Hello Darling Readers,
So, last year all my reader dreams came true because I got to meet one of my book idols - A.S. King. She is the author of everything I love, and she came to Australia for the Reading Matters Conference last year, to become living PROOF that you should definitely meet your idols.
I am thrilled that Text Publishing is this month releasing King's Printz-Honor book, Please Ignore Vera Dietz - and gifting her words to a broader Australian audience.
I was even more thrilled when Text asked me if I'd like to interview Amy (again!)
So here she is. An author I most admire, letting me pick her brain.
Link to the Text website feature (which also includes King's writing process and an extract from the book!) is here: https://goo.gl/Hu795U
Enjoy!
I work in youth
literature. It’s pretty much my whole life. I write, advocate, edit, review,
and even sell it as a literary agent.
I have bountiful
thankfulness for the books I read growing up that ensured I’d always live for
this readership, plus a deep respect and fascination with modern young-adult
(YA) literature.
But if you ask me
who the one author is that’s writing YA today, who I wish with every fibre of
my being had existed when I was a teen, I have only one answer.
A. S. King.
Her books are not
easy. Her books are not ‘nice’. But I know that she is one of the most
important voices writing in YA fiction today for the very reason that she’s
constantly testing boundaries and pushing readers out of comfort zones.
Because A. S. King
writes without limit. And I could have done with some of that, when I was
growing up.
Last year I had the
thrill of my life getting to meet this author whom I have idolised since first
reading her way back in 2011. I got to witness the impact and affect she had on
teenagers when she joined the Centre for Youth Literature’s Reading Matters
Conference line-up. The way A. S. King spoke to auditoriums full of teens –
with steely-eyed honesty and deep-seated respect that only comes from truly
knowing what it is to be young and hurting – that’s exactly the way she writes
for them too. And they are so floored and shocked by her audacious authenticity
– an adult who actually treats them and their pain as real and
profound. It was an honour to witness the impact she had on each and every
young person who was lucky enough to hear and read her words.
Which is why I am
so excited that even more Aussie teens will get that chance, now that Please Ignore Vera
Dietz has landed in Australia. It remains my favourite of hers. A novel
of sheer magnificence, about heartbreakingly flawed and complex young
characters – with no pulled punches, just deep understanding for the absurdity
and beauty of life. It’s about bullying and grief, abandonment and
ignoring a problem until it festers and explodes. But above all else, it’s a
novel of forgiveness. Forgiving other people and ourselves – the mistakes and
bad choices, the pain inflicted and emptiness left behind.
This book is a
gift, and even if I wasn’t lucky enough to have A. S. King growing up, I am so
thankful and relieved that today’s teens do.
And that’s enough.
Hell, it might even be everything.
What were you like
as a teen? And what were some of the formative works you encountered that still
shape your writing today?
The farther I get
from my teen years, the more I see myself as a fairly confident teen, even
though I was a walking contradiction. For example: I was a determined athlete
and a fantastic cigarette smoker. Also: I was determined to do something that
would somehow help the world, and yet the prescribed path to this – school –
was something I loathed.
But reading? And
thinking? And writing? That was for me.
Funny that I
separate these things from school but…now more than ever in American education,
administrations are forcing teachers to teach to a test so maybe I was ahead of
my time in opting out.
I read a lot as a
kid, and once I got into my teens, I was required to read Paul Zindel’s The
Pigman. I fell for Zindel. I read everything he’d ever written many,
many times. I’d say the most important book for me as a teen and as a writer
early on was Confessions of a Teenage Baboon. Zindel crafted
well-defined and very strong adult characters and told stories of teens
navigating adults. For me, that’s the definition of being a teen. Navigating
adults.
When I first
entered the YA world here in the US, I had more than one editor reject my work
because it contained fully-formed adult characters. I stuck with what felt true
to me because that’s what artists have to do.
Why do you write
YA?
I believe teenagers
are capable, complex human beings, and I love writing for them and about them.
I didn’t do this on purpose. I’d been writing novels for a long time and at
some point (far later than I should have) I realised that all of my characters’
stories started in their teen years. I wondered why. I came to this conclusion:
our early years are called formative for a reason. Everything that happens to
us before the age of ‘adulthood’ forms us. What an exciting, expansive time of
life to study – the formative years. And what a fantastic way to help the world
– to write honest portrayals of these formative years so teenagers could
see themselves in books, face hard things and grow into stable adults. So,
that’s my hindsight answer. But really, there was no why. I
just naturally wrote this way.
What is it about
teenagers that makes you want to write for – and about – them?
I’m really, so,
utterly tired of seeing teenagers get a bad rap. They are the punchline to so
many jokes. For what? Having an age that starts with the number one? When a
toddler trips over their own feet, we ask them if they’re okay. Add ten years
and if the same kid trips over their own feet, we snap at them or make them the
brunt of a joke. I meet a lot of teenagers in a year and when I ask them, ‘Hey
– have you guys noticed that adults roll their eyes at you a lot?’ they all say
yes.
