Interview with Amelia Brunskill
I met Amelia Brunskill ten years ago in StoryStudio Chicago's Novel in a Year program. I still remember her entrancing workshop pages— they were perfectly moody and made me want to gobble up the whole novel. After the program ended, a handful of us formed a writing group, and while my snack contributions were admittedly inconsistent, Amelia could always be counted on for bringing excellent treats. Which is to say, Amelia is not only a lovely person, but knows the importance of snacks. (Never underestimate how much better your writing group will be with a spread of brownies, crackers, and nice cheeses.)
Amelia was the first in the group, and our Novel in a Year cohort, to publish a novel with her 2019 debut, The Window. And last month her second novel, Wolfpack, was released. Like her first, it’s a thriller that kept me guessing.
WOLFPACK is delightfully different from anything I’ve ever read. It’s about a group of girls in a cult and one goes missing, and it’s written in verse. The unconventional form gives it a gorgeous, haunting feel as it weaves a suspenseful tale of how the friendship of these girls is tested when trouble hits. It’s so good, and as Amelia pointed out at her book launch, because it’s such a quick read it’s perfect to give your yearly reading goals a boost since it can be devoured in an afternoon. (Have I mentioned she’s also charming and funny?)
I’m so happy Amelia agreed to this interview!
Did you ever doubt this book would be published?
I rode high on delusional confidence for a long time while working on this book, which was really useful for propelling me forward. However, when I began querying for an agent I started getting nervous because I was getting very few requests (two in total), and since it is a novel in verse, I had a much shorter list of people that I felt confident might be interested in that format than I had previously for projects in prose. So, I was concerned that I was going to get through all of the people that I wanted to query and have no takers and no clear path forward. But fortunately I ended up receiving requests from both of the agents who read the full, and then the submission process went very smoothly.
Can you share any tips or tricks for staying motivated?
I think it can be helpful to regularly, say once a month, take stock about what you/your project actually needs in order to move forward. I know for me it can be easy to get stuck thinking that the mode of working that I’ve been in—drafting, researching, outlining—is the most productive thing for the project, especially if it’s the part that I happen to enjoy most, but sometimes I need to pivot for a while. I also find it works better if I focus more on the time I spend on a project, in terms of doing a certain amount of hours a day or week, rather than word count.
Any reading recommendations?
I read a fair amount of non-fiction about cults when I was working on this book, and while some of them were very interesting it’s hard to recommend any of them as enjoyable reads! So here instead are some things that influenced me/this book in other ways:
The Orchard by Adele Crockett Robertson: This is a posthumous memoir that was discovered by the author’s daughter. I read it because I wanted to learn more about orchards, because that's part of the setting in WOLFPACK, and while it was certainly very useful for that purpose, it was also a great read.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo: This is the first novel in verse that I read, and it richly deserves all the acclaim it received. For the first few pages I was resisting its pull, but by the end it had me completely enthralled.
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby: This is a really beautiful and strange young adult novel with a fairytale-like quality, that is about a girl who is kidnapped and the boy who tries to find her. It also includes beekeeping, which is always a plus for me!
The Leftovers by Tom Perotta: This book was stunning, and I found the part about the formation of a cult after an unexplainable event fascinating. (The television show is also amazing, but I also found it so stressful to watch that I still haven’t watched the third season!)
Can you recommend a song (or songs) that ties into your novel in some way?
I was really hoping to find a good song to recommend that was about complicated female friendships, but I was having a hard time finding any! So, I’m instead going more on dark, moody vibes here:
Thank you, Amelia!