Author Profile: Ellen Wittlinger

Ellen Wittlinger

BIO

Ellen Wittlinger is the critically acclaimed author of the teen novels HEART ON MY SLEEVE, THE LONG NIGHT OF LEO AND BREE, RAZZLE, WHAT'S IN A NAME, and HARD LOVE (an American Library Association Michael L. Printz Honor Book, a Lambda Literary Award winner, and a Booklist Editors' Choice). She has a bachelor's degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. A former children's librarian, she lives with her husband in Swampscott, Massachusetts.

Ellen Wittlinger writes: "I began with the idea of having a teenager travel cross country. I knew Robin would be mourning the immediate loss of her longtime boyfriend, but I stumbled on the idea of having her deal with her difficult, truly mourning cousins. The idea of the 'journey' novel during which the actual traveling echoes an inward journey is not new, but it's effective, I think, because it's so often true. Traveling takes you out of your usual routine and allows you to see other options for your life."

May 5, 2000

YA author Ellen Wittlinger entertains readers with her new book, WHAT'S IN A NAME, a collection of stories about teens who live in a small Massachusetts town. Teenreads.com Writer Tammy Currier had a chance to ask Wittlinger questions about her new book and her writing career. Find out her reaction when her novel, HARD LOVE, won the Honor for the Michael Printz Award, about her first career aspiration, her love for J.D. Salinger's books, a sneak preview of her new novel, and much more.

TRC: In your new book, WHAT'S IN A NAME, there are 10 connected short stories, each told by a different narrator. Why did you choose to use so many viewpoints? Was this more or less challenging than using just one?

EW: When I wrote the first "story" I did think I was writing a short story, but somewhere in the middle of "Georgie" I realized what I wanted to do was write something more like a novel; that is, something with an overarching story that continued in chronological time, but which was told in a number of different voices, all of which might see the "back story" in a different light. And then, the idea behind it all became suddenly clear: that the "real" identities of the students would mirror the identity crisis of the town. Yes, it was difficult to do and I wasn't really certain I could do it. I actually wrote this book very quickly because I was afraid if I didn't get it all down fast I'd forget all the possible connections between these people.

TRC: Do you have a favorite character in WHAT'S IN A NAME? Who most relates to you when you were in high school?

EW: My favorite character turned out to be Ricardo --- I loved writing in his voice and his viewpoint on American students. There isn't one character who is exactly like me, but there's probably more of me in the characters of Georgie and Christine than anyone else.

TRC: The book takes place in a small town in Massachusetts. Why did you choose this setting? Do you think the book would be different if it took place in a big city?

EW: Yes, it would change the feel of the book. Setting it in a small town with a small school system you're more likely to have very different kinds of kids knowing each other and having to deal with one another. In a larger school they would more easily avoid each other. Also, these kids run into each other all over town, not only in school. And I also like the fact that even in a small, seemingly homogeneous town there are so many different personalities and types of kids.

TRC: How does

EW: In both these books I began speaking to older teenagers than I had addressed in the past. Both books assume a kind of sophisticated YA reader. I tried in both books to portray a real teenage world, the world in which I see kids around me living.

TRC: HARD LOVE was an Honor Book for the new Young Adult Michael Printz Award. How did you feel when you found out you received this honor?

EW: It was a thrilling moment, even though I was barely awake when the committee chairperson called me. I was so pleased, first of all, that there WAS such an award as the Printz being given --- it bestows credibility and a sense of worth on YA novels which would otherwise be overlooked --- so to actually be one of the first winners of this award was both humbling and exciting.

TRC: Tell us about getting your first book published --- was the process very hard?

EW: Well, my VERY first book was a book of poetry called BREAKERS which was published in 1979 --- another lifetime almost. And it was quite difficult to get a book of adult poetry published, and still is. I have many a book manuscript stowed in file cabinets, but the first young adult novel manuscript I sold (in 1993) was bought by the first house I sent it to (LOMBARDO'S LAW, Houghton-Mifflin), which gave me an incorrect sense of the difficulty of publishing in this genre.

TRC: When did you decide that you wanted to be a writer?

EW: In college. Before that I wanted to be a painter --- I wasn't very good at painting though, so it's lucky a professor spotted my ability to write and fertilized that instead.

TRC: What authors inspired you as you were growing up?

EW: There weren't really young adult authors when I was a teenager --- a few Betty Cavanna books and Beverly Cleary and I did read those. But as I wandered around the library stacks the books that really captured my attention were the plays. I read Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill and found a whole new world open to me. I credit these and other playwrights with teaching me how to write dialogue. (I wrote plays myself for ten years or so.) And, of course, J.D. Salinger, father of the YA novel, whether he likes it or not. I reread the NINE STORIES so many times I sometimes think his voice is stuck there inside me.

TRC: Who are your favorite YA authors today?

EW: There are so many great people writing for YAs today: Virginia Euwer Wolff, M.E. Kerr, Chris Crutcher, Rob Thomas, Lois Lowry, Walter Dean Myers, Chris Lynch, Virginia Hamilton, Katherine Paterson. Among newer writers, Laurie Halse Anderson's SPEAK, Pat Lowery Collins' SIGNS AND WONDERS, and Sonia Sones' STOP PRETENDING seem to me fabulous. And I know I'm leaving out lots of favorites!

TRC: Describe your average writing day.

EW: Well, since this darn computer invention I fear I spend much too much of my morning online! However, once breakfast, email and exercise are out of the way I begin to write and can often continue throughout the day, stopping to go get lunch (and bring it back to the computer), pick up my son from school (and go back to work) and sometimes even work again in the evening after dinner if the work is going well. If it isn't, I feel fortunate to get 3 or 4 solid hours accomplished.

TRC: How do you get your ideas for your characters, do you ever model them after real people?

EW: Sometimes I begin a character by taking certain personality quirks or unusual aspects of a real person and combining them into the sort of character I want in a particular book. My son recently asked me to write a character based on him. I was already well into a new book, but I needed another lesser male character anyway, so I let my son pick the name and I tried to base the boy on him. It was only partially successful. He LOOKS a bit like my son, but he needed to respond to events in this particular story, so he doesn't really SOUND too much like him. As I wrote he became less and less like my son and more and more himself --- and this was when I was TRYING to base him on a real person. I doubt many writers ever end up with a character that's too similar to an actual person.

TRC: Are you conscious of the age of your audience when you write?

EW: Somewhat, but I hope I never write down to them. I feel so much still a teenager myself (and I'm far from it in actual age) that I think if I write for myself it's pretty much suitable for a teenage audience.

TRC: Do you think that young adult literature has changed since you were a teen? Do you think teens want to read different things now than they did in the past?

EW: I think I certainly lived a more sheltered existence when I was growing up. TV and movies weren't so saturated with sex --- even the nightly news is full of it now. And violence too, of course, but I actually think the sexual atmosphere of the world has changed life for teenagers more than the violence. And because they do see a more "real" world everywhere they look, a world that doesn't shelter them from its realities, they expect that in their reading too. I read PEYTON PLACE because I didn't know squat about sex and I wanted to find out. Kids now know more, but they still want to know the truth --- that doesn't change --- kids always want to know the truth.

TRC: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

EW: Easy one: READ, READ, READ. Then WRITE, WRITE, WRITE. Start over. In ten years or so this will start to pay off.

TRC: Can you give us a sneak preview of your next project?

EW: A hint. I'm working on two novels now: one is a rather short, dark piece about a kidnapping --- the other is set on Cape Cod, much of it at a dump.

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