Author Interview – Siobhan Vivian

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I am so pleased to have Siobhan Vivian on the blog today to answer some questions about her fabulous new book, The List!

Here is a little bit about the book:

The List
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Genre: Young Adult
Format: ARC
Publisher: Pulse/Scholastic
Release Date: 4-1-12
Every year an anonymous student posts a list of the prettiest and ugliest girl in each class at Mount Washington High School. Although the author is unknown, the arrival of the list is big news and the eight girls who are named each experience their own journey and have to decide whether they will let the list change them for better or for worse.

 

 

Here is a little bit about Siobhan:

Siobhan Vivian was born in New York City on January 12, 1979 . . . which might sound like a long time ago, but really isn’t. She grew up in Rutherford, NJ, where she got into trouble for such things as constantly talking out of turn, bringing a stray dog into school in a stolen shopping cart, passing notes to her friends, telling jokes, sneaking out, and not doing her homework. Siobhan attended The University of the Arts, where she graduated with a degree in Writing for Film and Television. She received her MFA in Creative Writing: Children’s Literature from The New School University. Siobhan has worked as an editor of several New York Times best-selling novels at Alloy Entertainment, a scriptwriter for The Disney Channel, and she currently teaches Writing Youth Literature at the University of Pittsburgh.

 

How did you come up with the idea for The List?


I based it loosely on a true story I had read about in the newspaper. But I changed a few things…the biggest being that I added the “pretty” girls to the list, because I wanted to write about their experiences as well.

This was a wonderful story, but as an adult reader, I definitely got a message about how girls treat each other and the emphasis society places on physical beauty above all else.  Is that a fair impression?  Was that message something that you thought of consciously as you were writing this book?

That is a fair impression, though I tried not to make a big statement about it. Despite all the pressures that girls face from the media and magazine covers and such, I feel like the judgements of their peers are what carry the most weight. I didn’t want things to be too preachy, and tried hard to let each of the girls in the book live in an emotional place that felt real, and not be simply vehicles for a “message”.

There are a few different types of parents in this book (permissive, strict, the “best friend” mom). When you were fleshing out the characters, did you think about the parents as being something you had to develop at the same time as the girls or did you go back later and add that dynamic to their world?

To be honest, I tried to relegate all of the parents to the most minor roles. In my personal experience, my mom would always tell me I was beautiful, even when I was hearing otherwise at school. It was nice to hear that from her, of course, but it was besides the point. I wanted my friends, my peers to think of me that way. That was all I cared about.

Did you ever experience this type of thing in High School?

Thankfully, no. But I certainly have experiences plenty of moments (and they are in the book!) where I’ve felt so beautiful and so terribly ugly. I think all girls can be both sides of that same coin.

What are you working on right now?

I have a new series, co-written with my BFF Jenny Han, that comes out this September. It’s called Burn for Burn and I love it so much. There will be three book in that series, coming out each fall until 2014. And I’m also working on, what I hope will be, my next solo project. I only have ten pages so far, but I’m having a lot of fun writing it!

Thanks so much, Siobhan!

Kate

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