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By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 7/10/2015
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When Jessica Shoffel speaks, I listen.
She's the sort of person who makes you feel seen. The sort who, as a Penguin publicist, didn't just oversee the campaigns of mega-watt writers like Laurie Halse Anderson and Jacquelyn Woodson, but also took time to read my novel
Small Damages, to tell me how the story worked within her, and to
create a glorious press release and campaign on its behalf. The sort who stood with me through a difficult time. The sort who found me alone at the Decatur, GA, book festival and included me in conversations, in a dinner, in
a memorable hour with Tomie dePaulo. The sort who makes time in a hugely busy life to reach out to young people who have experienced loss, to
run marathon races on behalf of medical research, and to talk to a dear family member, Kelsey, about what it is like to work among books. Jess is smart and gracious and kind and hard working. She is there. She is present. She is with you; she is
for you. She is a rare kind of sisterhood.
And so when Jess wrote a few weeks ago to tell me about a book she had just read in her new role as Director of Publicity for Little Brown and Company's Books for Young Readers, when she said it was my kind of book, I didn't for one instant doubt her. Can I send it to you? she asked. Of course, I said.
And so it arrived. And so I have read it.
This book—this gorgeous, intelligent, moving, seamless, award-destined, Andrea Spooner edited book—is a debut middle grade novel by Ali Benjamin called
The Thing About Jellyfish. Everything about this story enwraps, engages, enraptures. Its frizzy-haired, science-leaning, universe-scanning narrator who has lost her former best friend. Its obsession with the jellies that bloom incessantly within our seas, leave the big whales hungry, endanger us with their undying stings. Its child-hearted hopes and its big-minded mix of science and mystery. Its neat division into paper parts—purpose, hypothesis, straight through to conclusion. Its language—just the right bright, the right curious. (I could quote from every single line and prove that to you; Ali Benjamin never writes anything less than a wonderful sentence.) The science itself—impeccably (never intrusively) filtered into this story about friendship, family, school, and school teachers who care.
And then—watch—Diana Nyad appears. Diana Nyad, the endurance swimmer who refused to give up on her dream. The endurance swimmer who braved the countless jellyfish stings and made it to the other side. Symbol, hero, character. There she is, in this most exquisite book.
(For more on Diana and her relationship with my friend and agent Amy Rennert, read
here. And look for Diana's much buzzed memoir,
Find a Way, out in October).
In this summer of contemplation, this summer of weighing the odds, of wondering through the writing again, of maybe or maybe not trying again, of not knowing, it is a glorious thing to be reminded of what is possible with books. The thing about
The Thing About is what says about what possible is.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 11/29/2012
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New York City was at its hospitable best yesterday. Through the windows of a train I watched the sun both rise and set on Manhattan. In between
I opined on the future of YA at the Publishing Perspectives Conference, saw old friends (Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Jennifer Brown, Laura Geringer, Melissa Sarno, Dennis Abrams, Ed Nawotka), made new ones, did a little Amen shout as Doris Janhsen, David Levithan, Francine Lucidon, Eliot Schrefer, and Dennis Abrams (pictured above), reminded people what publishing is really about, or should be about: good books. By mid-afternoon, I was sitting with the remarkable team at Gotham, discussing the future of
Handling the Truth. I was thinking—truth—how lucky I am. (Then got even luckier sneaking in a little stolen time with Jessica Shoffel of Philomel and my own son, at 30th Street Station.)
It took every bit of driving craftswomanship I have (and there isn't much) to get to Anne Lamott's talk (and promotion of her new book on prayer,
Help Thanks Wow) at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church by the 7:30 start. My father had saved a seat for me in the balcony, and a lucky thing that was, for there were at least 1,000 people gathered in this church where I grew up, wed, and baptized my son. Anne does what I cannot do. Talks without a plan ("I have prepared nothing," she began), works her way toward a theme, gets grace right out there, where it belongs, and triggers a bout of group hysteria with a single word (
Okay) and a prop (my father's pen).
