Speak Easy With Beth Kephart, YA Author

BETH KEPHART, author of the historical young adult novel Dangerous Neighbors, discusses the inner workings of her characters, the meaning behind the title, and the symbolism of birds with two.one.five magazine’s Books Editor ROSELLA ELEANOR LaFEVRE.

Beth Kephart, known for writing adult nonfiction, has broken into the young adult fiction market with books quite different from the cookie cutter vampire and zombie romances that are crowding the young adult shelves of your nearest Barnes & Noble. In May 2009, HarperCollins Publishers released her debut YA title, Undercover, about a girl who ghostwrites love letters from the boys at her high school which works fine until she falls for one of her clients. Since then, she has published House of Dance, Nothing but Ghosts, The Heart is Not a Size and most recently, Dangerous Neighbors, a beautifully written novel about a grieving twin set in Philadelphia during the World Fair of 1876. Recently, the author talked with two.one.five magazine about Dangerous Neighbors.

REL: The book Dangerous Neighbors is labeled “Ages 12 up” but it reads like it’s for an older audience. There are lots of layers of meaning that I don’t necessarily believe the average 12-year-old would pick up on.

BK: I write books that are not bound by specific age group limits. I have tremendous faith in young readers’ ability to pick up on clues. This is my fifth young adult novel. What marks them, as young adult, is the age of the narrator or protagonist. I don’t believe in writing down to my readers; why should I? A lot of the young readers of my blog leave really sophisticated comments. I’ve taught children and some of them write poems far better than I write. I’ve taught younger reader pieces of Beowulf and they’re right there with me. And so I believe in the young reader’s ability to decode. I believe they want the challenge. Some of the young adult novels I love were originally designated for adults; The Book Thiefis a prime example.  John Green, for his part, writes keen, young adult-oriented stories. I was the chairman of the National Book Awards Young People’s Literature Award in 2001, and I had to read 163 books. The ones that rose to the top were not bound by age. I value that type of literature.

REL: Do you imagine this story is very specific to its setting? The interactions of the sisters feel decidedly contemporary.

BK: That was intentional. They are on the verge of something new. I did not want to write a book that was fusty and old. [In September 1876,] liberation is in the air. And I did, on purpose, give the girls a way of interacting with each other and the world that was more modern. I wanted the readers to fall in love with Philadelphia through characters they could empathize with. I just gave them the most modernity I could.

REL: Where does Katherine’s sense of right and wrong, of impropriety, come from? She’s so against Bennett from the beginning but recognizes her parents eventually would have given in and let Anna marry him. Who does she think is watching her and her sister and why does she care so much?

BK: Well, when you are endowed with that protective gene, you are also often burdened with a judgmental quality. It’s just Katherine’s way of being and seeing. She’s afraid to be alone and doesn’t know how to be herself yet. She cares so much because she cares about outcomes and consequences ‘They will know if Anna gets hurt. They will know it’s my fault,’ is what runs through her mind. She’s thinking of consequences all the time.

REL: Throughout the novel, Anna appears to be very modern and believes that love is more important than social boundaries or customs. Katherine was more traditional and judged her sister’s behavior harshly. Did you intend their battles against each other to also represent the battle of past and future, old and new?

BK: I would not say that that was in my mind there. I was interested in their mother, who was so progressive – who spent her time fighting for a feminist future, but also, correspondingly, was simply not home for the daughters she was ostensibly fighting for. Between Anna and Katherine, I’m more like Katherine. I was interested in what happens when the responsible sister can’t save the one who was more beautiful. One of the questions I asked myself was, How does one keep on going when what was most brilliant in one’s life is gone? When I was writing the book, I was in a position to understand jealousy very well, and I sought to find out what damage jealousy does.

REL: Why does Katherine feel so guilty over her sister’s death? I understand she considered herself Anna’s protector but I don’t think that the blame for her sister’s demise could be assigned to Katherine. And as a side note, I thought throughout the novel that Anna had killed herself.

BK: It was an accident. Katherine felt the guilt I think all survivors feel. Katherine had pulled away from Anna. Anna did not say to Katherine, “I don’t want you around.” She said, “My world is growing.” Katherine’s wasn’t. She decided to skate with this stranger because it was her way of possessing her own private thing. Still, how could she not feel guilt? Do I blame Katherine? No. Should readers blame Katherine? No. But she blames herself.

