Teenreads.com -- Author Profile: M. E. Kerr

BIO

"I was very much formed by books when I was young," says M. E. Kerr, award-winning author of many young adult novels. "I was a bookworm and a poetry lover. When I think of myself and what I would have liked to have found in books those many years ago, I remember being depressed by all the neatly tied-up, happy-ending stories, the abundance of winners, the themes of winning, solving, finding --- when around me it didn't seem that easy. So I write with a different feeling when I write for young adults. I guess I write for myself at that age."

Marijane Meaker (which is M. E. Kerr's real name) was born in Auburn, New York and attended the University of Missouri. She then came to New York City with some sorority sisters after graduation. "We were all going to be in advertising or publishing, but I didn't know shorthand, which was my great blessing. Since I couldn't get the good jobs, I got very boring jobs, and wrote all the while." Her first story was sold to Ladies' Home Journal in 1951. Twenty years later, M. E. Kerr wrote her first book for young adults, DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK! It was an immediate critical and popular success and later was adapted into an ABC-TV "Afterschool Special." Alleen Pace Nilsen's PRESENTING M. E. KERR (1997 Updated Edition, Twayne/Simon & Schuster Macmillan) is an extended examination of Ms. Kerr's life and works.

Ms. Kerr now lives in East Hampton on Long Island, New York. She has written adult mysteries under the name Vin Packer; as M. J. Meaker she has written other books for adults. She finds that there is an important distinction between writing for adults, whose values are already formed, and for young adults, who are concerned with the basics of making and losing friends and wondering what to do with their lives. And, she states, "My 'job' as a writer of books for young people is to entertain them, hope they will want to come back for more."

In 1993, the ALA's Young Adult Library Services Association presented the Margaret A. Edwards Award to M. E. Kerr for DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK!, GENTLEHANDS, ME ME ME ME ME: Not a Novel, and NIGHT KITES. "M. E. Kerr," says the citation, "is one of the pioneers in realistic fiction for teenagers. Her courage to be different and to address tough current issues without compromising and with a touch of leavening humor, has earned her a place in young adult literature and in the hearts of teenagers."

May 19, 2000

Prolific author M. E. Kerr joins Teenreads again to talk about her new novel, WHAT BECAME OF HER, a book that combines Kerr's poignant fiction with characters inspired by real people. Writing in the voice of a female lead protagonist is unusual for Kerr who spends most of her YA novels in a male voice. Teenreads.com Writer Audrey Marie Danielson asks Kerr about her history of creating mostly male characters, her writing life before YA novels, how she is so well versed in teen culture, and much more in this interview.

TBB: WHAT BECAME OF HER, your latest teen novel, revolves around Rosalind Slaymaster, a rich woman, who returns to the small town she grew up in (and was tormented in). How did you create Rosalind's character? What about the other characters in the novel? Are they modeled after real people?

ME Kerr: WHAT BECAME OF HER is my twenty-first novel for teens, counting FRANKENLOUSE by Mary James. Mrs. Slaymaster is based on a real person, now deceased. The other characters are fictional, but based on kids I know, neighbors and my grandnieces.

TBB: Peale, the two-foot leather mannequin in WHAT BECAME OF HER: A NOVEL is as much a character in your book as your human characters. Was it a challenge to make this inanimate object have the feel of a real person? How did you think him up?

ME Kerr: Peale was a dummy belonging to the real Mrs. Slaymaster. He is now buried in a grave beside hers.

TBB: Many of your books have main male protagonists, although not your new novel. Why do you so often write your novels from a male viewpoint?

ME Kerr: I began writing from the male viewpoint in my YA books when teachers told me boys didn't like books told from girl's viewpoint...but girls didn't care either way. I always look for the larger audience...The present book is told from male and female viewpoints.

TBB: Is it difficult to write from the viewpoint of a male protagonist?

ME Kerr: It is not hard for me to write from a male viewpoint. That is my job: to create characters, male or female. I used to write mystery books, and often wrote from a murderer's viewpoint, despite having had no experience as a murderer.

TBB: What are the primary issues that you deal with in your novels? Do find yourself returning to similar themes again and again?

ME Kerr: I tend to write about people who struggle, who try to overcome obstacles, who usually do, but sometimes not. People who have all the answers and few problems have never interested me, not to write about, not to befriend.

TBB: Why did you choose to write books for Young Adults rather than for the adult market?

ME Kerr: I wrote books for adults long before entering the YA field, mostly mystery books under the name Vin Packer, out of print now. Some were under my own name, Marijane Meaker. YA was a refreshing change, and I prefer writing for kids because they haven't made up their minds yet about life, and are more open to wonder and change than most adults.

TBB: Why do you think it's important to discuss subjects such as child abuse, incest, homosexuality, AIDS, and racism in YA books?

ME Kerr: I haven't written about incest...but whatever the subject is, the story is more important than the issue. I don't decide: now I'll write a book about a child molester, or a homosexual... It's a stronger pull than that, usually based on someone I know, or some part of my own life. People interest me more than themes.

TBB: How do you keep up with the latest teenage trends? Do you enjoy their music and all the other elements of the teenage culture?

ME Kerr: I have many friends who are teens, and I do like the music. But I also was a teen once myself, it's not a foreign country, exactly: teendom. The styles are different from my day, the fads...but not the feelings.