And so we laughed. And so it was ten before I finally got home, after a day that had begun at 3 AM. The mail had been brought in. There was a card, the smart, precise handwriting of an amazing writer whom I love. Alyson Hagy, you of the million things to do, you of the bad bronchitis, Good Lord, girl, you didn't have to. But I love this from you. I will treasure it, always.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 9/19/2012
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Today, another short note, a simple reminder:
I have the great privilege of joining David Levithan, Ellen Hopkins, Eliot Schrefer, and Jennifer Hubbard this coming Friday, 7 PM, at
Children's Book World in Haverford, PA. CBW is billing us as the Fab Five, and I have Philomel publicist (every author's dream publicist and my good friend) Jessica Shoffel to thank for making me Feel So Fab.
I hope that you will join us. The photograph above was taken during the Publishing Perspectives "What Makes a Children's Book Great?" conference held earlier this summer, where I had so much fun joining moderator Dennis Abrams on the author panel. The smart and savvy notables from left to right are Roger Horn (The Horn Book), Pamela Paul (New York Times), David Levithan (Scholastic editor and author phenom), and my good friend Jennifer Brown, a former school teacher, editor, reviewer, and jury panelist (not to mention head of children's books for
Shelf Awareness) whom I always rightly refer to as this country's ambassador for children's books.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 8/25/2012
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Plenty of wild things happened at Skyanne Fisher's PAYA Festival today. A.S. King hand sold Beth Kephart books, because somebody had to. Beth Kephart signed her books with A.S. King's name, because every tit deserves a tat. Kate Walton looked gorgeous (nothing wild about that one, happens all the time). Skyanne spoke of traveling to humdrum places like Ghana (Sure, Ghana. Of course, Ghana. Who doesn't yawn at Ghana?) Elisa Ludwig showed up in a dress Beth Kephart wanted but Elisa (oddly) wouldn't give it to Beth. Ilene Wong revealed deep secrets. Margie Gelbwasser was adorable. Heather of Children's Book World talked about how much she loves Jessica Shoffel (
My Jessica Shoffel? I said. My. Very. Own??) And Beth Kephart got to sit beside the beloved Jennifer Hubbard, a full month shy of her
Children's Book World event with Jennifer, David Levithan, and Ellen Hopkins.And as if that were not enough? There stood this delightful man. Okay, so he could have used a little meat on his bones. Sure, his hat wasn't as vintage as I'd have liked. He was also (sorry!) on the tad short side. But he was upright, strong, and he had a spine, and he could hold his own around three majestic authoresses. Jennifer, A.S., and I fought over him—with the best vocabulary in the land, I can assure you. Then he—not defeated, but slightly bored—suggested that we share.
We're big girls now. Adults. We did.
Thank you, Skyanne and PAYA!
This late afternoon I extend my deep gratitude to Renee Fountain, for her thoughtful review of
Small Damages in the
New York Journal of Books.
I am honored to be in those pages. I am grateful to Renee for her understanding of Kenzie and of Kenzie's love for her unborn baby. Perhaps, as I told a friend not long ago, I was aching to write about maternal love when Kenzie stepped into my life. Perhaps I miss those early mothering years. It means so much when a reader makes room for the emotions I had as I wrote.
The review is sub-titled with the words below. The whole can be found
here.
“Realistic . . . rendered in a quiet prose that speaks volumes.”
Thank you, Jess Shoffel, for letting me know.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 7/26/2012
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I began a blogging conversation with Melissa Firman of The Betty and Boo Chronicles so long ago that I can't remember the first prompt, the earliest words. Melissa and I share many things—proximity (at least until a transfer took her west), friends, a love for our children, a love for books—and the first time I actually met Melissa was on a bitter cold night, when she came to a talk I was giving about the impact of place on my work. She came bearing books, my own. She has built, over time, an embarrassingly generous Beth Kephart library. Even as she does so many things, for so many others, and even as she keeps her Facebook friends abreast of the special people in her life.
And so Melissa's
words today, about Small Damages, are the words of one who has read an oeuvre with great care. They are the words of someone who has carefully, patiently watched my work evolve over time. Reading Melissa's blog post was, to me, akin to reading a scholarly piece. I learned so much and became so absorbed in Melissa's thinking that it wasn't until the end that I remembered that she was writing about me. This post was so exceptional that my publicist, Jessica Shoffel, sent an email earlier:
Making sure you saw this one.I share Melissa's words at the end of a day of many emotions. We honored our
George Shaw this morning at a beautiful service in which grandchildren read, a son eloquently remembered, and family and friends and neighbors knit tight. How proud George is, looking down, on his gigantic community. His son referred to George as an extraordinary ordinary man. My own son, sitting near me in the pews, said later that that is the best kind of man.
