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Maybe it's because I lead but one class during the one semester at Penn that teaching carries, for me, such weight. I begin planning for January in August, often earlier. Choosing the books we'll read, plotting our course, interacting with potential students. I pack as much into every class as our allotted hours allow. Pressing in with ideas, exhortations, readings. Bringing guests like George Hodgman (via Skype), Reiko Rizzuto, Margo Rabb, A.S. King, and Trey Popp into the fold. (Next year we'll be hosting Paul Lisicky, and focused on the art of time in memoir.) Using multiple media, stretching the idea of memoir, expecting much. Finding the good while searching, too, for all that is still possible.
And, this semester, leading two remarkable thesis candidates—Nina Friend and David Marchino—toward work so extraordinary that, I believe, it will represent their calling cards for years and years to come.
Teaching is standing before a class, then stepping aside. It's managing the ripples and waves while keeping the craft on course.
Three more weeks. And then these students will be off on their own, carrying our lessons forward, glancing back, I hope, not just as writers, but as people who value truth, empathy, conversation, and a greater knowing of themselves.
Last night, at the Kelly Writers House, we thought about home—a theme that has carried my current class of memoirists forward. We were graced by the presence of the exquisite memoirist/novelist Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, the young adult novelist super star A.S. King, and the all-round talent (fiction, young adult fiction,
New York Times/Slate style commentator) Margo Rabb. We were joined by Penn faculty, my current students, my previous students, and friends. Jessica Lowenthal facilitated every last detail. Jamie-Lee Josselyn brought her ineffable spirit. Al Filreis sat among us, in the home that he has built. Julia Bloch was the woman we all love, and, Julia, I'll be forever grateful for your words.
The evening was made possible by the generous gift of the Beltrans, whose endowment causes all of us who teach writing at Penn to think even harder about how we hope on behalf of our students.
We closed the evening by dimming the lights and listening to the voices of students and faculty as they answered the simple, confounding question, What is home? This is a gloriously produced soundtrack (thank you, Wexler Studio's Zach and Adelaide), made even more stunning by the guitar work of our own music man (and someday Grammy winner), Cole Bauer.
I encourage you to listen (
here). In a fractured world, these words offer light.
For even more writing and thinking about home, I encourage you to stop by the Writers House and pick up your copy of our Beltran chapbook,
Where You Live & What You Love.
I talk about my beloved Penn students. I boast about them, often. And sometimes I have the honor of introducing their work to to the world.
That's going to happen next week, March 1, 6 PM, at the Kelly Writers House, on the University of Pennsylvania campus, when we convene for the Beltran Family Teaching Award program. The event is free and open to the public, and we hope you'll join us.
The official blurb is below.
(Those of you who may be wondering about the provenance of the cover photo for the chapbook we've produced: that is a garden in Florence where my Nadia (of One Thing Stolen) slipped away to feel at peace.)
Join us for HOME AS HEART, AND HEARTH: STORIES AND IDEAS, a discussion on what exactly makes a home—how it’s built, how it’s found, and how it’s sustained. This year’s Beltran Teaching Award winner BETH KEPHART will lead a conversation featuring beloved Young Adult novelist A.S. KING, New York Times contributing writer and Young Adult novelist MARGO RABB, and National Book Circle Critics Finalist RAHNA REIKO RIZZUTO. Following the event, “home”-inspired work made by guests and Penn students will be bound together in a commemorative volume.
Earlier this week,
George Hodgman of Bettyville fame joined us via Skype at Penn. I have been teaching the idea of home this semester—what it is, how writers frame it, how every book ultimately, somehow, departs from or returns to a centering place.
(Speaking of which, please join us for the
Beltran event at Penn's Kelly Writers House, March 1, 6:00 PM, when I will be joined by Reiko Rizzuto, A.S. King, and Margo Rabb—along with students past and present—to discuss this idea of home in literature.)
The winds and the rains were fierce. I had my Skype-technology jitters. My students were ready, and so were the students of dear Julia Bloch, who were joining us for the session. And, oh—George Hodgman was brilliant. He was: Looking back over
Bettyville—how it began, how it evolved. Circling then pinning the definition of memoir. Speaking of his mother's love and his enduring felt need to make her proud. Pondering the nature of, and the blasting off, of personal and writerly inhibitions. Recalling the sound of conversation above the slap of flip flops.
Next George spoke about his life as an editor. The importance of stories that don't wait to get started, the importance of writers who are willing to work, the decision an editor must make, early on, about if and when to get tangled up inside a draft's sentences. And then George said this simple but remarkably important thing: Be messy (at first). The worst books are the clean, perfect books, he told us. The ones that feel safe.
Be messy.
For the past many years I've been at work (intermittently) on a book I feel could define me. It's a novel. It is a structural storytelling risk. I thought last year that I could publish this book as novel for adults. After a great disappointment, I pulled it back. Let it sit. Returned to it just this week, fear in my heart. Was it any good? Had I pumped it up in my own estimation, without any actual basis for pride?
Open the document, Beth.
Find out.
I finally did. And what I discovered was a book that was, indeed, messy. Too pretentious on some pages. Unnecessarily fantastical in covert corners. Too wishfully literary.
But. The story, the characters, the scenes—strip away the mess of the book, and, I discovered, there was a beating pulse. Despite all the mud I had slung on top of my tale, there was a glorious gleam.
I am taking this mess. I am turning it into something. I am grateful, deeply grateful, that I made such a horror in the first place. Inside these pages are complexity and promise. Inside them is my world.
