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Gabrielle Zevin
BIO
Before I liked to write, I liked to type. I remember visiting my grandmother Adele in Ponce Inlet, Florida, when I was three years old, and she had an IBM electric typewriter. I thought that this electric typewriter was about the most fascinating toy in the world --- I liked the little bell and the sounds and the feel of the keys and especially the erase key. Grandma Adele would set me up with plenty of paper and I'd be entertained for hours. I would type pages and pages, mainly nonsense, but sometimes my name or lists of words I knew. I can't remember when the nonsense changed into something more organized and storylike, it just did. (Will the monkey eventually type Shakespeare? Not yet.) The first stories I wrote were autobiographies, because, at that age, I found myself a most intriguing subject. Still, the autobiographies were largely fictionalized. I'd sometimes leave space for illustrations and sew the pages together when I was done. And for many years, this was the extent of my fiction career.
When I was around eight, I learned how to touch-type at school, and I received a computer as a present. I started writing plays, and for many years I thought I would be a playwright. Over the years, I had studiously managed to write everything but novels --- I had been a copious pen pal, a first-class transcriptionist, a professional screenwriter (still am, actually), a teen music reviewer, a mediocre research-paper writer, and, of course, a writer of plays. So, although I was not writing novels, I was always writing something. Actually, I hadn't ever felt any particular calling to be a novelist, and I clearly remember telling a friend of mine about six months before I started work on ELSEWHERE that I would NEVER write a novel. And then I thought of the idea for ELSEWHERE, which did not seem to want to be a play or a screenplay. It kept sounding awfully novelish in my head, and though I was a little scared, I just sat in front of my computer and started to type. So it was fortunate that I liked typing, because I would be typing Liz's story for many a moon. Although I still write screenplays, I've written two other novels since writing ELSEWHERE . And I'm happy to report that I still like the sound of the keys.
Gabrielle lives in New York City. She has one dog, a peculiarly expressive, eight year old pug named Mrs. DeWinter.
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INTERVIEW
 September 2007
Gabrielle Zevin is the author of the critically-acclaimed teen novel ELSEWHERE, as well as a book geared toward adult readers, MARGARETTOWN. Her latest work of fiction, MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC, explores themes of self-discovery and second chances through the story of a young girl who loses her memory in an accident and must find a way to regain her bearings. In this interview with Teenreads.com's Norah Piehl, Zevin discusses the literary inspiration behind her book's protagonist, Naomi, describes the difficulties she encountered while creating this complex and flawed character, and even assembles a hypothetical iPod playlist in honor of Naomi's love "quadrilateral." She also explains her childhood fascination with typewriters, shares a cherished memory from her high school days, and reveals what she hopes readers will take away from this novel.
Teenreads.com: How did you get the idea of using amnesia as a way to explore memory and identity?
Gabrielle Zevin: The ideas for my books usually come from a question I’ve been asking in my personal life. With MEMOIRS, I had been thinking about my grandmother’s memory loss from Alzheimer’s Disease, and the question that inspired the book was Is a person more than his/her memories and experiences? The other thing that happened was my 10-year high school reunion --- I couldn’t go, but it got me thinking about who I was in high school, and who people thought I was, and who I thought I was, and who I am now, etcetera, etcetera.
TRC: Naomi is not always the most likable character --- she's dealing with a lot of difficult discoveries about herself, and her confusion causes her to make some bad choices. What was it like to develop this particularly complex character?
GZ: Naomi was born from the last line of the Rilke poem, “Archaic Torso of Apollo” –-- the line (in translation from the German) is: “for here, there is no place that does not see you. You must change your life.” The poem was my favorite poem when I was Naomi’s age, but it isn’t anymore. A professor and poet I once knew told me that you can only love Rilke when you are very, very young. But I still think about that line --- I think about that moment in everyone’s life when we decide that we want to be better than we have been before. Not for our parents or our friends or the world, but because something within us compels change. So, yes, Naomi may not always be likable, but that is because she is a person in transition.
As for Naomi’s bad choices? I think one of the worst things that can happen to a young person is being labeled BAD because she or he has made a couple of poor decisions. You know, I have made (and make) bad decisions; I do and say things that are unlikable and unsympathetic; I’m prickly and moody and jealous and vain and easily hurt; but I also know that I am good-hearted and generous and my impulses aren’t toward meanness. And multiply all of those qualities by 100, if you’d met the teenage me. Sometimes, it seems that the worst quality teenage girls are allowed to have in novels is, like, a charming clumsiness. In any case, since we spend the whole book in Naomi’s point of view (and really the book is about the evolution of this point of view), she needed to be as real and complex as possible.
