A Conversation with Ellen Trachtenberg

Ellen Trachtenberg, a critic and author of The Best Children's Literature, recently invited me into a conversation about UNDERCOVER and the writing life. Thank you, Ellen, for the dialogue that appears here.

Your writing career has spanned several genres—adult fiction, regional history, personal narrative—though it has largely been geared toward adult readers. Your new book, Undercover, is intended for teens. What led you to write for a younger audience?

A number of things conspired, in this case. I chaired the Young People’s Literature jury for the National Book Awards in 2001, and through that process read some 160 books intended for young readers. I was deeply inspired by some of the narratives, hugely dismayed by others, and I began to dwell on the question: What is YA literature? What could it be? Not long after that, I was contacted by Laura Geringer, an editor with her own imprint at HarperTeen; we developed a friendship and a conversation that led me to look back on my own “career,” so to speak, at Radnor High School. Finally, I’d been conducting workshops for young writers for years. I found myself wanting to write books for the very sort of keenly intelligent, observant, and compassionate writers I was teaching.

Were there moments in the process of writing Undercover when you felt guided by your own experiences as a teenager? Were any characters based on specific figures from your past?

“Guided” is the right word here. Like Elisa, I was an aspiring poet. Like Elisa, I had the very good fortune of sitting in the classroom of an English teacher we then called Dr. Dewsnap. She saw possibility in me where others might not have (truly, she had to look far and wide). She gave me room on the pages of the school literary magazine, nominated me for a community poet award. Once she even gave me the part of Juliet to read against a Romeo who was my (secret) heartthrob. I remembered all that, in writing UNDERCOVER. But Elisa is a better writer than I ever was, and her home life does not reflect not my own childhood.

Like your protagonist, Elisa, you’re an avid figure skater. What’s your favorite local skating venue?

I was an avid figure skater for years—teaching myself to skate on a pond in Boston, taking my first lessons at the Skating Club of Wilmington (where I competed in the interpretive skating competitions I recreate in UNDERCOVER), and then finding a true skating home at the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society. I competed up to the age of 16, when I left the glamour world for the mud and grit of Radnor’s track team. Today I dance ballroom and Latin at DanceSport in Ardmore with my husband.

The book has received wide critical acclaim. What type of feedback have you received from readers?

Readers of UNDERCOVER seem to span all ages, and that thrills me. The most consistent response I get is, “This has ‘movie’ written all over it.” This possibility didn’t occur to me when I was in the midst of writing the book, but perhaps something about the plotting, and about a final confrontation scene, seems cinematic. The book is in development right now at Lifetime TV. It will be interesting to see the book through another’s eyes in that way.

Do you keep a journal?

I’ve kept a book of words for a long time (as does Elisa), and whenever I’m writing a new book, I keep a journal full of ideas. In early October, I started a blog about the writing life last October, which is the most disciplined I’ve ever been in the journal department.

As a writer, what’s the best advice you’ve received?

Hmmm. Perhaps to read widely, to write fearlessly, and to trust one’s self. Almost every book I’ve ever started had its detractors before I was even close to done—my subjects never being sufficiently commercial, my constructs too “unusual,” my books never finding an obvious slot in bookstore shelves. But what I’ve discovered is that the books that have been considered the most potentially problematic from a conceptual standpoint—take FLOW: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PHILADELPHIA’S SCHUYLKILL RIVER as an example—have gone on to find the most generous audiences.

What’s next for you?

There is always something percolating around here. I have co-authored, with Matt Emmens, the CEO of Shire, an Alice in Wonderland type fable about corporate America, which was just released. Subsequently, there will be several more novels for HarperTeen; the first of those, called HOUSE OF DANCE, is due out next June. Today I’m at work on a new historical novel. Most days, however, I’m squarely focused on the marketing communications business, Fusion, that I run with my husband.