Emily Franklin

Emily Franklin is the author of more than twenty novels and a poetry collection, Tell Me How You Got Here. Her award-winning work has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Guernica, JAMA, and numerous literary magazines as well as long-listed for the London Sunday Times Short Story Award, featured and read aloud on NPR and named notable by the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Franklin's new novel is The Lioness of Boston.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

When I began this novel about the life of Isabella, Stewart Gardner, I kept coming back to the idea that she evolved into the art collector/museum, founder/Boston, scandalous society person from her beginnings as a social outcast. Initially, the novel was called Becoming Isabella. However, once I had finished writing the novel, I realized that unless a reader knew who Isabella Stewart Gardner was, the title wouldn't mean all that much. I also realized that I wrote about this woman in the 1800s becoming herself as Boston was becoming the city it is today, so I wanted to ground the story in a location. The entrance to the Gardner museum is flanked by two Lions, and there's a story of Isabella parading two Lions down Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Once I incurred the novel title in Boston, the lions quickly followed. The Lioness of Boston is truly about a woman finding her own voice and being able to roar.

What's in a name?

Isabella, Stewart Gardner and numerous people in this novel: Henry James, John Singer, Sargent, Berthe Morisot, George Sand, James McNeill Whistler, Oscar Wilde - were all real folks so I didn't have to name them. Other characters that I did create were given names that suited the time (Miles Louris) or a character trait (Mr. Valentine).

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

My teenage reader self would not be completely surprised by this novel. I did grow up going to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and was completely captivated by it… I also loved Edith Wharton and EM Forster, and this novel certainly fits into that genre.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I have always found both beginnings and endings come rather easily to me. That said, I more often know the exact ending, including a last line of what I'm writing, whether it is a short story, or poetry, or a novel, and the opening pages are more likely to shift. I end up changing the first chapter once I've gotten further along in the novel because generally that's before I found the voice completely.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Probably all of the characters have a little bits of me a little bits of other people I know, and certainly a great degree of imagination to make them fully realized on the page. I think I identify with Isabella's outspokenness, her inability to fit in completely with one group or another. I enjoyed writing the witty banter between Isabella and many of her friends, because that is certainly how some of my friends and I like to talk, so I identify with that fast-paced wit. Ultimately, I suppose I do feel similar to Isabella and the friends she finds in that it took me a while to find my lunch table. In terms of the world, these characters live in, a lot of Boston, still retains its historic architecture, so that was not too big of a stretch, but the social mores of the 1800s were a far cry from anything I have experience personally, though growing up in the UK in the 1980s and 90s there were still some remnants of those old social rules (which I often broke).

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My first novel was all about mix tapes. I find music and lyrics at the heart of a lot of my influences, and listen and enjoy all types of music. Weirdly, I cannot listen to music when I write, because I find it leaks onto the page. Nature is also a huge part of my writing, and does show up in everything I write. To break up my workday I take a lot of walks with my giant beast dogs and find the natural world full of inspiration. My family is a constant influence - both my chosen family and my family of origin.

Visit Emily Franklin's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Lioness of Boston.

--Marshal Zeringue