After the service and lunch I came home to read
Handling the Truth one last time, for it is bound for copyediting soon. I'll never quite forget the note Lauren Marino, my Gotham editor, wrote last night to tell me that we are entering the book's next phase. Having just sat here today and read all 61,000 words through again, I hope it is all right to say here that I am so at peace with
Truth.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 7/24/2012
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I wanted to find a pair of cowgirl boots for my friend Caroline Leavitt, to thank her for making room for me on her roost today, but the best I could do was this sign, photographed in Nashville four years ago, which sat (you'll have to believe me) right near a cowboy/cowgirl boot store. Why I didn't think to photograph the boots themselves is beyond me. What is not beyond me, at this moment, is gratitude. For Caroline's friendship. For her own talent. For conversations we have had in public and in private as we both journey through this writing life. I don't even know how Caroline got an early copy of
Small Damages, but she had one. She's in the midst of writing a brand new book, and she made time to read it. Then she asked me excellent questions, the kind of questions one who knows another well can ask.
I answered them all here.Among the things we discussed is how much I love Philomel, and how I made my way to this great place to begin with. I extract a small fraction of our conversation below, but hope you will visit Leavittville for more.
Philomel is exquisite. At Philomel I have a home. There I have never felt like a fringe writer, a secondary writer, a marginal, will-she-please-fit-a-category, we’ll-get-to-you-when-we-get-to-you writer. Michael Green, Philomel’s president, is a most generous person, and correspondent. Tamra—beautiful, intelligent, thoughtful, embracing—approached the editing of this book, the design of its cover, and the preparation of it for the world with the greatest care, and in the process we became great friends. Jessica Shoffel, a wildly wonderful and innovative publicist, wrote me a note I’ll never forget after she read the book and her devotion to getting the word out has been unflagging, sensational. The sales team got in touch a long time ago and has stayed in touch. And on and on.
But no, I never knew I would shine. I don’t think of myself as a diamond or a star. I never think in those terms. I just keep writing my heart out. And when you are collaborating with a house like Philomel, when you are given room, when your questions are answered, when you are given a chance, there are possibilities.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 7/19/2012
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The most important thing about this day is that it marks my son's twenty-third birthday. He came into the world after thirty-six hours of labor. He had a full head of thick, black hair. He reached for my husband's finger and squeezed it tight. The next day, we drove him to my mother's house in a beat-up Ford Mustang—his hat still on despite the July heat.
There's no accounting for a mother's love. There's no math that will contain it. The baby became a boy became a kid became a man—so bright, so inventive, so funny, so adventuresome, so thoughtful, and with a raft of terrific friends, and with a future that seems (thanks to some recent interviews) so close and within reach, and with a talent for loving.
That boy traveled to Spain with me and my husband, several times, to visit my brother-in-law. We together met characters like an old man named Luis, and like a count who raised Spain's prized fighting bulls. We traveled out to a broad cortijo, watched the gypsies dance, sat front row at flamenco shows. We ate paella at midnight on the streets, tapas in tiny bars. We went in and out of bull rings and up cathedral towers and in between the narrow spaces of Seville. We watched the nuns flutter by. We saw children playing on rooftops. And when I started to write a novel with all of this as the backdrop, this son of mine listened to me read out loud—this passage or that at the kitchen table. He steered the ship with his spare comments and would not let me give up in the face of grave disappointments. He said, "Believe in yourself."
I don't think there would be a
Small Damages without this guy, and that brings us to birthday number two.
Small Damages, a book that has always been dedicated to my son, is being launched today. That it is a book, that it has come this far, is all thanks to the extremely extraordinary Tamra Tuller, Michael Green, Jessica Shoffel, and Jill Santopolo of Philomel. That it has been welcomed into this world is all thanks to the generosity of readers and bloggers and reviewers and interviewers, whose goodness is unfathomable and restorative and redeeming and proof that maybe a girl can write and write and write and not be especially famous, but keep writing, and then have a moment in time like this one.
An unforgettable moment in time.
To all of you, and to my agent Amy Rennert, who has been there through all fourteen books, thick and thin (and so much thin), thank you.
Cake is now being served for all.
The icing is here, in these words from the great (truly great)
Pam van Hylckama of Bookalicious.org and in this kindness from the ever-kind and supportive
Serena Agusto-Cox.
