Susie Anderson
Staff Writer
Chautauqua Writers’ Center course participants will unlock their inner child and teen in Week Six workshops exploring adolescent narrative and voice.
Caroline Starr Rose will lead a workshop titled “Listen to the Work: Writing Middle Grade” and author Sharon G. Flake will lead “Young at Heart: How to Write YA (Teen) Fiction at Any Age.” Both writers will discuss and read from their work at 3:30 p.m. Sunday in the Hall of Philosophy.
For author Rose, writing children’s literature is like writing with truth serum.
“They’re going to hone in very quickly on anything that feels off, or false or sweet or cutesy. You also don’t have the luxury that I feel adult literature has, to be kind of leisurely. The words need to count,” Rose said.
In her Week Six workshop, participants will learn how to make the words count.
Rose is a picture book and middle grade author whose books have been Junior Library Guild, ABA New Voices, Kids’ Indie Next, Amazon’s Best Books of the Month for Kids and ALA-ALSC Notable selections. She was named a Publisher’s Weekly Flying Start Author for her debut novel, May B. Her picture book A Race Around the World: The True Story of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland was the Week One early readers selection for CLSC Young Readers. Rose said her love for middle grade reading was cemented in college after taking an adolescent literature class.
“That was when I realized that I want to be a part of this legacy,” Rose said. “(I realized) I want to contribute to the canon of literature out there for young readers.”
With middle grade writing, Rose said books lend themselves to adolescents and adults alike. Rose finds the process of writing for young audiences as an opportunity to validate and explore their emotions and experiences.
“I love that they always end with hope, which is something everyone needs. I love that they offer children agency,” Rose said. “When you are 10, 11 or 12, you don’t get a lot of freedom, so to read about characters that are making those choices is encouraging and empowering for young people.”
Taking a cautious approach to the generative process, Rose said she listens to herself, the language she uses and workshop critique to inform her writing process. As she carefully steps forward into a work, she lets the story lead the way.
“I like to picture writing as if I’m walking alongside my character, and I’m holding a lantern and watching,” she said. “I’m not in front of the character, kind of saying, ‘Oh, you know, come this way. I know the way to go. I have all the wisdom, and I’m leading you.’ I’m simply holding up the light and watching the characters, seeing where he or she will head next.”
Rose writes at a desk with a note from her friend that reads, “You have all the tools and all the knowledge and all the courage you need to write this book.” She finds solace in the words and hopes to instill that confidence in workshop participants throughout the week.
“I hope I can give people the confidence in knowing that the story holds the answers,” Rose said.
On Sunday, Rose will read from her newest novel in verse, titled The Burning Season. She will be joined by author Flake, who is also leading a workshop during Week Six.
From her first visit through the Highlights Foundation, which supports children’s book writers and artists, nearly 30 years ago, Flake fell in love with Chautauqua as an intellectual and creative community.
“And so, when Kwame Alexander says, ‘Hey would you like to come?’ I nearly jumped out of my skin,” Flake said, “I was like, ‘What? I get to come back there again as an author and teach and be in fellowship with other creators and walk the grounds and be with people who love the arts?’ ”
Flake has authored over a dozen books and has received the Coretta Scott King Author Honors numerous times. She has also received an NAACP Award Nomination, the YWCA Racial Justice Award and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize Award. Her most recent novel, The Family I’m In, was a selection for the CLSC Young Readers during Week Three.
When developing YA fiction, Flake leans into what she writes the best — dialogue. In crafting narratives about teens, she wants to dismantle stereotypes participants might have while entering the workshop. Rather than nail a character’s voice on the first try, Flake encourages participants to free themselves up from restraints and be messy in their first drafts.
“You can get it right in the rewrite. Or the re-re-re-re-rewrite. But in the beginning, let’s get it down on paper,” she said. “Let’s get some feedback and critique from your peers. Let’s go back and rewrite it and see what we have.”
She wants participants to lean into the nuance of teens, rather than fall into a tendency to make teens seem tough or cool.
“Some of the best characters are characters that we allow to be vulnerable,” Flake said.
While slang and technology play a factor in generating a particular time period of a character’s adolescence, Flake wants writers to look at their work with the universality of
the adolescent experience in mind.
“Some things are very much the same. … All children want to be loved. They want to be heard. They want to fit in. I think they want a space in a place where they can tell their own truths, even if they can’t tell it to their friends or family. That space for a character can be on the page. I think they all want to feel as if they’re OK,” Flake said. “That’s whether you’re in 1950, 1902 or 2025.”
Flake hopes people in her workshops will use their own adolescence as a jumping-off point for their stories, remembering moments when they felt heard or unheard, seen or unseen. When critiquing work, Flake wants to create a supportive environment.
“I always tell my students, ‘Don’t give your work to anybody that’s going to leave you bloody on the floor,’ ” Flake said. “It doesn’t mean that you don’t get critiqued, but we don’t have to destroy people in our critique of their work. The goal is to help them to be better writers, stronger writers, more aware of what’s happening with the voice and the story.”
Navigating the world of teens through writing, Flake cherishes the privilege of telling stories for adolescent audiences.
“I still feel like I went to heaven to be able to write for young people,” she said.