This upsets me
because teen years are some of the hardest to get through and it’s hard enough
without the added eye-roll. It also upsets me because all of us were teenagers
once and I can’t quite figure out where this superiority comes from. I see it
in twenty-somethings and beyond – as if the minute we are no longer teens, we
are out to be better than the people still stuck there. I don’t know. I’m
passionate about how smart and caring teenagers are. I’m amazed by how
open-minded they are. I don’t understand why they are, in most cultures, the
butt of our jokes.
And on a serious
note…we are living in an age where teenage mental illness is an epidemic. I
reckon it’s about time we STOP calling teenage emotions DRAMA. Stop it. Now.
It’s time to take things seriously. I’ve had people argue with me on that –
they say that teenage emotions are fleeting, they are happy one minute and sad
the next. Yeah. Maybe. But will being an asshole about it help them in any way?
No. So stop.
And what do you say to any critics who throw out the tired question ‘Will
you ever write a “real” book – for adults?’
Oh, please. I’ve
heard this a few times – always from someone who hasn’t read my books or who
doesn’t read young-adult books or any books at all. Anyone saying that sort of
garbage is just out to make another person feel small. Which, to me, makes the
asker seem small. Seriously. I’m probably too busy writing an awesome book to
answer this question in real life.
Why do you think parent characters often get forgotten in a lot of modern YA?
You make a point of writing multifaceted adults in your teen characters’ lives
– like the wonderful father Ken Dietz in Please Ignore Vera Dietz.
I will admit to not
really liking books where teens or children are the only people populating the
landscape. It seems so unrealistic to me.
I will tell you
what happened to Ken Dietz in Please Ignore Vera Dietz when
editors were reading it and bidding on it. He nearly got cut from the book. It started
with me asking one editor if she had any editorial ideas and she said, ‘We have
to cut the father, of course.’ I was like, ‘Whoa, wait, what?’ Then I asked
about Ken’s flowcharts. She said ‘Yeah, those go, too.’ I asked why. Her answer
was: TEENS ONLY WANT TO READ ABOUT TEENS.
Still breathing?
Good.
So, I don’t agree
with that. Especially considering my earliest inspiration was Confessions
of a Teenage Baboon by Zindel. I LOVED reading about adults.
So, if I was to
guess, the answer to the WHY of this question is: for some weird reason, there
are editors and other publishing or even library professionals who have a
problem with adults in YA or children’s books. Often, you will hear the agency
reasoning, which goes like this: make sure there are no adults in the book
solving problems because the whole point of a book for children and teens is
that they have to solve all the problems themselves!
And we wonder why
kids don’t come to adults for help.
I may be weird for
thinking that way but I’m still reeling, ten years later, at the original
misconception that teens only want to read about teens. As if all teens were
just cranked out of the teen factory identical to every other teen.
I should add that
my goal since I dreamed of being a writer at age fourteen was to write books
that help adults understand teens better and to help teens understand adults better.
So for me, there was never a question of including both age groups. My 2019
book is three generations wide. I’ve always been fascinated with generational
differences, and how we navigate them as humans.
Your books are weird and wonderful, and like they’re sometimes showing the
real-world through a fun-house mirror, slightly off-kilter… What do you say to
those who ask if the surreal and bizarre in your books are ‘real’ or figments
of your characters’ imaginations? For instance – is the pagoda really sentient
in Vera Dietz?
Oh, that pagoda.
Hmm. Well, I guess life is surreal, Danielle. I mean, it is, right? And who
better to write about in that sense than teenagers? Teen years – talk about surreal.
So I think literary elements like sentient pagodas make sense in all books, but
especially YA books, I guess, because teens live lives full of surreal
expectations. Do this, do that, don’t forget this, make sure you do
that, get a job, do your homework, and WHY AREN’T YOU RELAXED/HAPPY/SMILING?
See what I mean?
In the case of the
pagoda, that book wrote itself and when the pagoda started talking, I had to
listen. It said some smart stuff. And it had the widest view of the town, the
characters, and it knew the truth. The real truth – all of it. Which is more
than the characters populating the book had.
But what do I say
to people who want linear answers? I say: you may have read the book too
quickly. See if you can read it next time like it’s a painting or your favorite
band’s album.
What do you want to say to those who think that the real world is bad enough,
so teens should only read ‘happy’ YA books that offer them a reprieve from fear
and pain, instead of tackling it head on as you do?
I don’t even know
what to say. I mean, children’s television is there if anyone wants to go back
to watching Elmo, I suppose. But seriously. What part of life isn’t
contradictory inside of every second? What part of our lives is just picture
perfect for every minute? Um, none. If adults want to argue that their kids
have everything they need, yeah, so do mine…but they also have pain and all
kinds of things that make them sad. If no one talks about it, then they feel
like freaks for this. And then they hold it all in. And then what? Look around.
What happens when kids hold everything in to make their parents happy and meet
social expectations? A lot of bad shit. That’s what happens.
Her are some
numbers. One in four American teenagers are suffering from mental illness.
Seventy per cent go untreated. One in four women are sexually assaulted before
they graduate college. One in four girls and one in seven boys have experienced
childhood sexual abuse. Forty-five per cent of children have lived through the
divorce of their parents. This is the tip of the shitty iceberg that is life.
