Erin Gough is a Sydney-based writer whose first young adult novel, The Flywheel, won Hardie Grant Egmont’s Ampersand Prize. The Flywheel was published in the US as Get it Together, Delilah! and was shortlisted for the CBCA’s Book of the Year for Older Readers and the Centre for Youth Literature’s Gold Inky. It was also named a White Raven International Youth Library title.Gough's new novel is Amelia Westlake Was Never Here.
From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: You note that the idea for Amelia Westlake came from your own high school experiences. How did that lead to your writing the novel?Visit Erin Gough's website.
A: That's right. The original idea came from a hoax I did with two of my school friends when we were in our final school year. That hoax was the best thing about high school as far as I’m concerned, and I thought it would be fun to revisit it in fiction.
As I began writing the story - about three years ago now – I realised it was developing into an exploration of power and privilege. As it happened, those concerns were becoming central to the cultural conversation as well, and we’ve since seen them culminate in the “me too” movement.
Q: How did you come up with your characters Will and Harriet, and did you always plan on writing from both points of view?
A: Will and Harriet were both part of my original plan for the novel. I liked the idea of having two people behind the hoax, and the opposites attract trope has always been a favourite of mine - I could see these ideas working well together. I was also excited about...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: Amelia Westlake Was Never Here.
--Marshal Zeringue