fiction - Karen Cushman

Padma Venkatraman

May 19, 2022 by Karen Cushman

Writing a Book with a Strong Sense of Location or Place

Karen Cushman asked Padma Venkatraman “My newest book, War and Millie McGonigle, started with a place: South Mission Beach, San Diego, where my husband grew up. You, too, have written books set in a place alive and rich. Will you share some insights into place in your story, Born Behind Bars?”

Q: Did you choose the setting first, before characters and plot? Did the story grow from the place or did the place grow from the story?

Venkatraman: Unlike my other novels, the idea for Born Behind Bars came from a news report, so the story and place came to me inextricably intertwined.

Q: How/where did you find the details that brought your place to life?

Venkatraman: I read detailed accounts of prison life, interviewed people who worked in prison systems, watched documentaries and fictional films, visited a prison, and also had the gift of being able to send a draft of my novel to a fellow-author, Dede Fox, who was kind enough to circulate it among incarcerated women with whom she worked, so that I could receive feedback from people who lived in circumstances similar to those in Born Behind Bars.

Q: Did the place enrich the story, or did it create limitations? Did you have to change details about the place?

Venkatraman: The place absolutely enriched the story. It forced me, and I think perhaps it forces readers, to consider what it means to be locked up, as opposed to experiencing a lock down. Amazing characters came alive to populate the place : like Grandma Knife, who is one of the coolest characters I’ve ever met—although there’s absolutely nothing “cool” about incarceration. Bringing the place to life makes, I hope, readers ask questions about why we lock people up, how we treat people when they make mistakes, and whether we might use our creative minds and compassionate hearts to consider other societal solutions. Most of all, I hope it makes us intensely uncomfortable with the fact that innocent people, even today, in our nation—way too many innocent Blacks are forced to live behind bars; and, yes, babies are born behind bars in our nation, too.

Q: What would you like us to know about the place you chose for your book?

Venkatraman: I would like to emphasize that prison reform is happening in India, where the book is set—and that in many jails, such as Tihar Jail, conditions have been vastly improved. That said, degrading jails and prisons still exist, all over the world. And, unfortunately, there still are people in India who, like Kabir’s mother in Born Behind Bars, are stuck in prison awaiting trial—not just for hours or days, which is cruel enough, but for years.

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Thank you to Padma Venkatraman for explaining how she researched a book set in a prison.

Learn more about Padma Venkatraman.

Kirby Larson

May 17, 2022 by Karen Cushman

Writing a Book with a Strong Sense of Location or Place

Karen Cushman asked Kirby Larson, “My newest book, War and Millie McGonigle, started with a place: South Mission Beach, San Diego, where my husband grew up. You, too, have written books set in a place alive and rich. Will you share some insights into place in your story, Hattie Big Sky?”

Eastern Montana (photo: Carol Highsmith, public domain, Wikimedia Commons)

Q: Did you choose the setting first, before characters and plot? Did the story grow from the place or did the place grow from the story?

Larson: The setting grew out of an event that captured my imagination, which was my great-grandmother homesteading by herself in eastern Montana shortly before WWI. The homestead was near Vida, Montana which is where the story takes place.

Q: How/where did you find the details that brought your place to life?

Larson: I began researching the story in 2000, and it was not as easy to access digitized information at that time. I relied on sites like USGenWeb, and any other place I could scrounge up old photos or maps. I am completely indebted to the many historical societies which published early homesteaders’ journals. These diaries provided rich details, including two in particular that ended up in the novel: the incident where Hattie “baptizes” her chicken, and the incident where a hungry wolf chomps off Violet’s tail (she’s Hattie’s “contemptible” cow). At some point in the research project, I bought a $99 Amtrak ticket to Wolf Point, Montana so I could see/smell/experience the place for myself. I was able to locate the site of my great-grandmother’s homestead, as well as unearthing other fabulous details while spending three days in the smoky “morgue” of the Wolf Point Herald newspaper office.

Q: Did the place enrich the story, or did it create limitations? Did you have to change details about the place?

Larson: The place completely enriched and informed the story, along with setting boundaries I was required to work within. One small example: the first draft of the cover showed a charming split rail fence, something that was non-existent in eastern (treeless) Montana. Hattie’s claim was a good distance from town so I had to figure out feasible ways to get her to and fro, without slowing the story down. I did not change any details about the place. Thankfully, my research uncovered maps and photos of the town and of some of the homesteads so I had those to help build the stage for Hattie’s story.