I am reminded, once again, that this writing thing is, above all else, process. Clean first drafts are a constricting bore.
In the early hours of this morning, I've been reviewing the final submissions to the Beltran Family Teaching Award chapbook—a collection of reflections on home by Penn students past and present; featured guests A.S. King, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, and Margo Rabb; and the leaders of Penn's Kelly Writers House.
Trust me, please. The words (and images) are stellar and binding. No piece remotely resembles another. Each reveals and, in ways both quiet and surprising, sears.
I have crazy ideas, that is true.
But when those who join us that evening—March 1, 6 PM, Kelly Writers House, all are welcome—hold this chapbook in their hands and hear our guests and look out upon these faces, this particular craziness will not seem so very crazy at all.
Because it's them.
And they have spoken.
A huge thank you to my generous husband, who has spent untold hours by my side, laying out these pages.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 1/8/2016
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I've been working out ideas about home and literature, literature and home for awhile now, and on March 1, accompanied by friends A.S. King, Reiko Rizzuto, and Margo Rabb, my colleagues at Penn, and students past and present, I'll be doing even more thinking about the topic for the Beltran Family Teaching Award event at the Kelly Writers House at Penn.
My newest thinking, in this weekend's
Chicago Tribune (Printers Row), with thanks to Jennifer Day, Joyce Hinnefeld, and Debbie Levy, upon whom I seem to first try out my ideas. (Oh, Debbie, you're a gift.)
To read the whole story, go
here.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 11/5/2015
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Look for me behind stacks of books. That's where I'm living lately.
Assembling the content for a
traveling multi-day memoir workshop. Preparing to teach the personal essay during a morning/afternoon at a Frenchtown high school. Knitting together ideas for a four-hour Sunday memoir workshop, next weekend,
at the Rat (also in Frenchtown; places still available). Conjuring poem-engendering exercises for the fourth and fifth graders of North Philly. Building the syllabus for my next semester of teaching at Penn. Putting more touches onto the
Beltran Family Teaching Award event at Penn next spring (featuring Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Margo Rabb, and A.S. King). Re-reading Buzz Bissinger so that I can introduce and then publicly converse with him at the Kelly Writers House this Saturday, for
Penn's Homecoming. Talking to
Jennie Nash about an online memoir workshop. Writing the talk I'll give this evening to kick off the
LOVE event (featuring film students and Philadelphians) at the Ambler theater. My writing (my novels) sit in a corner over there, where they have sat for most of this year. I'm sunk deep into the pages of other people's work. Their stories, their sentences, their churn: a thrilling habitation.
Every time I feel frustrated by a sense of career stall or perpetual overlook, I remember this: There are writers—truly great writers—who have gone before me, who have written more wisely, who have seen more clearly. I may want to be noticed, I may hope to be seen, I may wish to be important, a priority, first on a list, but honestly? Why waste time worrying all that when there is so much to be learned—about literature, about life—from the writers who have gone before—and ahead—of me.
James Agee. Annie Dillard. Eudora Welty. We could stop right there. Read all they've written. Make the study of them the year we live and it would be enough. It would be time well spent, time spent growing, time during which we learn again that aspiration must, in the end, be contextual. We can't hope to stand on a mountain's top if we don't acknowledge all the boulders and the trees and the ascent and the views that rumble beneath the peak.
My cure for my own sometimes literary heartbreak: Sink deep inside the work of others. Recall what greatness is.
This girl on Florianska Street in Krakow, Poland—this girl is loving something. Swooning behind her heavy, lidded eyes. Creating—or recreating—an embrace. What is happening inside her platinum head? Can she ever really tell us?
Love looks like many things. Love takes a fraction of a second to say and a library's worth of fine books to partly parse. In
Kissing in America, Margo Rabb's poetry-riveted novel for young adults, love presents and perpetuates itself in ways both surprising and true.
We think, as we begin, that we are setting out on a journey that will unite the perfect boy with the perfect girl, which is to say two young people whose personal tragedies and imperfections make them deliciously right for one another. Eva, an east coaster, is mourning the loss of her father and the emotional distance of her mother. Will has moved out west to escape his own mother's bankruptcy—and to try to overcome the estrangement with his father. With her genius friend, Eva concocts a scheme that will deliver her to Will's west-coast doorstep. What happens next will teach her lessons she could not have foreseen.
It is a winsome, winning tale—full of Margo's trademark humor and linguistic dignity. It is a story of nuance, of character shades, of a heart pattering and yearning, of a mind settling into a truth. How do we love, and how do we grieve?
Kissing in America is a romance of ideas.
We were the body, heart, soul, and mind—and we were together last evening at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA. (IW Gregorio, Margo Rabb, Tiffany Schmidt, Moi)
For me, it was so very personal. Time alone with the great A.S. King, who is essential in my life in ways that go far beyond the page. The stunning surprise that My Spectacular David (a last-semester student whose own mind-expanding work you will all no doubt be reading soon) pulled off—taking a long drive from his home to join the celebration. The chance to chill with the force that is Heather Hebert, whose store is, in a word, a mecca. Sister Kim and her girls, one of whom, Kathleen, is bound for glory, as you can see. Anmiryam, Anne, Jenn. Friends, familiar faces, new friends. Fishbowl questions that were, well, as you can see from the photo above, challenging. Margo Rabb—famous writer, provocateur,
New York Times-er, and
Salon-er, esteemed member of the literari—I now know to avoid the ink color green when questions are being passed down the line.