Incidentally, I HAD to like Naomi, otherwise I wouldn’t have been a very good novelist to her. But the truth is that she was an incredibly difficult character to write. Because of her memory loss, there was always the problem of what she knew and when she would reveal it. So, as a narrator, she was often unreliable without meaning to be. Let’s just say I spent a lot of time revising this one. When I was researching names for the book, I found out that the Japanese characters for the name Naomi translate to “beautiful correction,” which turned out to be very, very appropriate.
TRC: As Naomi learns to adjust to her amnesia, she realizes that it may in fact have been a blessing in disguise, as it gives her a chance to rediscover who she really is. Have you ever taken the opportunity to rediscover, or reinvent, yourself?
GZ: I feel like, as a person, I’m fairly fluid. I reinvent myself every time I write a new novel. I reinvent myself every time I do an interview. I reinvent myself every time I get my hair cut or buy a skirt. I reinvent myself every day I’m alive. And in a way, this is what I hope readers take from the book: you don’t have to wait to be hit on the head to change. Every day you’re alive is an opportunity to be better and do better.
TRC: Naomi's dad gets to deliver one of my favorite speeches in the book, about how we all eventually end up forgetting pretty much everything from high school, even though all those emotions and details once seemed so completely critical. Do you think we're all amnesiacs in a way? What memories from high school do you hold on to?
GZ: Thank you. Indeed, the true conceit of the story is that Naomi’s amnesia is beside the point. The older you get, the more you forget anyway. And what you don’t forget, you tend to revise, or so I’ve found. The beauty of living is the realization that your life really is this amazing work of art --- by which I mean, the great story you tell is the life you lead. So, yes, I do think living necessitates forgetting and also choosing what’s worth remembering. Life, like novel-writing, requires a great deal of revision.
I hold on to very little of high school. From that period, I have one friend. I don’t speak to any of my boyfriends, though I think very fondly of all of them. My favorite memory of high school won’t seem particularly memorable, I suspect. The summer before I left for college, I remember driving with my three best friends down A1A, which runs along the Atlantic Ocean in Florida. We weren’t driving with any destination in mind, just driving. It was late at night, and I remember feeling like life was about to begin.
TRC: The love story plot in MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC is particularly rich and complex. Without giving too much away, can you tell us how you constructed this love triangle, or quadrilateral, or whatever it is?
GZ: It IS a quadrilateral, maybe even a pentagon, if you count Old Naomi and New Naomi separately.
The truth is, I’ve been incredibly lucky when it’s come to boyfriends. Mine have all been basically kind and good, and I suspect this colors how I see men and the world in general. It bothers me in books (or films) when one guy has to be the villain just so the other guy can be Mr. Right. Or when a story only introduces one viable love interest for a girl, as if she’s meant to marry the first guy to cross her path. Life is more complex than that, I think. Sometimes, you don’t end up with someone who is perfectly wonderful… not because he’s flawed, but because the timing isn’t right, or he isn’t right for you, or you change, or he changes, or any of the infinite combinations of things that can happen between two humans. I believe that who we choose to love reveals many interesting things about ourselves --– Naomi’s evolving love interests were meant to parallel the story of her personal growth. Talking about this reminds me… I just finished ON BEAUTY about a week ago, and in the acknowledgments Zadie Smith quotes her husband, the poet Nick Laird: “Time is how you spend your love.” Isn’t that so lovely and true?
TRC: I read that you've long been fascinated with typewriters. Were you playing with this interest of yours when you wrote about Naomi's origins (she was an orphan who was found abandoned in an empty typewriter case)?
GZ: Yes! The book for me was so much about writing and the idea of the narrative we create from our lives. So, the typewriter case seemed a good metaphor for that. Naomi, when she’s found in that typewriter case, is a story that hasn’t yet been written --- both to herself and to me as the author. Actually, that’s why I think I’m drawn to typewriters --- they seem so ripe with possibility. That monkey really could write Shakespeare. But typewriters are also a lost thing, aren’t they? Two or three decades ago, everyone had a typewriter. In 1999, I lived near a typewriter repair shop in Cambridge, MA, can you imagine? It closed before I moved. For pretty obvious reasons, I liked Naomi being found in a lost thing.
TRC: Music plays a very important role in this novel. Do you listen to music when you write? If you were to make a mix CD for Naomi, what would you put on it?