From Pam:
It is not often that a book that makes you lose your breath. You read novel that makes you want t
Not long ago I sat in a local coffee shop with a young woman who dazzled. Yes, that's the word. She'd found her way to the very beating heart of the publishing world as a young Vanderbilt graduate, moved from the Big Apple to the south to work as the BookPage fiction editor, and today works as a content manager for a suburban Philadelphia brand consulting firm, writing freelance pieces for BookPage on the side. Beyond us, the little town of Wayne was having an outdoor festival. Between us, the talk was books and work. I adored her within seconds. She asked smart questions. She listened.
Abby Plesser (for that is this wunderkind's name) had been asked to interview me for a BookPage feature. I could not have been a luckier soul. The conversation alone would have been enough. The resultant story is more capacious, more generous than anything I could ever deserve. The piece ends with these words, below. The whole can found
here.
Abby and BookPage, thank you. Jessica Shoffel, thank you (for everything).
No matter the audience, there is
one thing Kephart hopes readers
take away from her novel: not to
judge others. Of her protagonist, she
says, “Kenzie is very loving, intelligent,
moral. She is in a situation. I
think no less of her and I don’t want
my readers to think any less of her.”
Kephart speaks with such compassion
for her characters and such
passion for her work that it’s hard
not to be inspired by such an unassuming,
accomplished woman. Of
her career, she reflects, “I never want
to look back and say, ‘Well, my best
book was my first one or my fifth or
my seventh,’ so I’m highly motivated
to not just slide. I try to break form
or go to a new place in the world
or tell a story that hasn’t been told
before. I’m invested in challenging
myself and going to the verge or taking
the risk.”
Small Damages is a book well
worth the risk. Kephart has created a
lyrical, beautiful story about a young
woman at a turning point, struggling
to reconcile her choices, find
her place in the world and discover
the true meaning of family.
A long time ago I drew the conclusion that I was luckier than any girl had the right to be.
Today, proof absolute with these heart-expanding words from
Family Circle Executive Editor Darcy Jacobs. She uses them to recommend
Small Damages to her associate editor, Celia, in the August issue of the magazine. Darcy's goodness to me is unparalleled. I don't have the words.
A million thanks to Jessica Shoffel at Philomel, who does her job so exquisitely well, and to Tamra Tuller, who chose to read my book when it arrived at the old slush pile two years ago. What an adventure we have had since then.
Kephart is a linguistic Midas—everything she puts to paper is golden, including this gem.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 5/31/2012
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If I am too exhausted to state with any inch of eloquence how grateful I am for today—for being included in a well-run, truly substantive, inviting conference, for sitting on a panel among greats, for meeting, at long last, the delightful Jenny Brown, for spying on Roger Sutton's socks, for a chance to hurry through a loved city's streets, for an excuse to visit the extraordinarily wonderful Tamra Tuller, Michael Green, Jessica Shoffel, and Jill Santopolo, for the opportunity to meet the funny and fun and winning Lauren Marino—if I am too exhausted, might I at least share these two images of a conference I won't forget?
Thank you, Ed Nawotka and Dennis Abrams of
Publishing Perspectives for making this day what it was. For making me a part of it.
Let's just say that it's been quite a time in these parts. I leave the house for teaching and other appointments at 10 AM, say, return at 11 PM, say, and have 20 hours of client work due by 10:30 the next morning. I'm lousy at math, but even I know that the numbers aren't properly crunching.
But we keep on keeping on (do we have a choice?). Today I chose to wash my exhausted face, peel my eyes open with fresh mascara, and meet a new client at an utterly atypical client-esque location, Chanticleer—that glorious garden tended by glorious gardeners. I had my little camera with me. I took a few furtive shots. I was made (miraculously) alive again.
When I returned to my desk later this evening, I had an email from Philomel's Jessica Shoffel, who was forwarding a most beautiful
blog review of SMALL DAMAGES. The blog is called Book Loving Mommy. The five-star review touches my heart. It closes with these words:
This book was written beautifully and I really didn't want it to end. You will pick it up and become so involved and wrapped up in Kenzie's life and her relationships with Estela and Esteban. You will feel what Kenzie feels and understand her confusion about the choice she must make. This is definitely a book I am going to buy when it comes out in stores!
Huge thanks, then, to Jessica and Book Loving Mommy for brightening my day.
