Book Giveaway and Guest Teaching Author Interview with Carolyn Marsden!

The Teaching Authors are thrilled to present an interview with our dear friend and Guest Teaching Author Carolyn Marsden.

Carolyn grew up in Mexico City and Southern California. Although she wrote for adults for many years, she began to write for children after the birth of her daughters. She attended Vermont College and earned an MFA in Writing for Children. Her first book, The Gold-Threaded Dress, published by Candlewick, was a Booklist Top Ten Youth Novel of 2002. Her second novel, Silk Umbrellas, was a Texas Bluebonnet nominee and Booklist Top Ten Art Novel of 2003. Since then, Carolyn has published several more award-winning middle grade chapter books with Candlewick and Viking, almost all with multicultural themes. The Buddha’s Diamonds was a Southern California Booksellers Association finalist and a Booklist Top Ten Religion Novel of 2008. Her latest book, Sahwira: An African Friendship, is set in what is now Zimbabwe. Carolyn lives in La Jolla with her Thai husband and two half-Thai daughters.

To celebrate Carolyn’s appearance on our blog, we're giving away an autographed copy of her newest book, Sahwira: An African Friendship. To enter the drawing, see the instructions at the end of this post.

Welcome, Carolyn! How did you become a Teaching Author?

In 1981, when I was living in Tucson, Arizona, mostly writing poetry for adults, I got a job as a Poet-in-Residence. For either a week or a month at a time, I visited urban and rural schools (K-12), including those on the Navajo and Pima reservations. Whenever I entered a classroom, I had about one minute to convince the kids that writing poetry could be fun. Following the lead of Kenneth Koch (Rose, Where Did You Get that Red?), I never used poetry written for children as my examples. I enjoyed seeing the children’s writing rise to new levels when I used poems by writers like Shakespeare or William Carlos Williams, or poems from other cultures. The students absorbed the rich language, rhythms, and subject matter. To my eternal delight, the kid at the back of the class, the one the teacher told me wouldn’t write anything, the one with the learning disability, invariably wrote the best poem.

What’s a common problem your students have, and how do you address it?

The most common problem is being too abstract or general in the writing. I address this by pressing for details. For example, if the student is writing about a flower, I ask what kind of flower? If it’s a daisy, I ask what color? If it’s a white daisy, I keep inquiring until the student arrives at the kind of particulars necessary for good writing. For example, this might be a white daisy picked for a dead pet hamster’s funeral under a damp May sky.

Can you describe your writing process, including collaborating with other authors?

I used to get story ideas based on experiences in the lives of my two daughters. However, as they’ve grown older, my ideas mostly come from people who’ve lived interesting lives in other cultures.

Normally, I work on at least three projects at a time. This somewhat scattered approach isn’t my preference—I just have too many ideas!

I usually start work by taking notes in a little book. Then I transfer whatever I know of the story into the computer, even if some parts are sketchy. My computer is in a 1959 Airstream trailer. I three-hole punch the pages and put them in a binder. I carry this binder everywhere, seizing every small opportunity to edit by hand. Every day I type and print out a new version. And so on, many, many times!

Because I write about cultures other than my own, I’ve always used gatekeepers to vet my work and to bounce ideas off of. Beginning with The Jade Dragon, I’ve written four books in actual collaboration, using and transforming people’s childhood stories. Although the material is gleaned from real life, all of my collaborative stories are extensively fictionalized.

In writing The Jade Dragon, Virginia Loh took care of the rough writing (the most terrifying part for me!) and I did the more relaxing work of revision. Virginia wrote at night, which worked nicely since I’m a day person. Mornings I’d wake to find new material already in my in-box. We spent endless hours brainstorming in cafes.

I wrote The Buddha’s Diamonds with a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. Typically, Phap Niem swung in a hammock, chatting about his childhood, while I scribbled furiously. He left for Vietnam as I was still shaping the first draft, and didn’t return until after the book was published.

Whereas I grew up in Mexico with missionary parents, my first cousin, Philip Matzigkeit, lived on a mission in Rhodesia, now the troubled country of Zimbabwe. Philip always told fascinating tales of his childhood. Yet I was reluctant to write the story because of the complicated political and historical backdrop. Finally, with several books under my belt, I felt ready. While Philip didn’t do any of the actual writing, he did write many great informative emails. Because I couldn’t travel to Africa, I had to get a sense of the setting through Philip. He and I also spent time in cafes, drinking coffee, hashing out the plot. After a couple of intense years of work together, we produced Sahwira: An African Friendship.

Philip’s friend, Daniella Cinque, had lived in an institute for girls in Naples in the early 1950s. The institute was a place where mothers who had been raped by soldiers dropped off their unwanted children. One afternoon, Daniella recounted memories to me while I typed notes in my computer. After that, I did the writing mostly on my own. Because I didn’t want to let go of some of the rich, beautiful material, plotting the story was quite a long process. Take Me with You will be released by Candlewick in spring 2010.

One of my future projects will be with a Czech doctor who escaped the Czech Republic along with his family at age fourteen. Because Milan lives across the country in Pennsylvania, (and isn’t the best communicator!), working together will present new challenges.

How can teachers use your books in the classroom?

My books can be used as teaching tools for the many countries I’ve written about--Thailand, Vietnam, Italy, Rhodesia, Mexico (and soon, I hope Iraq and Czechoslovakia!). They also bring to life various historical periods, ranging from 600 AD (Starfields, upcoming from Candlewick in 2011), to 1950s Naples (Take Me With You), 1963 Rhodesia (Sahwira), to 1983 Fairfax, Virginia (The Jade Dragon). I’ve also written through the eyes of characters for whom religion is central. I’ve explored Thai and Vietnamese Buddhism, Protestantism (the Methodist Church), Catholicism, Mayan Shamanism, (and soon, I hope, Islam!). Several of my books address the issues of immigrants to the US.

When did you first know you were a writer?

When I was thirteen, I discovered that I could temporarily escape the angst of early puberty and live out my fantasies through writing. I first wrote a take-off on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, then turned to romantic stories featuring myself with the Beatles, especially Paul McCartney. Through writing, I discovered my life’s path.

Nowadays, my writing is no longer motivated by escape or fantasy, but is more about exploring the worlds, minds, and hearts of my characters.

Would you share a favorite writing exercise with our readers?

One of my favorite writing exercises is very simple. I make a random list of 15 words using a variety of nouns, verbs, adjectives. An example of a list might be: sheep, crisscross, damp, fling, clever, tide, shadow, amber, avoid, glassy, stone, etc. I ask my students to write quickly, using all the words at least once. Of course they can use other words as well, as well as variations on these words (e.g. avoided instead of avoid) I tell them not to try to make sense—to just let the sentences flow. This exercise invariably produces wonderful poems!

Thank you, Carolyn! The Teaching Authors appreciate your visit and your insights! 

Readers, before entering our contest, please read our Giveaway Guidelines here.

Now, for the contest requirements:
For a chance to win an autographed copy of Carolyn Marsden's Sahwira: An African Friendship, post a comment to today's blog post telling us why you would like a copy of the book. To qualify, your entry must be posted by 11 p.m. Saturday, November 14, 2009 (Central Standard Time). The winner will be announced by 11 p.m., Sunday, November 15, 2009.

We look forward to reading your comments. Good luck!