GZ: I don’t usually listen to music when I write, but for this novel, I did. Music is sort of like a time machine --- it can take you back to a time and a place in a way that very few things can. I needed a time machine with this one.
I also tell people that this is my iPod novel. Because iTunes and iPods have totally changed the way people listen to and experience music. I still love the “album” experience, but I also love the participatory, democratic aspects of the mix --- you truly can create the soundtrack for your life, as corny as that probably sounds.
The book takes place in 2004-2005. So, by now, Naomi would be in college, and the following mix is one she makes for herself to remind her of that crazy year when she was in love with three boys and had amnesia. (Apologies, I revised the assignment a little…)
Part the First: Songs for Will
“Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) – Arcade Fire
“Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” – The Flaming Lips
“A Certain Romance” – Arctic Monkeys
Part the Second: Songs for James
“First Day of My Life” – Bright Eyes
“Vindicated” – Dashboard Confessional
“Angeles” – Elliot Smith
“World Spins Madly On” – The Weepies
Part the Third: Songs for Ace
“Wigwam” – Bob Dylan
“Ripchord” – Rilo Kiley
“Better Man” – Pearl Jam
Part the Fourth: Songs for Myself
“Foux de Fa Fa” – Flight of the Conchords (in honor of Naomi’s French class)
“Life on Mars?” – David Bowie (“Changes” can be substituted here.)
“1979” – Smashing Pumpkins
“That’s the Story of My Life” – The Velvet Underground
“Your Ex-Lover is Dead” – Stars
And then shuffle it.
TRC: In addition to MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC, you've published two other books --- ELSEWHERE for young readers and MARGARETTOWN for adults. Why did you decide to return to a young adult audience for your new novel? What do you enjoy about writing for young readers?
GZ: After ELSEWHERE, I really wanted to write a LIVING 16-year-old. For a while, I thought about MEMOIRS as ELSEWHERE if Liz had woken up from that coma and had to go on from there. So really, MEMOIRS is a kind of sneaky, thematic sequel in that it’s the continuation (and conclusion) of a thought I’d been having about being and life and all of that good stuff…
Writing for young readers is an unexpected pleasure. I’ve been overwhelmed by the mail from them, and nothing makes me happier than hearing either 1) your book makes me want to read more books, or 2) your book makes me want to be a writer.
TRC: ELSEWHERE drew a lot of comparisons to Alice Sebold’s THE LOVELY BONES, which was published around the same time and also explored the afterlife. In fact, I know a number of adult readers who preferred your novel to Sebold's. What do you think adults might find to enjoy in MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC?
GZ: Although adults have more life experience than teens, I think people of all ages grapple with same sets of questions: What is my place in the world? How can I be happy? Who and what do I love? So, Theoretical Adult Reader, if you’re interested in ruminating about any of this, by all means, give my book a go. Also, I tried to make the adults’ stories in MEMOIRS just as rich as the kids’ stories. And actually, the adults share some of my own biographical details. For instance, Naomi’s mother, Cass, is mixed race like me. And Naomi’s father, Grant, is the first author I’ve written, and he came from a lot of what I was experiencing with being published for the first time and the writer’s life in general. The adult stories in the book really do mirror Naomi’s --- they’re about love and second chances and change. Grant has had to reinvent himself as significantly as Naomi --- he’s become a primary caregiver, he’s changed his work, and he’s in a somewhat new relationship. I think it can be harder for an adult to undergo (or even conceive of) such a great, great transition.
TRC: You've written several screenplays. How does the process of writing a novel compare to that of a screenplay? What can you accomplish in your fiction that you couldn't explore in a screenplay, and vice versa?
GZ: Screenplays have rules. They are 90-110 pages, usually three acts, and the story is told primarily through obvious external actions and dialogue. Consequently, you know a lot about a screenplay before you’ve even typed a single word. Books have no rules --- the formal possibilities are infinite. I enjoy writing books because you have the opportunity to delve into the inner life of a character in a way that screenplays just don’t allow. I enjoy writing screenplays because sometimes the presence of rules can be creatively liberating. Of course, the life of a screenplay is much different from the life of a book. A screenplay is just a map or a blueprint for other collaborators. It’s not, in any sense, the end product. If it becomes a film, it will be interpreted by actors, the director, the cinematographer, the art department, the editor, etc. --- and this collaboration can be a joy. A book is its own end, and this, too, is a joy.
TRC: What authors or books do you enjoy that you think might also appeal to your teenage readers?