We looked for birds and found this pond. We hurried to the bay at sunset. I stood on the balcony on the cusp of dawn, looking for dolphins and blues.
In the mornings I write Berlin for Tamra. It comes slow, but it comes. Perhaps I don't want to say goodbye to these characters. Perhaps I am dwelling longer than I should. I am in the homestretch now, but I won't rush it. I can't. You don't hurry your way toward story.
In the meantime, I am blessed by a certain Jessica Shoffel of Philomel, who is doing so much to ease the path of
Small Damages into the world, and getting remarkable results. I am blessed, too, by my agent Amy Rennert. She knows why.
The word, this week, is magic.
The Small Damages jacket reveal and a big thank you to all of you ... all offered up in less than two minutes.
Check out the Mood T-shirt.
smoking!
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 3/4/2012
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I talk a lot about how much I love Philomel, Tamra Tuller, Michael Green, Jill Santopolo, and Jessica Shoffel, not to mention the amazing sales and marketing team—but hey, it's not without good reason. Among the many gifts of working with this house is the sense that I have joined an active, loving, functional family. These are people who care. These are people who read your books when they arrive and who send you notes throughout the process—notes that you cling to in the midst of hair-tossing winds.
Among the many gifts that Tamra has given is introductions to two of her own writers—both of whom were heroines of mine long before I ever thought I'd meet them. One is Ruta Sepetys, whose
Between Shades of Gray is a towering international success; Ruta and Tamra were just in Lithuania, for example, meeting with the prime minister about that very book. The other is
Kathryn Erskine, who isn't just the National Book Award winner for
Mockingbird, but a woman of such abiding curiosity and abundant imagination that when you ask,
What are you working on these days, Kathy?, you get a series of gorgeous history lessons and a few foreign phrases thrown in to boot.
Both Ruta and Kathryn kindly read
Small Damages and contributed their words to the back cover. A few months later, Ruta wrote to say it would be fun to find a way to do an event together (imagine!) and Kathryn asked if I'd be interested in doing an interview for Book Hook, an email newsletter written for parents, homeschoolers, teachers, librarians, and grandparents. The answer to Kathy's question was pretty easy (yes), and today I share the link to our conversation. This was the first interview I'd done for
Small Damages, and it was an honor to have had the conversation with Kathy.
I share a snippet below. You can find the whole by going to this
link and then downloading the February/March 2012 edition. Between now and then, I share the photo up above from one of my many trips to Seville. That gorgeous kid is the boy I love. In a few months' time, he'll be a college grad. I dedicated
Small Damages to him, because it was this young man who, at so many junctures in his life, would sit and let me read aloud from a book that challenged me greatly; he was the one who listened.
Write about the living, not the dead, he said one day after I had read a funeral scene. With his words, my story turned. So did my future.
Kathy: You really captured the mood of sultry, sun-drenched Spain. Can you tell us about your Spanish travels?
My husband, who was born and raised in El Salvador, has a far-flung family. His youngest brother lived in the south of Spain for years, and so we visited a number of times. Seville became a city that I could walk alone, discover on my own, a city I loved and love still. We would also drive out to the countryside. During one excursion, I met one of the best known breeders of the fighting bulls of Spain. I set SMALL DAMAGES in a cortijo very much like the one we visited. Miguel is in some ways patterned after that heroic breeder.
What a treat!
What a day! I wish I could have been there to hear Anne Lamott. I have heard her before, and yes she is rollickingly funny plus full of beautiful insights about life.
For the record I also want to say I am a huge fan of Rahna Reiko Rizzuto and her book, Hiroshima in the Morning, thanks to your bringing her work to my attention via this blog. Which now reminds me I have been meaning to get a copy of and read her other book. So, thanks for that.
Love this Beth. Hope you're cozied up today, going nowhere, savoring the memory of yesterday.
Oh my, quite a day. The kind dreams are made of. Ending with Anne Lamott? In that church?
"No way."
"Way!!!"
It was such a treat to meet you in person at the Publishing Perspectives event. I can't wait to see your keynote speech on video - SO moving,so brave. Many Amens muttered here.
I adore Anne Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD so much, I can imagine how fun and funny she must be in person.
You had one busy day, girl! Hope you got some sleep.
Wow!!! What more can I say? :-)
I'm so glad you had a good trip. It sounds amazing just hearing about it.