TBB: Of all the books you've written as M. E. Kerr and Mary James do you have a personal favorite or favorites?

ME Kerr: I don't have a favorite book of mine, but LITTLE LITTLE was hard to write, and like a child who's hard to raise but then turns out fine, I have a special feeling for that book.

TBB: How emotionally involved do you get with your characters?

ME Kerr: No, I don't get emotionally involved with my characters, but I do get very involved with them, more intellectually: watching them form, finding the best way to show the readers things about them, making errors and correcting them...that sort of thing.

TBB: Who are the authors who influenced you as a child?

ME Kerr: As a kid I read everything from Nancy Drew mysteries to Charles Dickens novels. I loved the American writers, too, like John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell, Sherwood Anderson...all the wonderful champions of the underdog who wrote in the 30s and 40s.

TBB: How old were you when you knew that you wanted to be a writer?

ME Kerr: I can't remember a day when I didn't want to be a writer.

TBB: Who are your favorite YA authors today?

ME Kerr: There are so many fine YA writers...Han Nolan, Robert Cormier, Robert Lipsyte, on and on. I think some of the best writing is in the YA field.

TBB: When you first started writing, how hard was it to get your first novel published?

ME Kerr: I did not have trouble getting my first book published. I was working as a file clerk for the publisher, so I had access. But that was another time. There was not the media competition then. There were few TV's, no computers, no VCRs. It was a smaller world, far more welcoming to a young writer. I was lucky.

TBB: What is the biggest obstacle that you had to overcome in your writing career and what was your solution in overcoming this?

ME Kerr: The biggest obstacle was supporting myself writing. I wrote all kinds of things to earn my living until I was able to support myself fully as a novelist. Several times I almost gave up and hunted for a steady job...but somehow I stuck with it and it worked. I was a very eager, ambitious young woman; and because I'd gone to the University of Missouri for journalism, many friends from school came to New York City when I did. We all wanted to be writers. I had a lot of company. We all started off poor and full of hope.

TBB: What is your writing day like?

ME Kerr: I stay up late, two or three in the morning...and sleep late. I eat lunch out by myself or with a friend. I go into my study about 3PM and work until 6 or 7. Then much later, around midnight, I look over what I wrote and make notes about what I'll do the next day...I'm usually working on a novel, so there's never a question about what to write.

TBB: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

ME Kerr: I would tell aspiring writers to read. Read, read, read, read... Read the kind of books you'd like to write.  Study your competition, see how they do it. Go away to college, or to work or whatever. See some of the world away from where you live. Try to join or start a writers' group where everyone shares what they're working on.

TBB: Can you tell us what you're working on now?

ME Kerr: I'm now writing an adult memoir of the writer, Patricia Highsmith, who wrote the book THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.

TBB: Do you get personally involved in the promotion of your books such as lectures, book signings, and bookstore functions? Are you doing any signings for your new book?

ME Kerr: I do get somewhat involved with promoting my books in that I like to visit schools and talk with the kids. I also go to teachers' conferences, too; and I do telephone hookups with classrooms. But I don't do bookstore appearances, or signings like that. I can't spare the time for that.

Thank you so much for your interest in my work do visit my website. Sign in and say hello. Address below. There's more information there. It was created by a student at Columbia University and she did a beautiful job --- without even being asked. We didn't know each other when she first set it up.

Tell her what you think of it, honestly.

Introducing, M. E. Kerr...

M. E. Kerr is only one of the pen names used by Marijane Meaker. She was inspired by Paul Zindel's THE PIGMAN and started writing young adult books as M. E. Kerr. Her first young adult novel was DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK!, published in 1972. In 1990, she wrote the first of a series of books targeted to a younger audience and bearing the pen name of Mary James. In 1994, after her third book, she indicated on the cover that she was also known as M. E. Kerr. Her books for younger audiences are SHOEBAG, THE SHUTEYES, FRANKENLOUSE, and SHOEBAG RETURNS. She has also written a book, BLOOD ON THE FOREHEAD: What I Know About Writing, which is based on her experiences teaching writing classes at the Ashawagh Hall Writers' Workshop.

She often writes from memories of her childhood, fictionalizing these from her imagination and research skills. These memories include growing up in upstate New York with her parents and two brothers, escapades with friends, platonic and romantic relationships, and her experiences at boarding school.

As a journalist, she developed research skills that have been invaluable in writing her books. Her novels appeal to boys and girls alike. She writes from the male viewpoint as a rule, because she found that boys will not read a book with a female protagonist; however, girls will read almost anything. She also avoids "love" in her titles and tries to have some say in the design of her book covers so they will appeal to readers of all ages, both male and female.

Her books by both M. E. Kerr and Mary James deal with the development, function, and description of relationships between her characters. She enjoys putting humor into her writing, though her themes are serious. She writes about tolerance, prejudices, and denial. She also uses people of different backgrounds, beliefs, and lifestyles as the characters in her books. Religion and religious differences are common themes. Sexuality and sexual orientation are topics she touches on and explores.

M. E. Kerr is the winner of the American Library Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement. She lives in East Hampton, New York. To learn more about M. E. Kerr's background and works under other pen names, read her autobiography of sorts, ME ME ME ME ME: Not a Novel.

--- Audrey Marie Danielson