GZ: My first recommendation is JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN by Dalton Trumbo --- it’s about a soldier who wakes up in a bed without his arms, legs, mouth, nose, eyes and ears. I may have left out some parts, but you get the idea. It’s not necessarily my favorite book, but I recently re-read it and it’s just extremely topical and provocative. My second recommendation is OLD SCHOOL by Tobias Wolfe. I really love that novel. It takes place in a prep school in the ’60s. It’s about writing, honor, gender, class, and for me, it’s everything a good novel should be.
TRC: Your interest in writing (or at least in typing) began early in life. What advice do you have for aspiring authors?
GZ: All the usual advice, I’m afraid. Read a lot. Write a lot. Read a lot. Assuming that’s out of the way, here’s what I’d suggest. In the instantaneous world of the blog and the Internet, sometimes it is wise not to share everything. In order to allow beautiful things to develop, you must believe that your work-in-progress is a secret worth keeping. Secondly, the worst thing I think can happen to a young writer (or a writer of any age) is when he/she, for whatever reason, loses the ability to recognize the good in other people’s work. You must be fiercely critical of your own work and extremely generous toward everyone else. And by “generous” I don’t necessarily mean saying everything is good --- rather, a good writer attempts to understand a fellow writer’s intent before passing judgment.
TRC: What are you working on now, and when might readers expect to see it?
GZ: I’m just about finished with a novel for adults. It’s completely different from anything I’ve done, and I’m really excited about it. I’ve completed a screenplay for ELSEWHERE, and there’s a bit of movement with that, though one never knows. Also, I’m learning to speak Japanese, and I want to learn to play the banjo. These skills may come into futures projects. Again, one never knows..
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INTERVIEW
 September 20, 2005
In Gabrielle Zevin's inventive and intelligent new novel ELSEWHERE, the afterlife is portrayed as a place where its inhabitants age in reverse until they reach infancy and are then sent back to Earth and reborn. Teenreads.com contributing writer Carolyn Juris talked to Zevin about the significance of and inspiration behind this idea, as well as her reasons for choosing to gear the book towards a young adult audience. She also reflects on her own thoughts concerning the afterlife, the wisdom of our canine counterparts, and her dream cast if the novel was ever made into a movie.
Teenreads.com: In ELSEWHERE, you conjure a vivid picture of life after death. Do you believe in an afterlife, and if so, does it resemble Elsewhere at all?
Gabrielle Zevin: Well, there's probably a very long answer to that question, but in the interest of time and space, I'll give my short one. While I certainly hope there's something after the end, the only life I know of for certain is this one. It goes without saying that, having never been there, I have no real idea what the afterlife might look like. It would certainly be an enormous coincidence and surprise to me if it ended up looking at all like Elsewhere. For me, ELSEWHERE was never really about the afterlife anyway; rather, the next life was a way for me to discuss the big things about this one.
TRC: Your main character, Liz, dies on the cusp of turning 16. When she arrives in Elsewhere and learns that she is going to age backward until she is reborn or "released," one of her initial concerns is that she'll never turn 16 and get her driver's license. What else do you associate with turning 16, and why did you choose to place Liz on the brink of that age as opposed to another milestone age, such as 13 or 18?
GZ: I was 25 going on 26 years old when I started writing ELSEWHERE, so I think I was sort of reflecting on my own life 10 years earlier. I also think that 15 going on 16 is a really interesting time for people --- you are biologically an adult (and in some cases, emotionally an adult as well) and yet, you are usually still living at home and treated like a child. I remember feeling incredibly impatient at 16 --- I was in such a rush to leave home and meet new people and try everything and just get on with the business of being an adult. A lot like Liz, though only in these respects and minus the dead part, of course! At 18, most of us are out of the house and legally adults, and at 13, we have too much time left in the house, I suppose. I needed Liz to be on the cusp of adulthood, but not truly an adult. I knew that backward aging would mean the most to a character who had never really been old, but who was old enough to know very specifically what she was missing.
TRC: Liz forms a significant attachment with Owen, who died 10 years earlier. Although he appears only a couple of years older because of Elsewhere's reverse-aging process, in reality he has 20 more years of life (and after-life) experience than she does. Do you think chronological age is less important in relationships compared with emotional age?
GZ: Actually, I think that both are important. But once a person is truly a grown-up, emotional age is probably a more important factor in a relationship's success. I believe that love is all around us, and it sometimes manifests itself in inconvenient ways and at inconvenient times. With Liz and Owen, more than being the same biological age, I think it's more about them being in the same place.