For all of us. Denying teenagers a helpful and real outlet for their pain is
cruel. Deciding not to educate teens who don’t fit into any of these categories
is cruel, too, because life is on the way and bad shit happens to people they
know, their spouses, their children.
On a more serious
note (hold on…more serious than that?). In America, a kid could get shot and
die while they sit in chemistry class because we have gun violence that is the
most surreal and unimaginable thing I have ever witnessed. You want me to make
my books HAPPY? How’s that going to help their trauma? All kids by the time
they hit high school have trauma. We blow it off as drama. They watch kids all
over this country get gunned down in school. Even if they aren’t in that
school, that’s trauma. National trauma. Yesterday seventeen people died in a
school shooting. Today, we are numb – I feel like I am living inside a zombie’s
body. This is trauma.
So yeah. Come at
me. I’ve got a pocketful of stats for anyone who feels teenagers should be
sheltered. Also, to anyone who thinks teenagers shouldn’t read curse words, I
have a pocketful of those, too.
What is the number one piece of advice you’d give your teen self? (And is
this the inspiration behind all your novels?)
I have never been
asked this question before in this way and I love you for it. Because I sat
here thinking about it at first, and I think if I was able to go back in time
and tell myself not to worry so much about all the crap people told me was
important, I’d have been a lot more relaxed and happy. In more blunt terms: keeping
up with the Joneses is complete bullshit.
And yes, I’m pretty
sure that’s the message inside all of my novels. Among other things. I never
knew that before. Thanks.
When are you coming
back to Australia?
I thought I’d
be back this year, but it turns out I’m heading to New Zealand for their
smashing Auckland Writer’s Festival in May. I’m sad I can’t make it to your
shores this time around. You know how much I loved being there last year.
Australians are of my sensibility. That weird Ireland/American mix. (And you
pronounce yogurt the same way as we do, which is how the world should be.)
Did your time here
last year bring up any inspiration for you?
I am now eight
months from my time in Australia and there’s one thing that keeps coming back
to me when I talk about it.
My time in
Melbourne was particularly eye-opening in that it is a globally diverse city.
I’ve been to a lot of major cities. Nothing comes close to the feeling of
welcome global diversity there for me. I don’t know how else to describe it.
When the conference
opened, Adele thanked the indigenous tribe on whose land the conference was
being hosted. This was the coolest thing I ever saw. You must understand, I am
from America where this may happen in some places, but I’ve never seen it and
I’ve been around. So I’ve always been an American who craves diversity and
difference, and who has always wanted to talk openly about the crimes that
occurred in my country – the crimes that enabled my country to be a country/the
crimes that this country was founded on. I want us to finally respect the
people who survived our genocide. I’d like a lot more, but the first step is
respect and acknowledging the truth of our history.
Native American
history isn’t taught outside of inaccurate and dismissive accounts of what
really happened. And slavery is so inaccurately taught, proportionally
distorted, still not being openly discussed in order to understand present day
reality. Those are both understatements. I can’t really dive into how much work
we have to do on those fronts or count how many other fronts we should be
working on here. The list is enormous. But to see that simple gesture –
thanking for the use of the land. That acknowledgement of true history. It made
me cry on the spot. I wish we did that here. I wish we had the sensibility to
talk openly about anything without an argument arising. So far, that’s not
happening over here. So Australia was pure inspiration. Full marks for being
awesome.
How do you think Aussie teens are different from American ones?
From what I saw
when I was there, Australian teens really understood my more Irish side –
meaning the side of me that talks about communities and volunteering and being
part of making things in your country/area better. They weren’t afraid to talk about
mental health and they didn’t balk when I talked about it, nor non-consumerism
or my years being self-sufficient. They seemed to totally understand why I
talked about race and how important it is to know the privilege of whiteness. I
felt less weird in Australia, generally.
Now, that’s not to
give American teens a bad rap. American teens are plenty savvy and smart and
capable and empathetic. However, they are often shocked when I speak so openly
about mental health, race, or the personal responsibility we have to our
communities. Some are either so used to being universally dismissed and
devalued, or they are just not used to adults talking to them about personal
things so openly? I don’t know. I do feel weird here but that’s because I lived
so long abroad and I think I can be weird-seeming to people who don’t know many
women who speak passionately about certain topics.
I felt a confidence
among Aussie teens that came from something deeper in their education, an
openness to learning – something that gave them credit for being almost to
adulthood. A sense of belonging and maturity. I’m sad to say that I don’t see
that as often here. (I DO see it, but not as often, that’s all.) American high
school has become a series of standardized tests and rites of passage floating
on the surface of a great education offered by great educators…who are often at
the mercy of an administration that is distracted by what floats on the
surface. Confident maturity – while juggling a natural rebellion against a
culture that is constantly belittling them – is all over the place, but that
belittling takes its toll on that confidence.
Here’s a line
from Please Ignore Vera Dietz that sums up how I feel about
living in America, what it’s like for teenagers to live in America, and that
sums up this entire interview!
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‘I’m sorry, but I
don’t get it. If we’re supposed to ignore everything that’s wrong with our
lives, then I can’t see how we'll ever make things right.’