I was glad to have this chance to read three pages from
One Thing Stolen. To give my character Maggie, who was named for a fabulous former Penn student, a moment to speak out loud. Books are one thing on the page. They are something else raised from the page. I heard my Maggie as I read those words.
Time to return to a book in progress. I'm going to go quiet for a few days as I put my thinking cap on.
Yesterday I took several dozen books off my shelves and began to read the novels I forever return to.
Housekeeping. The English Patient. Crossing to Safety. Reading in the Dark. The Beet Queen. So Long, See You Tomorrow. I Was Amelia Earhart. In Hovering Flight. And—
How settled and peaceful and happy I felt, among old friends, enduring classics.
I was searching for something specific—literary signposts that will infiltrate the keynote I'm now writing for the
Moravian Writers' Conference, to be held June 5 through June 7, in Bethlehem, PA. The title of that keynote is "Where You Live and What You Love: The Landscape of the Story." The conference, magnificently organized by Joyce Hinnefeld, promises to be full of riches, with its galvanizing theme of "Stories and/of Home." So many fine writers, teachers, book makers, and book sellers will be on the campus that weekend. In addition to the keynote, I'll be joining Josh Berk at his library for a fundraiser, joining a panel focused on what people read and why, and closing out with a Sunday afternoon conversation with my dear friend, A.S. King. I am so looking forward to Moravian.
Before June 5, however, there is May 20, next Wednesday evening, when I will be joining Margo Rabb, IW Gregorio, and Tiffany Fowler Schmidt at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA, for an evening we've titled "Body, Mind, Heart, Soul: The Whole Self in Contemporary YA." This will be my only bookstore/library event for
One Thing Stolen. It will, as well, be a chance for you to meet my friends and discover/celebrate their talent. I hope to see you there.
Finally, at the end of June—June 27—I'll be conducting a Master Class/Reading/Q and A at the
Arcadia University Creative Writing Summer Weekend, in Glenside, PA, another event that I anticipate with great happiness.
Above? That's Libba Bray reading from her forthcoming novel (
Lair of Dreams, due out in August) at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA—a scary little ditty that has Amy Sarig King and Gayle Forman shaking in their respective (albeit from opposing sides of the fashion world) boots.
Before them sit many of my neighborhood's finest writers. Also Sister Kim and her Little Flower students. Also bloggers and readers and enthusiasts and at least one bookseller from down the road and shall we go no further before we mention Heather Hebert, who makes it all happen, and with enthusiasm, and while I am at this, because heck, why not, can we locals all just pause for a minute and welcome Margo Rabb to our neighborhood, because she's here now, newly arrived from Austin, with her second YA novel (
Kissing in America) due out in May.
(Seems like I might be reading with Margo and two other fabs from Round Here soon, but more on that to come.)
What a performance these three gave—Amy and Libba gamely (respectively) playing the parts of a stoner and a slick boy in a choral reading from Gayle's new bestselling book,
I Was Here. Amy giving a thrilling preview of
I Crawl Through It. Libba forcing everyone else into scare mode, then zapping the conversation with four parts hysterical ad lib and one part Barbara Waters. And then plenty of talk about the F word, by which I mean (of course) Feminism.
The doors were open at Children's Book World, to dispel all that animal heat. The skies were ripped apart with rain. I headed home among storm-imperiled drivers and then I fell asleep. At which point I dreamed I was still with the gang, only we had moved onto a Friendly's Restaurant (note:
Friendly's, I lie not) and we were having high-calorie ice cream and nobody would speak to me. My offense, in my dream, was that I been me—asking too much, pressing too hard.
I woke just after I'd leaned over somebody's shoulder and read the texts that were circulating about me.
"Beth Kephart," it said, "is so annoying."
By: Deborah Jensen,
on 1/23/2015
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Publishers Lunch has two new editions in its free Buzz Books series, buzzed about as the first and best place for passionate readers and publishing insiders to discover and sample some of the most acclaimed books of the year, before they are published. Substantial excerpts from 65 of the most anticipated books coming this spring and summer are gathered in two new ebooks, BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Spring/Summer and BUZZ BOOKS 2015: Young Adult Spring, offered in consumer and trade editions (adult and YA). All are available free through NetGalley.
Book lovers get an early first look at books from actress and activist Maria Bello, \"Morning Joe\" co-host and bestselling author Mika Brzezinski, NPR/Weekend Edition’s Scott Simon, and bestselling fiction writers Dennis Lehane, Ann Packer, Ian Caldwell, and Neal Stephenson, among others. Highly touted debuts include Leslie Parry’s Church of Marvels, Erika Swyler’s The Book of Speculation, J. Ryan Stradal’s Kitchens of the Great Midwest, Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite’s War Of The Encyclopaedists, and Jessica Knoll’s Luckiest Girl Alive. From inside publishing, there’s Jonathan Galassi’s debut novel Muse, and George Hodgman’s memoir Bettyville.
The YA edition features the latest from Sarah Dessen, David Levithan, Barry Lyga, and Michael Buckley, plus renowned middle-grade authors including Newbery winner Rebecca Stead and Louis Sachar. There’s Alice Hoffman’s Nightbird, her first novel for this age range. We also get a first look at YA debut authors Margo Rabb, Maria Dahvana Headley, plus Paige McKenzie’s The Haunting of Sunshine Girl (adapted from the web series of the same name and already in development as a film from the Weinstein Company) and Sabaa Tahir’s debut An Ember In the Ashes (already sold to Paramount Pictures in a major deal).
