Author Profile: Lois Metzger

Lois Metzger

BIO

Lois Metzger grew up in Queens, in New York City, and now lives in Greenwich Village in New York City with her husband, writer Tony Hiss, and their son, Jacob. She's written articles and short stories for the New Yorker, Omni, The Nation, Harper's Bazaar, and The North American Review. BARRY'S SISTER was her first published book, followed by ELLEN'S CASE and MISSING GIRLS.

ARTICLE

Recently I had the opportunity to talk to Lois Metzger about her writing, her books and her family. She told me she started off writing for adults, but early in her career, she made the transition to young adult novels. "It's a fascinating age to write for," she says. She also said she would love to write young adult science fiction. "I started out writing science fiction and I feel I will eventually go back to it."

When she was a teenager, Ms. Metzger read incessantly. "Books can really change your life." She told me she remembers everything that happened to her as a child, not as a remembrance but as being very current. The truth of childhood is still very much with her. "When I was seven, everything looked different than it had before. This happened again when I reached fourteen, so I expected it to happen every seven years, but it never did again. That was the age when I decided to become a writer." She remembered that when she read J. D. Salinger's NINE STORIES, "I wanted to write the tenth," she said. Another book that really inspired her was Virginia Hamilton's very emotional and intelligent book, SWEET WHISPERS, BROTHER RUSH.

Ms. Metzger grew up in Queens, New York. She did her undergraduate work at State University of New York at Buffalo and earned a master's degree in Writing from Johns Hopkins University. For a while she wrote for adults, but she usually wrote about children. She has been published in the New Yorker, where she worked in various departments for about five years. The New York Times, Omni, the Nation, and the North American Review have all published work by Ms. Metzger.

She has to write a book four or five times before she knows what it's about, and she does a tremendous amount of research for each book. It takes her at least three years to write a book with two years of research. She was lucky the agent who handled her first book, BARRY'S SISTER, was new and looking for people to represent. She put Ms. Metzger in touch with a very nice editor, and it was fairly easy to get this first book published.

Ms. Metzger's writing day is a three-page minimum. "Six pages is a good day," she says. I asked her how she handles a family and writing. "My son, Jacob, is eight-and-a-half, and I write while he's in school." Her husband Tony is also a writer.

Last year Ms. Metzger went back to PS 165, her old public school in Queens, and taught a twelve-week writing course to the fifth and sixth grades. For one day each week the students worked on a different writing exercise. Her advice to aspiring young writers is "to write as seriously, as funny or as deep as you want. From this, you will know if a writing life is what you want."

Lois Metzger lives in New York City with her husband, writer Tony Hiss, and their eight-year-old son, Jacob. She is the author of BARRY'S SISTER, ELLEN'S CASE and MISSING GIRLS, and is currently working on a novella and a collection of short stories.

--- Audrey Marie Danielson