Along with her French mother, her Chinese father, and her 'amah' (nanny), Tian faces dangers and hardships: war, imprisonment, separation, family illness, and hunger. The story's many settings include Kontum, Saigon, Shanghai (her former home), France, and New York. This is a 'coming of age' saga that follows Tian's life from the age of twelve through the next two decades. Murphy's debut novel, 1997's The Sea of Trees, centers on a young girl named Tian who is being held in a Japanese prison camp in Kontum, Indochina, in 1942. Paul Stuewe, reviewing Stories in Another Language for Quill & Quire, called Murphy's stories 'too coy and naive for their own good,' but noted that 'in a few cases the banality of her language and … her characters do coalesce into a telling whole.' Although Mary Soete, reviewing the collection for Library Journal, found the stories 'neither accessible nor comfortable in themes and style,' she did note that events are 'filtered through the transforming consciousness of children.' Sybil Steinberg, in an appraisal for Publishers Weekly considered the stories difficult reading but claimed that Murphy has a 'keen eye for small, mundane details.' Steinberg insisted that Murphy's fictional debut 'evinces a deadpan voice that powerfully taps the interior world of emotions and thoughts.' Her use of such serious themes involving child characters has drawn criticism at times.  Murphy's subjects include grief, death, sexuality, violence, and incest.  Giles Whiting Foundation, which bestowed an award of thirty thousand dollars in 'recognition of the quality of current and past writing as well as the likelihood of outstanding future work.' The seventeen stories in the collection-one of which is only a paragraph in length-involve young characters who experience adult-generated dangers. She is one of ten to receive the Whiting Writer's Award from the Mrs. Yannick Murphy is the author of the award-winning short story collection Stories in Another Language. Signed, Mata Hari (novel), Little, Brown (New York, NY), 2007.Ĭontributor to periodicals, including Antioch Review, McSweeney's, Agni Online and Southwest Review. Here They Come (novel), McSweeney's ( San Francisco, CA), 2006. The Sea of Trees (novel), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1997.Īhwoooooooo! (for children), illustrated by Claudio Munoz, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 2005. Stories in Another Language (short stories), Knopf ( New York, NY), 1987. Giles Whiting Foundation, 1990, for Stories in Another Language National Endowment for the Arts fellowship Chesterfield Screenwriting Fellowship (in conjunction with Amblin Studios). Education: Attended Hampshire College and New York University.

Signed, Mata Hari by Yannick Murphy

That letter, which made me miserable at the time, no longer has the power to hurt me. Nowadays, when I visit schools, I often read my worst rejection letter to the kids. That day, April 17, 1996, was one of the happiest in my life. The first book of mine to be accepted for publication was ELLA ENCHANTED, and not one but two publishers wanted it. At the beginning I mostly wrote picture books, which were rejected by every children’s book publisher in America. It took me nine years to get anything published. What inspired you to write professionally? Can you tell us a little bit about your path to publication? I think lots of people hear a voice like that, and we all have to learn to tell it to shut up! I’ve since realized that the negative voice I used to hear was my internal enemy, the enemy of my creativity. And I discovered that my negative, critical voice is quiet when I write, and I like my writing. During the class I discovered how much I liked to write - and how little I liked to illustrate. I became a writer after taking a class in writing and illustrating for children. I’d hear a voice in my mind that would tell me I wasn’t any good and my work wasn’t any good. I was unhappy about it, though - because I was too self-critical. I gave up the acting idea pretty early on, but I painted and drew for years. When did you first decide to become a writer? Were you a child who scribbled your own short stories, or was it something that came to you later in life?Īs a child I didn’t want to be a writer, although I did like to write stories.  Konigsburg, Sharon Creech, Karen Cushman, Louis Sachar, Kevin Henkes, and Karen Hesse, to name more than a few. I like a lot of children’s book authors: Joan Abelove, Lucy Frank, Karen Romano Young, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Doris Orgel, Suzanne Fisher Staples, Megan Whalen Turner, Joan Aiken, Donna Jo Napoli, E.L.  Who are some of your favorite authors today? And I loved A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT, HEIDI, BAMBI, and BLACK BEAUTY. I also liked everything Louisa May Alcott wrote and anything by L. Barrie - the novel, not the picture book or the movie. I used to spend hours reading in the bathroom - and we only had one bathroom in our small apartment! As a kid, my favorite book was PETER PAN by James M. So books were my privacy, because no one could join me in a book, no one could comment on the action or make fun of it. We didn’t get along well, and I felt that I had no privacy. I had to share a room with my sister, who is five and a half years older than I am. What role did books play in your childhood? What were your favorites? This interview was conducted via email in December 2000. Newbery Honor winner Gail Carson Levine has delighted fans with her award-winning first novel ELLA ENCHANTED (HarperCollins, 1997), as well as DAVE AT NIGHT (HarperCollins, 1999), THE PRINCESS TALES, THE WISH (HarperCollins, 2000).

Earned Citizenship by Michael J. Sullivan