Fourteen of the adult titles featured in last year’s Buzz Books 2014 were named to one or more major \"Best Books of 2014\" lists, and 18 became bestsellers. Of the 28 books published to date and previewed in the 2014 Fall/Winter edition, 19 have made \"best of the month/year\" lists and nine are New York Times bestsellers.
Steal These Books, Margo Rabb's essay in The New York Times, explores people who steal books from bookstores -- sometimes, even, it is the author of the book who does the taking. I think my favorite part is the title of the most-stolen book.
No, I'm not going to tell you! Click through and find out.
Oh, and apparently? There is a hip factor to stealing book. Must be the reason I haven't stolen one.
Inspired by Rabb's essay, The Paper Cuts Blog at the NYT asks people what books they have stolen in Out Stealing Books. So far, 31 people have fessed up.
What intrigues me about the conversation at the blog is the people who mention stealing library books. Yes, it's always wrong to steal. Stealing from the bookstore is bad; if cuts into the profits of the store itself, and takes away from the royalties for the author twice (once because you didn't buy that book, twice because you prevented someone else from doing so.) It's a bit sad to read people happy to get back at "the man" with their book stealing. Or to read how they believe its OK because they like to read. I wonder who they think is to blame when stores go out of business, or book prices are increased to take into consideration such theft?
But stealing from a library means that you are now preventing so many other people from reading that book. What a selfish act, to think "my ownership is more important than your reading." With a bookstore, at least, the person who wants to buy that book will probably end up finding another copy or asking the bookstore to track down another copy. While at a library, chances are you took the only copy; it's out of print; and doing an ILL costs the library money. (No, really. See all the library news that mentions ILL in budget cuts, either eliminating or reducing the service or adding and increasing ILL fees).
By the way, Margo Rabb visited Tea Cozy back in 2007 when promoting her book, Cures for Heartbreak
, which was one of my Favorite Books of 2007. And her 2008 NYTimes Essay, "I'm YA, and I'm OK," is a great essay about reading and writing YA books.
Amazon Affiliate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.
© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
Special Guest: Margo Rabb
A wonderful thing about the YA market right now is that there are no rules anymore.
In CURES FOR HEARTBREAK, Margo writes in first person.
Margo is big on revision. "I go through so many drafts, I can't even count."
Margo loves interior monologue: when she learns something a little more about a character.
POSTED BY JOLIE STEKLY
Another great post over at Chasing Ray.
What A Girl Wants #4: The Girl vs. Woman (When it Comes to Reading) was a fascinating read. For me, I just love reading different author responses and perspectives. Colleen posed the question of the need for YA titles for girls.
These two quotes stood out for me.
Sara Ryan talked about what some people may think what YA may be:
“I’ve noticed that many adult authors of YA want to ‘give us something to think about’ and ‘change our lives.’ Those are the kind of books the teachers make us read in school. But the truth is, when we go shopping for a novel and spend our money, we just want to be swept away and entertained.”
I think most teens want to be taken into a different world and more specifically to be entertained. For me as writer, that is my first goal to take a reader into a new world and a different situation. But also, I want to give teens something to think about as well—but it should not be the major focus of the novel—I think teens are smart enough to realize when they are getting a sermon. I believe in nuance and I think teens are sophisticated enough to understand it.
Margo Rabb talked about how important books are to teens:
“The books that I read as a teenager were so incredibly important in shaping who I am, in figuring out who I was and who I wanted to be, that I sometimes wonder who I would’ve become without them.”
When I was a teen, it was a very volatile stage and really without books, I don’t know how I would of made it. It was in books where I found kindred spirits to let me know that I wasn’t some maladjusted kid but I was just Karen and that was okay. I didn’t need to conform to the high school “authorities” that didn’t match my personality.
For a long time, I really didn’t want to write YA. I wrote primarily middle-grade because that was just a great period in my life. My young adult years were very hard. Middle-grade novels are where I had my first success—it’s how I got my agent. Even the novel that I’m working on now started out as middle-grade.
But here I am. Writing YA.
I think the reason I’m now compelled to write YA is that it is a formative period—especially with teen girls and everything that they are facing today in this world. I agree with what Sara Ryan stated in the blog post, it is about respect. Respect for girls who need to have their current life experience explored and empathized. To show that being a teen girl is a rite of passage and not something to be endured.
You should definitely go over and read the blog post at Chasing Ray
Other Posts You Might Like:
- SLJ Interview with Coe Booth
- Teen Girls are NOT Fragile
- It’s 2009 Right?
The always-brilliant Margo Rabb (perhaps you know her fabulous book? Or her awesome essay at the Times?) has asked me to name my sexiest writers… and my imaginary boyfriend!!!
This will come back to haunt me. I’m nearly sure of it!
Here are some random tidbits for your picnic basket:
First, thank you thank you thank you to Tarie of Into the Wardrobe for awarding alphabet soup a 2008 Brilliante Weblog Premio! I am humbled and honored to be mentioned in the same list as Just One More Book, Brooklyn Arden, and Bloomabilities.
Have you read Marjorie Coughlan's fabulous interview with Jen Robinson over at papertigers.org? Lots of insight and inspiration, with Jen explaining why books, reading, and literacy mean so much to her and what she hopes to accomplish with her fabulous blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page. I am totally blown away by her commitment and dedication.
