involves being lucid about our situations, untangling pressures around us, and understanding where we are sabotaging ourselves for other people and their expectations. This approach also beckons us to reflect on the goals that we’re choosing for ourselves, respecting that we share the world with others, holding ourselves in question, trying new things, taking risks, setting goals, making mistakes, and connecting with others in friendship. It’s challenging, but also exhilarating.
What advice do you have for others seeking to produce such a work?
When I began talking to publishers about How to Be Authentic, some wanted me to write it in a year. That terrified me. With working, parenting, and the rest of living, I knew I needed more time. I felt like a failure: if everyone else is writing books in a year, what’s wrong with me? But I felt strongly enough about it to push back and found a publisher who was comfortable with eighteen months.
Later, I was reassured to learn that Beauvoir faced similar time pressures. When she started thinking about her first novel at age thirty, people said that she was a fruit sec (dried fruit), insinuating that her best writing years were behind her. Her father would impatiently ask why, if she had something to say, she hadn’t already written it? But writing isn’t just about dumping thoughts on a page. Beauvoir reflected:
“I knew that creating a first book out of nothing—or at least entirely from one’s own resources—and making it stand up against anything, was a task that, exceptional luck apart, demanded endless time and labor, a long process of trial and error.”
Some people can write quickly and coherently, but for many others, writing does take time. So my advice is: if you’re anything like me, be sure to advocate for the time you need.
What writing practices, methods, or routines do you use, and which have been the most helpful?
When I need to get words for chapters out on the page, I wake up at 5 in the morning, make a cup of tea while my eyes adjust, and then write for two solid hours. On a good morning, I write 500-1,000 words. They aren’t great words, but they’re a start. For the rest of the day, I edit or read or explore rabbit holes. But I can only do the early schedule for a week or so at a time.
A friend suggested I report in to them regularly with how many words I had written for the week. Being held accountable with smaller deadlines to a person who wanted me to succeed helped immensely.
When I can’t bear to work at my desk anymore, I go to a laptop-friendly café or library nearby. A change of scenery can give me a fresh perspective, and often renews my inspiration. Beauvoir enjoyed writing in bustling cafés too. In her memoir, she recalled:
“The murmur of their conversation did not bother me: to sit facing a blank sheet of paper all alone is an austere experience, whereas here I could always glance up and reassure myself that humanity existed. This encouraged me to write: one day, perhaps, my words would move some other person.”
Which authors encouraged you to write?
Apart from Simone de Beauvoir, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Søren Kierkegaard, there are very many philosophers who have moved me and influenced my writing and thinking. A few of the writers whose work I have found especially inspiring for this particular book include Myisha Cherry, Gary Cox, John Kaag, Jamie Lombardi, Kate Manne, Gordon Marino, Massimo Pigliucci, Amia Srinivasan, and Nigel Warburton.
Skye C. Cleary PhD MBA is a philosopher and author of How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment (2022), Existentialism and Romantic Love (2015) and co-editor of How to Live a Good Life (2020). She was a MacDowell Fellow (2021), awarded the 2021 Stanford Calderwood Fellowship, and won a New Philosopher magazine Writers’ Award (2017). She teaches at Columbia University and the City College of New York and is former Editor-in-Chief of the APA Blog.
Maryellen Stohlman-Vanderveen is the APA Blog's Diversity and Inclusion Editor and Research Editor. She graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy in 2023 and currently works in strategic communications. Her philosophical interests include conceptual engineering, normative ethics, philosophy of technology, and how to live a good life.