REL: Please explain what or how the “dangerous neighbors” theme plays into the plot, etc.

BK: “Dangerous neighbors” refers to many things in the book.  It refers to the strangeness of having so many people descend upon Philadelphia at once—10 million strangers.  It also refers to the fact that Katherine and Anna both end up falling in love with the “wrong” boys.  But for me, mostly, “dangerous neighbors” refers to the proximity of Shantytown [a whole area of shanty houses constructed right across the street from the main entrance to the World Fair grounds], with its opium dens and shacks and wood structures, set nearly against all the immaculate new of the Centennial grounds.

REL: What is the significance of the birds?

BK: Birds run through my life and through my books. I just finished a book that will come out next year (YOU ARE MY ONLY) and again, this motif of birds came up. I like to imagine landscapes from the bird’s eye view. When you put yourself in that place—high above—you can see the world unfolding in novel ways.  InDangerous Neighbors, Katherine seeks to fly—to get away from everything.  Flight and wings are both a metaphor, an idea, and a reality, for in the book she encounters a young girl who has a bird named Snow.  Snow is what brings Katherine and William back together by the story’s end.

REL: What did Anna’s giving Bennett the robin’s nest mean?

BK: It has to do with Anna’s ability to see beauty in things and her generosity in sharing those things. They share that worldview. It’s one of the things Anna loves about him [so the gift represents that mutual love of beauty].

In My Book: Trading others' support for a path toward self-guidance

Columnist Rosella LaFevre dives into “Speed Shrinking” and learns to be alone after leaving her best friend for college.

Leaving our high school lives behind for college means a lot of change – at least it did for me. A childhood spent on campus with a parent who works at Temple meant adjusting to college life wasn’t that hard.

Only, I hadn’t counted on how lonely I would be without my best friend. Adjusting to life without your support system is hard, as Julia Goodman, the narrator of Susan Shapiro’s touching first novel “Speed Shrinking” would tell you.

The novel opens with an announcement from her best friend, Sarah, that she will leave New York City after her wedding that weekend. That same day, Goodman’s husband Jake told her he was departing for TV work in Los Angeles, and at her weekly appointment, her beloved shrink Dr. Ness divulged plans to move to the Midwest.

With all three of her “pillars” leaving, Goodman, the Manhattan self-help author, is in a tizzy. What will she do without them?

To read the rest of the third installment of "In My Book," click here.

Freelance Friday: Paris-Based Journalist Caroline Kinneberg On Successful Pitching, Custom Publishing, and Writing From Abroad

 I recently guest edited the following interview with Paris-based freelancer Caroline Kinneberg for Lena Chen's the ch!cktionary. Check it out!

Caroline Kinneberg has written and edited across platforms since studying publishing at Columbia University. This freelancer, now based in Paris, France, started as an intern at GQ and Nylon in Sydney, Details in New York, and Teen Voices in Boston. She’s worked as a web editor at Conde Nast’s shopping magazine Lucky, updated Frommer’s 2012 NYC travel guide, and acted as an assistant managing editor for Self Service magazine, a Paris-based fashion and culture biannual that is more than 300 pages. Most recently, she published a piece on the illegal underground activities of Paris’ cataphiles for The Boston Globe.  In addition to the skills typically expected of a freelance writer and editor, Kinneberg’s expertise includes French-to-English translation and custom publishing. Here, she answers questions on her career, working from Paris, and the particulars of pitching articles.

Lena: If you don’t land a gig after a first interview but you still really want that job, what do you do?

Caroline: If you had a job interview for a position you really want and you didn’t get it, don’t take that to mean you won’t ever get that job! Once I applied to a web editor job and didn’t get it because of a lack of online experience. So I took another lower-level position for the website of a different magazine, and a few months later I spotted the same web editor position I had applied for in an online job posting. When I reapplied, I described what web experience I’d gained since the last interview. And I got the job! And I’m actually really glad I had that in-between job – I learned a lot there and it set me on some paths I wouldn’t be on without it. I tend to believe that things happen for a reason. So if you don’t get a job, use any criticism you get to your advantage.