Make sure to read this post about writing YA by tadmack at Finding Wonderland. You probably know there is a lot of discussion going on in the kidlit blogosphere right now about the stigma YA literature seems to carry in the publishing world. Many bloggers are responding to a recent New York Times article by Margo Rabb, "I'm Y.A., and I'm O.K.," including LJ's Little Willow (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
slayground) and David Lubar (davidlubar).
Colleen Mondor is rounding up other reactions and opinions at Chasing Ray. She has also designated this week as a time for everyone to post about any issues or concerns they have about children's and young adult publishing, so check back every day for updates.
Interesting discussion about verse novels in the comments of this recent Poetry Friday post by Sara Lewis Holmes (Read*Write*Believe). I especially liked David Elzey's comment, written from the POV of a 13-year-old boy.
Have a great week!
I know some folks are bristling a bit at Margo’s essay in the Times yesterday. Because it suggests a kind of hierarchy of genres, because it reads as a kind of apology, and perhaps as a complaint (by someone who seems to be awfully successful and lucky).
But I want to offer this thought…
When someone has been working toward a goal, any goal, the idea that (at what feels like the very end of the journey) you aren’t going to get the goal, but are instead going to get something else…
That’s kind of hard.
Imagine being a kid, reaching for the brass ring on the carousel, and when you finally get it, it turns out to be a chicken nugget!
You don’t dislike or disrespect chicken nuggets. In fact you may LOVE chicken nuggets. But you’ve been going around and around and around on a big painted frog for a very specific reason, to get a RING. And now, here you are with a nugget.
I can relate to the essay. I can REALLY relate to the essay, and have done a bit of apologizing/defending/complaining myself about such things.
I spent YEARS becoming a poet. It was and is a huge part of my identity. I dreamed of teaching gigs and colonies and silly snooty book parties. From the age of 15 I dreamed of such things.
So no matter how thrilled and excited and happy I am to be writing mg novels and picture books, and no matter how much I believe in these books and have made a choice (the right choice!), I did feel strange the day I realized I couldn’t apply to colonies to work on such projects, because such places only fund ADULT LITERARY writing. And my books, it would seem, aren’t literature now that they come from a children’s imprint. And my books won’t help land me the teaching job I still dream of, because I love teaching…
Honestly, it does still feel weird when I tell people I have this novel coming out and they say, “But you’re still writing poetry, right? Right?”
(I am, but I don’t feel I should need to legitimize myself that way)
For me, when I had my kidlit conversion, the issue was different than for Margo, because for me it was an internal process, of realizing that some of my “prose poems” were in fact picture books. Of realizing that these ideas and words and books I wanted to write would best be WRITTEN (not just marketed) for kids. I had to work through my issues with the academy and the hierarchy first, slowly, on the inside. I had time to prepare myself, get ready to say “THPBBBT!” to poety friends who might turn up their noses. Becuase I really WANTED to write for kids, and jsut had to get used to the idea.
But for Margo it happened very suddenly–how much stranger to write a book with one audience in mind, and discover overnight you’ve got another.
And then to realize that all the things you’ve worked toward are different things now, suddenly.
I can’t count the artists I know who’ve ended up in more lucrative graphic design jobs, apologizing for themselves. The law school students who take another kind of job and look sheepish about it when they ahve to tell people what they do. Why is that okay, but this isn’t?
It doesn’t have to be a value judgement of YA by the author. Margo obviously likes YA and reads YA, and now she’s simply indicating something about our literary culture, and descibing an experience she had, which seems to me pretty reasonable.
That she expected/ worked for/ dreamed of one thing, and got another.
Like expecting a girl and getting a boy maybe. You love your kids. You can’t imagine anything other than what you got. But when you get home from the hospital, you look around the frilly pink room, and you have to adjust. And that takes a little minute.
I really hope this is all changing. I really hope that soon there will be more respect paid to kidlit and YA. Because it’s an AMAZING literature. Because I have come to believe that more interesting, creative, vital, and artistic work is being written for kids than for grownups right now. Because kids are reading more as adults are reading less. Because these truly are the books I love right now.
But I won’t lie and pretend that when a smartypants short-fiction friend clutching some long boring book of experimental writing , (fresh from a stint at Yaddo or Macdowell or VSC or someplace else I’m not allowed to go) asks what I’m working on… I get a little weird. I rant a bit. I give them a speech, a little like this one.
A speech designed to educate but also– to defend. Which implies at least a little bit of insecurity, and I’d be lying if I pretended otherwise. In that moment I do feel insecure.
But that’s a really small part of what I’m feeling in that moment. Because most of all I’m thinking, “THANK GOD I DON’T HAVE TO READ THAT LONG BORING GROWNUP BOOK YOU’RE HOLDING!”
HA!
Young adult author Margo Rabb has a really great article in the NYT - don't miss it.
I'm thrilled to welcome Margo Rabb to the blog today. I loved her Cures for Heartbreak (as did Jen Robinson) and it's great to have the opportunity to ask her some questions.
(Would you like to read Cures for Heartbreak? Then send an e-mail to [email protected]. One lucky [random] winner will win a copy today if you mention you visited with Margo here. I hope you win!)
Now on to the interview:
Tell us a little bit about Margo Rabb. Where do you live? How do you spend your days?
