Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Stephanie Kuehnert (Pieces of a Girl)!
Meet the Author: Stephanie Kuehnert
Stephanie Kuehnert got her start writing bad poetry about unrequited love and razor blades in eighth grade. In high school, she discovered punk rock and produced several D.I.Y. feminist zines. She received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago. Her first YA novel, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, was published by MTV Books in July 2008, and her second, Ballads of Suburbia, was published in July 2009. In addition to writing novels, she is a teacher and was a staff writer for ROOKIE, the acclaimed online magazine for teenage girls. Stephanie lives in Seattle with her husband and two cats.
About the Book: Pieces of a Girl
A raw and bold YA memoir about abuse and addiction, and the power of expression and community that helped author Stephanie Kuehnert survive and thrive.
Years before she would become a published author . . . years before she would find a voice and a home in the Riot Grrrl movement and emerging zine community, Stephanie Kuehnert struggled to find her place. Told in varied narrative styles, including journal entries, original illustration, and pages torn from her actual teenage diaries and zines, this is the story of Stephanie Kuehnert’s life as a struggling outsider who survived substance and relationship abuse to become a strong and powerful young woman after years trapped in a cycle that sometimes seemed to have no escape. From the author of Ballads of Suburbia and former Rookie contributor Stephanie Kuehnert, this bold and bare memoir about a life shaped by music and writing is unflinching and devastatingly honest.
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~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
I have secretly wanted to write a memoir since I was a little kid. I used to mentally composed it when I was in elementary school and I have kept a diary since I was seven years old. But I got serious about actually doing it while I was writing for Rookie magazine. That was where I first started writing nonfiction and personal essays. It brought me back to my teenage days of writing zines, especially when I started collaborating with artists and illustrators. That’s when I decided that I wanted to write a zine-style memoir, to tell my story with literal pieces of my life from zine pages to poems to mix tapes alongside illustrations by an artist from Rookie.
YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?
Since this is a memoir, I probably shouldn’t answer this question, haha! But I will. It’s my best friend, who readers will know as Acacia. Though she and I went through some serious, messed up, and painful stuff, it was a joy remembering how we met and just clicked. That moment of finding your person is just so beautiful. And she was (and still is) just so damn cool. The way we bonded and the ways in which we were there for each other were so crucial and so genuine. This book is about a lot of struggles with friendship, with fitting in, with unhealthy dynamics, but Acacia and I were just committed to each other (and still are). There are illustrations of two really big (and also really small) moments in our friendship and those are my favorite illustrations in the book.
YABC: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I have wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I read avidly from age five onward and I think I have been a storyteller since then. As I mentioned, I started keeping a diary in second grade. I loved any creative writing opportunities I had at school. We had a Young Authors conference in elementary school which I took very seriously. I was putting out zines in high school, but because of what I was going through then, I really devalued my own writing for a while. I didn’t think I was good enough or that it would make a difference. I was also just deeply depressed and hurting. So I didn’t initially go to college for writing (not that I think you have to do that to be a writer—it was just a great place for me, when I eventually did go, to get practice and feedback) and I was really self-destructive as a result. This is all in Pieces of a Girl, so I won’t spoil it, but I will just say that it is the most crucial piece of me. Writing has kept me alive.
YABC: What is your favorite writing space?
My home office. I have a desk with little shelves for knick-knacks and it is just covered with photos and postcards and art that inspires me. I have a whiteboard nearby and all of my journals. It’s the space in the house that feels the most “me,” like my teenage bedroom did. I wanted to be the kind of a writer who goes to coffee shops and I’ve tried that, but I get too distracted. I need my own little bubble of me. Oh, the only exception to this is that I have had the opportunity to do two writing residencies at Mineral School in Washington where your writing room is a giant classroom in an old school and Mineral is a small town in a beautiful part of Washington. There’s a lake. It’s right by Mount Rainier. If I could have an annual writing retreat there, I would.
YABC: How do you plan to celebrate the launch of your book?
I am having a launch party at my neighborhood indie bookstore, Third Place Books—Seward Park in Seattle. The book’s illustrator, Suzy Exposito, is coming up from LA to join and be in conversation with me about it. It is our first time meeting IRL, so that is very exciting. I am also in the process of getting a new tattoo, which is how I like to celebrate a book or another significant life event. I’m not quite ready to talk about the tattoo yet because it is not finished, but when it is, I will share it on my Instagram.
YABC: What hobbies do you enjoy?
In addition to reading, which will always be a huge part of my life—and I read fiction and nonfiction, everything from contemporary stories to sci-fi as well as a lot of feminist and anti-racist texts—my favorite hobby right now is jigsaw puzzles. I got into this after my mom gave me a puzzle for Christmas in 2020. I realized how much it reduced my anxiety and made me feel calm and focused. So I am pretty obsessed now and always have a puzzle going. I’ve also been diving deeply into astrology and tarot. I was really into both of those things in junior high and the beginning of high school and that love is back.
YABC: What fandom would you write for if you had time?
Oooh, I love this question. I would write for the Star Trek franchise/fandom if I could. I looooved Star Trek: The Next Generation when I was growing up and wrote fan fiction with my best friend when we were in junior high school. But I have also always really wanted to write for a soap opera. I grew up on One Life to Live and fangirled all about it on Rookie. When I was in college, I saw a posting for a writing internship for OLTL but I didn’t apply because of dumb boyfriend related stuff. It’s a major regret. My soap is General Hospital now that OLTL is gone (sob!). I’d write for GH or Star Trek in a heartbeat. They should call me!
YABC: What is your favorite holiday or tradition and why?
My favorite holiday has always been Halloween. I’ve just always been a Goth kid at heart! I love spooky things and I love dressing up. I have had varying traditions over the years. As an adult, before I had a kid, I loved carving pumpkins while watching my favorite movies—The Lost Boys and The Crow. Now that I am a parent, we have a tradition of going to the pumpkin patch every year and carving or decorating pumpkins and dressing up and going Trick or Treating. It’s honestly one of the biggest benefits of parenting—I get to do all the Halloween things again! But that time of year is just my favorite in general. I’m witchy. I can feel that the veil between worlds is thin and I love that. I know for many people Christmas is the magical time, but Halloween is my kind of magic!
YABC: What’s up next for you?
Right now it is just to celebrate this book and get it to as many readers as possible! It took ten years from sale to publication of this one, which is such a huge chunk of time, so I need to fully revel in this accomplishment! I have a rough draft of another YA novel that I’d also really like to get out there and I have a proposal for the adult counterpart to this memoir about the pieces of my early adulthood and motherhood. My agent left the business though so I need to find a new agent. That’s a weird next step when you have a book coming out, but as you’ll read in Pieces of a Girl, my life has never been quite linear, so I will work it out!
Title: Pieces of a Girl
Author: Stephanie Kuehnert
Illustrator: Suzy Exposito
Release Date: 3.27.2024
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA, Memoir, Social Topics – Cutting & Self-Harm, Social Topics – Drugs, Alcohol, Substance Abuse, Art and Pop Culture
Age Range: 14 and up