TRC: When residents of Elsewhere speak of the backwards-aging and rebirth process, their language mimics the way we discuss aging and death. For example, when Liz releases her dog, Sadie, she says "Sadie hadn't been Sadie for a while, and I knew this would happen eventually." Was discussing the process in these terms a conscious decision on your part, or was dialogue like this a natural outgrowth of the Elsewhere conceit?
GZ: Again, it was both. It was a conscious decision that was also a natural outgrowth, if that makes any sense. Once Liz gets to Elsewhere, she's not really dead anymore. She's alive, but everyone in her old "life" is dead. So, Elsewhere's language had to reflect the language of our own world. I always wanted Elsewhere to be as much like Earth as possible, so that the story would be emotional to readers who had never been to Elsewhere --- which, of course, includes everybody! That's why most everything readers find on Elsewhere, they can also find on Earth.
TRC: Sadie is one of several dogs who play prominent roles in ELSEWHERE, and many residents of Elsewhere are able to speak canine, the dogs' language. In your acknowledgments, you thank your pug, Mrs. DeWinter, "who tries to teach [you] the language of dogs every day." What do you think we could learn from dogs, if we could understand their speech?
GZ: Dogs are better at being happy than us. And I don't think it is because they are simpler than us either. Despite the fact that they lack words, I think dogs are more expressive than we are in countless ways --- it is easier for them to show love, for instance. It is easier for them to be forgiving. It is harder for them to be duplicitous. On the other hand, my own dog seems to have no understanding of dancing --- in fact, it seems to make her very suspicious.
TRC: On her way to Elsewhere, Liz meets Curtis Jest, the lead singer of her favorite band. Once there, she meets the grandmother who died before she was born. Who would you like to meet in the afterlife, assuming you're both there at the same time?
GZ: My dad's father died of lung cancer before I was born, so I would love to meet my grandfather. And I'd love to be reunited with my dog, since in all likelihood, she will die before me.
TRC: People in Elsewhere have professions, but often in different fields from the ones they worked in when they were alive (John Lennon has become a gardener, and Marilyn Monroe, a therapist). If you were to go to Elsewhere tomorrow, would you want to continue to write or is there another line of work that interests you?
GZ: I think it would be great to be a chef or a librarian or a teacher or a veterinarian or an auctioneer or an architect, but if I died tomorrow, I'd probably still be a writer. One of the best things about being a writer actually is that you get to vicariously experience many different professions. On the other hand, I can't say for certain that I'll be a professional writer forever --- we never know what will happen, and this allows for the possibility for us to be many different things in a lifetime.
TRC: Your previous book, MARGARETTOWN, is an adult novel. When you were writing ELSEWHERE, had you set out to write a young adult novel or did it evolve that way?
GZ: I wasn't sure, not at the beginning. I only set out to write a book that would entertain me and my boyfriend and maybe my parents, too. I didn't think of it as a YA novel, but I do notice that some of the most interesting books about grief and death happen to be YA's or children's --- like one of my personal favorites, CHARLOTTE'S WEB, or BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA, or even HARRY POTTER. Looking back though, I think the conceit of the book might have been pulling me toward the YA audience all along. As it happens, I wrote ELSEWHERE first, though MARGARETTOWN published first --- this has been a strange, sort of backwards experience in and of itself.
TRC: A movie for which you wrote the screenplay, Conversations With Other Women, recently premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. Could you see ELSEWHERE being turned into a movie, and if so, do you have any actors in mind for Liz, Owen or any of the other characters?
GZ: Yes, I could! However, I suspect that Liz probably will be played by a wonderful unknown actress (or a series of progressively younger unknown actresses). Actually, Helena Bonham Carter (from Fight Club and Big Fish) was in the movie I wrote, Conversations With Other Women, and I'd love for her to be Owen's wife, Emily. And I always imagine Jonathan Rhys Myers or maybe Colin Farrell as Curtis Jest, though in all honesty, one learns not to be too invested in the idea of any particular actor in any particular part. As previously mentioned, I am the owner of a certain pug dog who would be absolutely perfect for the role of Lucy.
TRC: What are you working on now? Do you have plans for another novel, or screenplay, or something entirely different?
GZ: Well, one of my screenplays, Vamp, which is a love story about a girl vampire, looks likely to shoot soon, though one never knows about these things until they actually happen. And I'm writing another book, or two. And I'm planning to make a series of snow globes for some of my friends and family. And a lot of dog-walking. And I'd like to come up with something clever and meaningful and useful to help the people in Louisiana, though I don't know exactly what that is yet.
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