I live in Brooklyn, New York, not far from Queens, where I grew up. I think there are more writers per capita in Brooklyn than anywhere else in the nation. There's an application for local authors to get their books displayed in the window of the neighborhood Barnes & Noble. As for spending my days: I have a 4-month-old baby girl, so I spend my mornings with her, and then I write for a few hours in the afternoon, when I have a babysitter.
Beer, wine, or a soft drink?
Red wine. I'm a petite person, and a very cheap date--I can't handle more than two glasses.
Who is your favorite writer?
Alice Munro. The only fan letter I've ever written (aside from one to Shaun Cassidy when I was 12) was to Alice Munro. She wrote back, though Shaun never did.
Beach, city, or forest?
All of them--in my dream life I'd own a brownstone in Brooklyn, a country house in the woods, and a place on the beach. At the moment we own none of the above, however. Buy some books, people!
You also write short stories. Which do you prefer--the short story or the novel? Which do you prefer to read?
I love both, and am usually reading a story collection and a novel simultaneously. I enjoy writing both also--I only wish that publishers were as enthusiastic about short stories as they are about novels. (They aren't--mention the words "short story collection" to most literary agents and they turn pale and fidgety.)
Coffee, tea, or a triple skinny latte?
Coffee coffee coffee! (as Lorelai Gilmore says.)
You have said that Cures for Heartbreak took eight years to write (from Backstory). When did you decide it was complete? Was there one moment when you knew it was perfect?
I decided it was done when I found myself taking out words and then putting the same words back in. Then again, I was giving a reading from the book last week and crossing out entire sentences and re-writing them in the margins--so apparently I'd still be re-writing it if I could. As for knowing it's perfect--that never happens!
Movie, Theater, or a Concert?
Theater. One of the things I love most about living in New York City is going to the theater. The last play I saw was the Roundabout Theater's production of The Pajama Game starring Harry Connick, Jr. I'd never liked Harry Connick, Jr. before, but after seeing him in that...let's just say my husband is tired of hearing about Harry.
If you had an entire week and unlimited resources to do whatever you'd like, what would you do and why?
Since I've been dealing with the sleep deprivation of having a young baby, first I would check into a nice hotel and sleep and sleep and sleep. When I finally woke up I'd love to travel to Italy when truffles are in season and eat them with everything.
Halloween, New Year's, or Valentine's Day?
Halloween, definitely. Another advantage of being a mere 5' 1" is that I already have big plans for future Halloweens with my daughter. I'm going to go undercover as another kid so we can go trick-or-treating together and I can get as much candy as possible. Then I'll share it with her and her friends. If they're nice.
BOOK QUESTIONS
1. What is it about sisters? What I especially appreciated about Cures for Heartbreak was your description of Alex and Mia's relationship. Polar opposites, yet still close (although sometimes combative). Did you base this relationship on ones you know in your own life or on observation of strangers?
Seeing as my sister is sitting right next to me as I type this, I should probably say that my fictional portrayal of the relationship is utterly and completely a product of my imagination. (Sister nods at this approvingly...) She isn't a polar opposite at all (though I'm wearing heels and she's wearing hiking shoes and I have on lip gloss while she wears chapstick...) We weren't as close when we were in high school, but we've become very close now.
2. While Mia certainly struggles in Cures for Heartbreak, I felt so sorry for dear old dad. Does he find happiness after such amazing loss? (I did read the "Afterword," so I know it can't have been long-lived, but in a fictional world perhaps?)
I think that both in fiction and in real life, the father found happiness. After my mother died, I was surprised by my father's amazing resilience--he went from the grief and depression after losing our mother to really being happy again.
3. One sentence on the final page of the novel is particularly moving. Mia thinks, while on the roof with her beau--"cancer boy" Sasha--"If grief had a permanence, then didn't also love?" Do you find both grief and love permanent, or do they both fade over time?
I think both are absolutely permanent. I'll never get over the grief I've felt for my parents, and will always love them. I've kept a journal almost daily since I was fifteen, and whenever I read back on old loves the feelings return--they haven’t gone away, they're just buried under new ones.
4.What can we look forward to next from Margo Rabb?
I'm about halfway done with a new novel...and I promise there is no one bearing any resemblance to my sister in it.
To learn more about Margo Rabb, check out her website. You can also drop her a comment or two (or five) at her MySpace page.
Thanks, Margo. It was great fun to interview you! To catch the rest of Margo's whirlwind tour, here's the itinerary:
3/19: Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray
3/20: Lizzie Skurnick at The Old Hag
3/21: Jen Robinson at Jen Robinson's Book Page
3/22: Betsy Bird at A Fuse #8 Production
3/23: You are here
3/26: Liz Burns at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy
3/27: Jackie Parker at Interactive Reader
3/28: Little Willow at Bildungsroman
3/29: Leila Roy at Bookshelves of Doom
3/30: Mindy at propernoun.net
==================================
Editorial notes:
1) I was Alex. Heck, I'm still Alex.
2) That darn Shaun Cassidy. He was lousy with his fans. Hooray for Alice Munro!
3) Colleen Mondor wrote an amazing reaction to Cures for a Heartbreak.
Ain't we got flash?
The subject of today's author interview (and fourth post on her whirlwind blog tour) is, as you may have guessed, Margo Rabb.
Now author interviews come. Author interviews go. And smart authors partake of large eclectic blog tours with lots of flashy lights and not-so-hidden pandering. You might ask why I am breaking my ban on doing anything YA related, and you'd be right to do so. Well, as it just so happens, Ms. Rabb and I share something in common. We both happened to attend the same teeny tiny midwestern college in southern Indiana (go,
Hustling Quakers!). Margo's been a writer for some time, but her current novel,
Cures for Heartbreak, has received almost unanimously stellar raves and reviews.
