Interviews & Essays
An Interview with Ellen Hopkins
Q: Crank and
Impulse have recently become
New York Times bestsellers. Why do you think your novels are so successful with young adults?
A: I think my success stems from a couple of things. The first is, I write about issues that some other authors shy away from -- difficult subjects that teens (or people they know) face every day. And the second thing is, I refuse to sugarcoat these issues. I write with honesty, from a place of deep respect for my readers.
Q: In
Crank, you tell a powerful story about addiction. Do you have firsthand knowledge of this subject?
A: Crank is loosely based on the very true story of my daughter's path to addiction. It was a story I had to tell. Crystal meth is unlike other drugs because it is so highly addictive and so damaging, not only to the user but also to the people around him/her. I have opened a lot of eyes to the strength of "the monster" and its grasp. I am grateful for the opportunity to perhaps veer people from this path.
Q: Why did you decide to continue the Kristina/Bree story in
Glass?
A: There was so much story left to tell, I had to. It is crucial to me to paint a three-dimensional picture of the nature of addiction. One facet of that, especially with methamphetamine, is how hard it is to put it behind you once you let it into your life. Very few people can simply turn their backs on the monster and walk away. It takes true desire, a strong will, and for most, help.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your background.
A: I grew up in Palm Springs, CA (swimming pools . . . movie stars!), and later moved to the Santa Ynez Valley, near Santa Barbara. My mother loved literature and instilled an infatuation with language at a very young age. I studied journalism in college but left school to marry and start a family. After a divorce, new marriage, and move to Lake Tahoe, I decided to return to what I have always loved best -- writing. I worked as a freelance journalist for a number of years, while writing poetry and dabbling in fiction. My journey into publishing for young adults began with middle-grade nonfiction books. I published twenty with educational publishers before truly finding where I belong -- young adult fiction.
Q: Why do you write novels about troubled teens?
A: Well, everyone has problems, don't they? Young adults like to know they're not alone with their problems. And for me on a personal level, creating complex, believable characters is vital. Who wants to write (or read) about someone whose life is perfect? Now that is fiction.
Q: Do you ever work directly with young people?
A: Often! I do lots of school visits, conferences, festivals, and creative writing workshops. I am also a Nevada Artist in Residence. Our arts council sends me to schools for creative writing residencies that may last two or more weeks. I've taught fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, screenwriting, and, of course, poetry. I love to teach. It's exhausting, but exceptionally satisfying.
Q: Have you received letters from young people who identify with your novels?
A: Thousands. I get them every day, usually via e-mail but handwritten ones as well. I feel like I've got this huge network of friends out there. They thank me for the stories I tell, and the honesty in them. Many readers also thank me for helping them learn to enjoy reading. The verse novel format allows even nonreaders to pick up a "big" book (all my novels are well over 500 pages) and read it in a matter of days, or even hours. This empowers them to try other books.
Q: In your YA novels, you use poetry as a form of narrative. How did you begin doing this?
A: I started writing and publishing poetry in elementary school, and it has always been close to my heart. I started
Crank, my first YA novel, as a prose novel but thought the voice was too strong. When I discovered verse novel as a viable format (hearing Sonya Sones speak at a conference), I knew immediately that's how
Crank should be written. I did spend some time creating a unique "look" for the poetry in my novels, which I want to stand out from the crowd.
Q: You have written a lot of nonfiction, what made you decide to start writing novels?
A: I think all nonfiction writers are closet novelists, or maybe closet short story writers. We are storytellers at heart, at least good nonfiction writers are. I've got a drawer full of legal pads, with the beginnings of many stories I started over the years, then put aside. I just might have to finish them some day.
Q: What do you like best about writing in verse?
A: Verse accomplishes a couple of things. It makes you write only the words that have to be on the page. There is no room for extraneous verbiage. And it is an internal form of writing. It makes you climb inside your characters' heads for a good, long look around. My books are not about the things that happen to my characters, but rather about how those characters react to those things. People are the story. Plot is secondary.
Q: Please tell us some your favorite things . . . in verse!
A: Raindrops on roses and whiskers . . . oh, wait . . . don't want to borrow. So here, in verse, are some of my favorite things:
That Time of Day
sunlight splashes
eastern hills, spills blue
into gray, and the kitchen
swells with snapshots: steaming
mugs and marmalade toast;
hasty pencils fine-tuning homework;
papered German shepherds
and barn-bred tabbies, intent
on breakfast bowls. Three
minutes of reminders lead to half-
planted kisses, a volley
of slams, and sudden, blessed silence.
That time of day, I open
the French doors, step lightly
over thin ice veneer,
into the sage-perfumed morning.
