Why do you write
for teens?
I think it’s the same reason I like working
with them. I remember what it was like to be one so strongly, and I didn’t
really enjoy it. Books were something that I really did love, however, and not
only are they where I found people like me inside the pages, but they also
helped me connect with real life people who loved books, too. Also, I’ve grown
really disenchanted with “adult literary fiction” because it’s so insufferably
similar and full of purple prose, whereas I think YA authors and editors are so
much more willing to take risks, create new narrative styles, and blend genre.
What's the most difficult part of crafting a
story?
Writing it. I hate writing. I love research, I
love outlining and planning, and I actually adore editing and rewriting. But
first drafts are the most painful thing EVER.
How does your writing offer something new to
the children’s literature world?
I guess that remains to be seen, but I like to
think that I can do a lot for diversity in the field, both as an author and in
the content. I don’t write “multicultural literature” because that’s a misnomer
and very Orientalist. But I write about people who look like people I know
look, people who have mixed or complicated backgrounds like mine, and people
who don’t already see themselves in hundreds of books, because I certainly had
trouble finding those books when I was young (and still do now).
(Sarah) Hannah Gómez grew up in Tucson,
Arizona, and got her BA in creative writing at the University of Arizona. Now
she lives in Boston and is completing a master’s in children’s literature and a
master’s of library and information science at Simmons College. She is at work
on any number of things at any given time, and she blogs at mclicious.org.
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