The publisher's description of the book says:
"IF SHE DIES, I'll die," are the words 15-year-old Mia Perlman writes in her journal the night her mother is diagnosed with cancer. Nine days later, Mia's mother is dead, and Mia, her older sister, and her father must find a way to live on in the face of sudden, unfathomable loss. But even in grief, there is the chance for new beginnings in this poignant, funny, and hopeful novel.
On her fourth day of her blog tour, Ms. Rabb's previous interviewers have pinpointed her skills. Said
Colleen Mondor, "Sometimes it was fiction that was so true it became real. Amazing."
Jen Robinson added, "She drops clever observations and brilliant turns of phrase like little gifts for the reader." We expect big things from Margo Rabb in the future. Fortunately this shouldn't be a problem anytime soon.
F8: All right. First things first. Tell us a little about how you got started. You are, after all, "living the dream," of many. You're a published young adult author with some fairly choice books under your belt. How'd it happen?MR: I’ve been writing fiction seriously for fifteen years, and I wrote
"World History", which, after many revisions, would later become a chapter in
CURES, in 1996. (I didn’t write the book exclusively over all those years, though—in the interim I wrote lots of short stories, part of an abandoned novel, and the
Missing Persons series.) As to how I got started with publishing: when I was twenty-three I enrolled in the M.F.A. program at the University of Arizona in Tuscson. As a student, I kept sending stories out nonstop. My rule was to have stories at thirty places at all times. Eventually, after tons of rejections, they started getting plucked out of the slush pile and getting published. After having stories in
The Atlantic Monthly and
Zoetrope I started hearing from agents, and eventually met my agent, who sold
CURES to Delacorte, an imprint at Random House.
F8: Your latest title, "Cures for Heartbreak" has gotten (and this is fairly stunning), a starred review from Booklist, one from SLJ. one from The Bulletin, and one from KLIATT. Um... wow. Michael Chabon and Joyce Carol Oates both blurbed it. You even got a positive review out of Kirkus. Time for the honesty then. Before you were approached to write a YA novel, had you ever seriously considered the genre before?MR: I wasn’t approached to write this book—one aspect of being a writer, which can make this career seem more like a nightmare than a dream come true, is that usually during all those years of labor, of writing and re-writing, there’s no guarantee that your book will be published. And even if it is published, you have no idea if it’ll be received positively. Writing a novel is just such a gigantic, unfathomable leap of faith. While
CURES was being shopped around, I kept telling my husband that if it didn’t sell I’d have to go drown myself in the Gowanus canal. Thankfully I didn’t have to—the Gowanus would be a pretty disgusting way to go.
As for the young adult genre, both my agent and I initially thought the book was probably more suited to an adult readership, since its structure (a novel in stories) seemed different from most young adult novels. Its selling as young adult has been great, though, since I’ve been thrilled with the response, and I absolutely love everyone I’ve worked with at Random House.
F8: Do you still write for adults? If so, how do you balance out the two?
MR: Well, apparently I’m still writing for both, since I’m not sure what constitutes adult and young adult these days! The novel I’m working on right now is adult—at least I think it is—the narrator is in her twenties. I have an idea for another young adult novel, and I’m looking forward to writing that one.
F8: You've been doing quite a lot of blog-tour interviews. What is the number one question you hate to answer. Seriously.MR: I don’t like talking about current work-in-progress much, because whenever I talk too much about what I’m working on, all the excitement goes out of it. Also, I write best when I pretend no one else will ever read it, so if I start talking about what I’m writing then it’s hard to keep up that façade. (Thus the very short answer to question #7 below.)
F8: What is the number one question you like to answer? And, if at all possible, could you answer it for me?MR: I was asked by Lauren Cerand for her Smart Set column on
maudnewton.com: “Who’s the sexiest living writer you never met?” My friends and I pondered that one for a long time. It was quite difficult to decide, actually. My friends’ suggestions: John Irving, Paul Auster, and Sebastian Junger. I went with Karl Iagnemma, who another friend tells me is beyond McDreamy. Other suggestions, anyone?
F8: Who are you reading right now?MR: Unfortunately, at the moment it’s
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Weissbluth, which is not exactly a page-turner. I need to finish that soon, and get my baby girl sleeping well, so I can return to reading Shirley Jackson’s
Life Among the Savages, a great commentary on family and motherhood, written in 1953 with Jackson’s (author of the short story
The Lottery) trademark dark humor. It’s very much of its time, which I love—when Jackson is in the taxi on the way to the hospital to deliver her third baby, she lights a cigarette without thinking twice. People probably would publicly stone you if you did that now.
F8: What do you have currently ah-churning in the works? Which is to say, what are you working on? MR: I’m halfway through the aforementioned new novel, and I’ve been plotting the next young adult novel, too.
F8: I'm going to point out that you and I attended the same Quaker college, Earlham, in Richmond, Indiana. Being that the creative writing program at that school was... eclectic (shall we say) you are the first Earlham grad I've heard of who went into YA lit. What did you take away from your Quaker college experience that has carried over into your current profession?