Steaming mug in hand, I nibble
marmalade and look to the mountain
lifting quilted amber and evergreen
into the azure-splashed sky.
A hawk dips low in early hunt
and far across the valley, traffic
stirs the day. I bundle up
in the magic, join the red-tail,
and fly away.
Q: What do you have coming out next?
A: Next is
Identical, about identical twins whose father is sexually abusing one of them. I know, I know, another light subject, but one I wanted to explore. Statistically, one in five women and one in seven men experience incest (defined as sexual abuse by someone close, in a position of power over the victim) in their lifetimes. Only by shedding light on subjects like this one can we learn not only to understand them, but also to move beyond them into a more positive future.
This interview is provided by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing and can be reprinted for publication either in full or excerpted as individual questions and answers, as long as they are reprinted in their entirety.
Read an Excerpt
Walking with the Monster
Life
was radical
right after I met
the monster.
Later, life
became
harder,
complicated.
Ultimately,
a living
hell,
like swimming
against a riptide,
walking
the wrong
direction in the fast
lane of the freeway,
waking
from sweetest
dreams to find yourself
in the middle of a
nightmare.
You Know My Story
Don't you? All about
my dive
into the lair of the monster
drug some people call crank.
Crystal. Tina. Ice.
How a summer visit
to my dad sent me
into
the arms of a boy -- a
hot-bodied hunk, my
very first love, who led
me down the path to
insanity.
How I came home
no longer
Kristina Georgia
Snow, gifted high
school junior, total
dweeb, and
perfect
daughter, but
instead a stranger
who called herself Bree.
How, no matter
how hard
Kristina
fought her, Bree
was stronger, brighter,
better equipped to deal
with a worldwhere
everything moved at light
speed, everyone mired
in ego. Where "everyday"
became
another word
for making love with
the monster.
It Wasn't a Long Process
I went to my dad's in June, met Adam
the very first day. It took some time
to pry him from his girlfriend's grasp.
But within two weeks, he introduced
me to the monster. One time was all
it took to want more. It's a roller-
coaster ride. Catch the downhill
thrill, you want to ride again,
enough to endure the long,
hard climb back up again.
In days, I was hooked on
Adam, tobacco, and meth,
in no particular order. But
all summer vacations must
end. I had to come home to
Reno. And all my new bad
habits came with me. It was
a hella speed bump, oh yeah.
Until I hurt for it, I believed
I could leave the crystal behind.
But the crash-and-burn was more
than I could take. When the jet landed,
I was still buzzed from a good-bye binge.
My family crowded round me at the airport,
discussing summer plans and celebration
dinners,
and all I wanted to do was skip off for
another snort.
Mom kept trying to feed me. My stepfa-
ther, Scott, kept
trying to ask questions about my visit
with Dad. My
big sister, Leigh, wanted to talk about
her new girlfriend,
and my little brother, Jake, kept
going on about soccer.
It didn't take long to figure out I
was in serious trouble.
Not the Kind of Trouble
You might think I'm
talking about. I was pretty
sure I could get away with
B.S.ing Mom and Scott.
I'd always been such a good
girl, they wouldn't make the
jump to "bad" too quickly.
Especially not if I stayed cool.
I wasn't worried about
getting busted at school
or on the street. I'd only just
begun my walk with the monster.
I still had meat on my bones,
the teeth still looked good.
I didn't stutter yet. My mouth
could still keep up with my brain.
No, the main thing I worried
about was how I could score
there, at home. I'd never even
experimented with pot, let alone
meth. Where could I go?
Who could I trust with my
money, my secrets? I couldn't
ask Leigh. She was the prettiest
lesbian you've ever seen. But
to my knowledge she had
never used anything stronger
than a hearty glass of wine.
Not Sarah, my best friend since
fourth grade, or any of my
old crowd, all of whom lived by
the code of the D.A.R.E. pledge.
I really didn't need to worry,
of course. All I had to do
was leave things up to Bree,
the goddess of persuasion.
Before I Continue
I just want to remind you
that turning into Bree
was a conscious decision
on my part. I never really
liked Kristina that much.
Oh, some things about her
were pretty cool -- how she
was loyal to her family
and friends. How she loved
easily. How she was good
at any and all things artistic.
But she was such a brain,
with no sense of fashion
or any idea how to have fun.
So when fun presented
itself, I decided someone
new would have to take charge.
That someone was Bree.
I chose her name (not sure where
I got it), chose when to become her.
What I didn't expect was discovering
she had always been there, inside of me.
How could Kristina and Bree
live inside of one person?
How could two such different halves
make up the whole of me?
How could Bree have possibly survived,
stuck in Kristina's daily existence?
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