Read the rest of the interview here.

College Magazine: Major Changes

via weheartit

Choosing a major at the age of 18 or 19 can seem like an impossible decision to make, which is why many college students go in undeclared. But even those of us who decide from the outset that we're going to major in biology or English or something else tend to change our minds.

Fifty percent of college students who declare a major change that major, and many do so two or three times, MyMajors.com Founder Dr. Fritz Grupe told Gayle B. Ronan of MSNBC. While your happiness is most important, it can be costly changing your major once or twice. It can also mean spending more time on your college campus.

In the interest of saving you money and time, here are some steps to take so you can settle on the perfect major as quickly as possible.

1. Test the Waters

If you're undeclared, go to step two. If you've declared a major, take courses in your subject area or prerequisite courses in your first semester or two. Julia Held, a first-semester sophomore at Temple University, declared biology as her major when she enrolled. She signed up for a chemistry prerequisite, “realized how much I disliked chemistry, which is a HUGE prerequisite to biology, pretty much when I stopped going to class, and had no desire to take any further classes in that field,” she said. If you like these classes, you've probably locked in the right major for you.

 

To read the rest of this post I wrote for College Magazine about changing your major, click here.

College Magazine: How To Sell Yourself At Job Fairs

 A job fair is not the time for companies to pitch themselves to jobseekers, but for jobseekers to pitch themselves to the companies, says expert Kathy Siravo, product and event supervisor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com. What this means is that, “The most important thing students need to bring to a job fair is their A-game,” said Rachel Brown, director of Temple University’s Career Center. There are a few steps you can take to ensure you’re putting your best self forward. 

 

Step 1: Research

According to Siravo, whose job involves the organization of job fairs, the first step is to do your research. “We have a website for each of our job fairs where we list the companies who will be present,” Siravo said. Most job fairs should have a list of presenters available online. Before attending the event, you should research the companies that will have tables at the event, being careful to familiarize themselves with the company’s mission, its available positions and the skills you need for those positions.

 

Step 2: Resume

Another part of your homework is making several copies of your up-to-date resume. When you attend the event, you should keep these in a folder. A big mistake job fair attendees make is handing a folded resume to a recruiter, Siravo said. She was also quick to warn that jobseekers need to make sure their resume is in “tip-top shape,” which means it should be free of grammatical errors, easily readable and tailored to the position you’re seeking.

This article was written for College Magazine's Career/Success section. Read the rest of it here.

The journey to self discovery unfolds through ancestors' eyes

Columnist Rosella Eleanor LaFevre sets out to solve the mystery of her grandmother’s past.

There tends to be one question the most introspective people ask themselves at one point or another – “Who am I?” I feel like I’ve been working to figure that out for my entire teenage life.

As far as I can tell, there are several factors that make a person who they are. There’s your name, your childhood, your morals, your family and your friends. These are only parts of the whole equation, but for me, I find a large part of my identity comes from my name: Rosella Eleanor LaFevre.

And for some, such as Lucy Jarrett in the novel “The Lake of Dreams,” by Kim Edwards, part of how we define ourselves is through our family history and our knowledge of our relatives.

To read the rest of the second installment of the "In My Book" column for The Temple News, click here.

The Temple News: Debating the adjuncts' role

IAN WATSON TTN
Adjunct professor Carol Jenkins teaching.

 Administrators and adjunct instructors discuss how stable the job should be.

In December, 45 adjunct instructors from the English department’s First-Year Writing Program were told they would not be assigned courses come Spring 2011. But the English department isn’t the only area of the university in which adjunct instructors are out of work.

Adjunct instructor Carol Jenkins, of the department of political science, said a number of adjunct instructors weren’t assigned classes in her department.

Jenkins said Richard Deeg, the chair of the department of political science, told her it was because of a change in the policy, informally known as the “gradjunct” policy. But Deeg said the policy is expected to change next year.

“The situation at Temple overall is bad,” Jenkins said. “It seems like it sometimes goes from department to department, depending on how many graduate students there are.”

To read the rest of this news story for The Temple News, click here. If you would like to reprint this article, please email me (rosellaeleanor -at- gmail -dot- com).