MR: They didn’t have much of a creative writing program when I was at Earlham—just one or two classes—though I hear they have a minor in it now. It’s probably for the best that they didn’t have that when I was there, since in the two creative writing classes I took I wrote a lot of extremely bad, embarrassing poetry (of the O-why-has-that-guy-not-called-me-back variety), so I shudder to think of the heaps of embarrassing fiction I would’ve written back then if I’d had the opportunity. I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Earlham, though. There’s no place like it in the world—that tiny, idealistic community, plopped in the middle of nowhere. I was incredibly happy there, and perhaps the sense of idealism that they foster, the encouragement they give you to pursue what you love and what you dream of, helped me become who I wanted to be.
And on that note of alma mater luvin', we end. You may visit Margo's website at
http://www.margorabb.com or her MySpace page at
http://www.myspace.com/margorabb. Or you could just follow her about from blog to blog. Voila:
3/19: Colleen Mondor at
Chasing Ray3/20: Lizzie Skurnick at
The Old Hag3/21: Jen Robinson at
Jen Robinson's Book Page3/22: Some chick
3/23: Kelly Herold at
Big A little a3/26: Liz Burns at
A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy3/27: Jackie Parker at
Interactive Reader3/28: Little Willow at
Bildungsroman3/29: Leila Roy at
Bookshelves of Doom3/30: Mindy at
propernoun.netOh. And if you've read this far then you may be interested in getting this book for free, no? Margo's publisher is giving away a book a day during the tour so shoot an email to
[email protected]. And don't worry if you've read this posting late today (Thursday the 22nd). Just one lucky winner will chosen at random each day. Why not try your hand? Are you feeling lucky?
Many many thanks to the
BB-Blog for the link to the marquee up above.
It's a busy morning in the kidlitosphere. Here's what's going on:
Happy Monday!
Margo Rabb's Cures for Heartbreak is one compelling, wise book for the teen aged reader.
Ninth-grader Mia lives in Queens with her mother, father (who owns a shoe-repair shop), and older, cantankerous sister, Alex. Mia and Alex attend the Bronx High School of Science, where Alex excels as a scientific genius.
One day, mom heads to the ER with a stomachache. 12 days later she's dead. Diagnosis? Melanoma with liver metathesis. Things happen in a blur as Mia finds herself shopping for a dress, with her frugal and decidedly unfeminine sister, for her mother's funeral. Mia, a confused, yet touching narrator, says:
"I stared at the hem of my $119 dress and thought about the one night I'd left the hospital to go home and instead of getting on the 4 train at 33rd Street, I walked all the way to the Barnes & Noble on 54th. I kept walking and when I got there I scanned the shelves of the grief section, the Death & Dying shelves, for a book that would comfort me, that would say exactly the right thing. I'm not sure what I'd been looking for, exactly. Maybe something like What to Do When Your Mother Dies from Melanoma, Which They Thought Was a Stomachache at First. How to Cope When You're Left Alone with Your Father and Sister, Who Drive You Nuts. How to Survive a Funeral, Especially One Hosted by a Disconcertingly Happy Funeral Director and an Upwardly Mobile Rabbi Who Drives a BMW. I didn't find a book I wanted to buy. All that had made me feel better was the walk." (14-15)
The beauty and authenticity of Cures for Heartbreak lie in the fact that there are no cures. Mia tries dressing in her mother's clothes, wearing too much makeup, fighting with her sister, reading romance novels, becoming a hypochondriac, and falling in love. The only things that work, though, are time, patience, and the real sympathy of a new friend.
Cures for Heartbreak is best suited for readers ages 13 and up. Pick this one for Rabb's honest, beautiful writing and her brave, yet vulnerable narrator. Mia is frightened, lonely and unsure of herself, yet she picks herself up time and time again. In the end, she realizes, "if grief had a permanence, then didn't also love?" (232)
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We have no security system in our library. It is a pain. I've put up signs BEGGING the teens to stop stealing Sonya Sones and Carolyn Mackler. I budget replacement money regularly for Meg Cabot and Tamora Pierce. Somebody took off with half our Pixar movies the other day. I also give my school visit kids a fairly terrifying talk on how taking books and not returning them isn't just stealing from the library, it's stealing from EVERY PERSON IN THE CITY AND WE WILL TRACK YOU DOWN!! There's always a shocked and solemn pause after that little talk and I've gotten some "you're nuts" looks from teachers, but somebody has to drill it into these kids. They take books, I replace books, I can't buy new books.
Unless there's some publisher "this book was shoplifted" credit I've been missing out on for the past six years, I can assure you that a stolen book is simply counted as a sale by the publisher for the purposes of author royalties. Which is probably why there are so many thieving authors.
I've heard that the paper inside of the most stolen book is perfect for smoking.
After a quick search I found out it's true.
http://www.marijuana.com/homemade-paraphernalia/8656-paper-use-when-you-have-no-rolling-paper.html
Jennifer, and with increased budget concerns the theft becomes an even bigger issue. What is interesting is how many of the thieves thoughts seem to be, "but I'm the only one reading this book so it's OK; it's 'liberating' the book" or "since I'm a reader who cannot afford to buy a book, it's OK."
Admin, Wow. While it's nice, I guess, that the bookseller doesn't take the hit & that the author gets credit, then the publisher takes the hit.
Doret, that actually makes sense as to why that book would be stolen.
I think you're misunderstanding what I said. The bookstore ordered the book, paid the invoice and did not return it for credit; so, the bookstore eats the loss and everybody else gets paid.
I've heard that the paper inside of the most stolen book is perfect for smoking.
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