Q: What would you like us to know about the place you chose for your book?

Larson: Put Yellowstone out of your mind! Eastern Montana is flat, flat, flat, with tiny little cacti snuggled in with the prairie grasses — imagine walking on those barefoot as many homesteaders did all summer.

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Thank you to Kirby Larson for this look at Eastern Montana and Hattie’s homestead.

Learn more about Kirby Larson.

Sharon M. Draper

April 28, 2022 by Karen Cushman

Writing a Book with a Strong Sense of Location or Place

Karen Cushman asked Sharon M. Draper, “My newest book, War and Millie McGonigle, started with a place: South Mission Beach, San Diego, where my husband grew up. You, too, have written books set in a place alive and rich. Will you share some insights into place in your story, Out of My Heart?”

Draper: When I decide to write a story, the characters probably emerge first, then the location in which the characters reside, then the story, which is, of course, influenced by a strong sense of place.

I like describing sunsets and starlight and other weather events. Every good book I’ve ever read had a powerful thunderstorm or a cleansing rain or a golden sunset at some point. Good writing has to include lots of sensory imagery so the reader can feel the place as much as the characters.

Sooo, to answer your questions…

Yes, place is vital, because without making sure the reader can feel or smell that location, it’s flat. The reader must become emerged into the setting along with the characters.

I sent Melody to summer camp in Out of my Heart, partly to remove her from the “ordinary” of her daily life to the “extraordinary” world of freedom and possibility in a summer forest, far away from the security and restraints of doting parents. And yes, it was planned—transformation needs fresh sights and smells and experiences. I truly enjoyed experiencing camp with Melody.

How did I find the details? I went outside and looked up at the bright sun, and spent a lot of time talking to the moon at night as well. I live near a wooded area, so the various shades of green, and the changes in weather, and the sights and sounds of a forest under moonlight was not just imagined. And yes, I burned a fire in my back yard. My grandkids thought is was the “best night ever!” I have also spent a lot of winter evenings observing the millions of colors in our home fireplace, as well as other sensory input like the smell of burning wood, the sound of crackling flames, the feel of a chilly wind in the darkness.

The place, Camp Green Glades, although 100 % fiction, became real to me as I described it so it became real to the readers as well. We were there together. I’ve been to many summer camps as a child, and even worked at a camp for kids with special needs one summer when I was about sixteen. The best fiction comes decorated with reality. I have no limitations when I’m writing, except to create fiction that seems like reality. I use whatever I need—like the crackling of a fire or the song of a bird—to make that magic happen.

In the thousands of books I’ve read over my lifetime, the ones that stand out have had powerful characters, a strong sense of place and time, and a plot I could not put down. The descriptions, when done correctly, were seamless, invisible, and unforgettable, which reminds me how good those stories were.

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Thank you to Sharon M. Draper for sharing the way details make the locations in her books so unforgettable.

Learn more about Sharon M. Draper.

Learn more about Out of My Heart, as well as the book where we first meet Melody, Out of My Mind.

Announcing the 2014
Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award Winner

August 31, 2021July 22, 2014 by Karen Cushman

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators congratulates Jennifer Sommer of Kettering, Ohio, as the award winner for authors over the age of fifty who have not been traditionally published in the children’s literature field. Jennifer received an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and has worked as a children’s librarian for twenty years. She won the award for Octopus Capers, an interesting twist on nonfiction in which octopuses are the culprit in aquarium mysteries around the world. Learn more about Jennifer.

The grant was established by Newbery Award winner and Newbery Honor Book recipient Karen Cushman and her husband, Philip Cushman, in conjunction with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Karen published her first children’s book, Catherine, Called Birdy (winner of the 1995 Newbery Honor), at the age of fifty-three and has gone on to become one of the field’s most acclaimed novelists.

“I chose Jennifer Sommer’s Octopus Capers because it reached out and grabbed me—it’s original and engaging. The proposal made me wonder, laugh, and want to know more about octopuses, and I am looking forward to reading the whole thing,” said Karen.

SCBWI Executive Director Lin Oliver added, “Due to the generosity of Philip and Karen Cushman, this award recognizes the fact that creative life has no age limit. Jen pursued her MFA during midlife and her dedication has borne wonderful fruit!”

To read an interview with Jennifer Sommer by SCBWI official blogger, Lee Wind, visit SCBWI: The Blog.

To find out more about the Karen and Philip Cushman Late Bloomer Award and the application process visit the “Awards and Grants” section on the SCBWI website.