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Ed. Magazine

One on One with Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult

jodi_picolut.jpgFor Jodi Picoult, Ed.M.'90, becoming a professional novelist was always Plan A. It was one of her reality-dictated Plan Bs, though -- teaching -- that led her to the Ed School to pursue her master's in teaching and curriculum. But starting a family, coupled with layoffs in the school system where she taught, gave her the time to go back to Plan A and complete her first novel, Songs of the Humpback Whale. "They hired six new teachers that year and pink-slipped us on the third day of school because they lost the money they had in the budget to pay our salaries," Picoult remembers. "Three of us wound up getting pregnant that year -- including me. I knew I was going to stay home with my newborn, so I spent time that summer finishing the book I'd been writing on the side, and it became my first published novel a year later."

Picoult hasn't looked back. She has published 16 novels, the most recent in March, all of which have landed on The New York Times' bestsellers list and several of which have been turned into feature films and made-for-television movies. Still, despite her success, Picoult stays grounded thanks to her husband and three kids. "They are amused by fans who treat me like a celebrity," she says. "To my kids, I'm just the lady who yells at them to pick up their bedrooms."

Do you ever miss the classroom?
I miss parts of it! The kids in particular. I really get a kick out of teenagers and the feelings they have and the questions they raise. I still remember diagramming sentences by hanging signs for parts of speech around the neck of kids and making them do acrobatics (i.e., the adjective piggy-backed on the subject, the adverbial clause hanging off the predicate). I loved the assignments I designed, too.

Such as?
The last assignment I gave was a 10-year letter that kids had to write to themselves. I carted those letters around for a decade and then mailed them. I heard back from so many of them, now adults. Every now and then one will pop up at one of my book events!

Do you pull from your teaching or your parenting experience when writing adolescent characters, like those in Nineteen Minutes, a novel about school violence and bullying?
Both. Although Nineteen Minutes had its genesis in bullying that I experienced as a kid and that my children experienced, I taught plenty of kids who fell into that marginalized category. The Pact, which is about teen suicide, came directly from my classroom experience, when a young suicidal girl was dealing with her depression by writing in a journal, and meeting with me to discuss it. I'm happy to report that she does research in neurology and is doing very well!

How do you prepare yourself emotionally to deal with some of the sensitive and controversial issues?
I write about the things that are keeping me up at night because I don't have the answers. To that end, writing a book for me is a way of finding answers -- it's very therapeutic. It also helps to have a healthy bunch of kids and a great husband I can go to at the end of the workday.

Does it ever surprise you to observe strangers reading your books?
I rarely see anyone reading my books. If I do, I go up and ask if the person likes the book. If they say yes, I tell them I wrote it and sign the book. If they say no, I sort of slink away quietly. ... My mother told me she would know I'd "made" it when she saw my book stacked in Costco. I think [the day she did] might have been the happiest day of her life.

Do you feel you're identified as a novelist for women?
No, because 49 percent of my fan mail comes from men. They take away very different concepts from my books. I'd argue that a book like The Tenth Circle or Change of Heart is actually male-centric, too, since it explores fatherhood, prison, death row -- things not commonly associated with chick lit.

How involved are you in the films made of your books?
Not very. For the TV movies, I have been very lucky -- I've been invited to the sets, and each time the director has asked me to rewrite a pivotal scene that isn't quite working from the script, which is great fun. But ultimately, I don't have any say in the script. On June 26, My Sister's Keeper will screen in movie theatres with Cameron Diaz and Abigail Breslin. It's beautifully shot and the acting is fantastic. However, I know that the director felt the need to change the ending, even though I lobbied very hard against that. My solace is in knowing that if people read the book after they see the movie, they'll still be getting the story I hoped for.

Did you get to keep the director's chair with your name on it shown on your website?
Not from The Tenth Circle, but I did get my own chair for My Sister's Keeper and that's in my office now.

Are you tempted to cast the potential film adaptations in your head as you write the novels?
It's pretty rare that I cast in my head because the characters are so real to me and unique when they arrive on the page. But every now and then, I'll think, ooh, wouldn't Johnny Depp make a great Ross in Second Glance? Wouldn't Nicole Kidman be terrific as Charlotte in Handle with Care? (So, um, if Johnny and Nicole happen to be reading, call me!) There have been a few casting decisions for my books in the past that have left me scratching my head, but often they turned out better than I expected when I saw the adaptation.

You have a book tour coming up for Handle with Care. What will your typical day be like?
Caviar, jets, fine wine -- oh, wait, I've confused myself with a real celebrity. Book tours are grueling. Usually I get up at about 6 a.m. in order to get to an airport, where I strip down to my skivvies to get through security, juggling my laptop, coffee, and whatever edible item I've found for breakfast. I fly to a city and meet a media escort at the airport. (It sounds much sexier than it is -- usually a woman in her 60s or 70s.) The escort takes me to interviews on radio and TV and print, and then to my events, which are one hour of talking and Q&A, followed by signing books. I get to a hotel around 10 p.m., eat dinner, crash, and wake up at 6 a.m. to get to another city and do it again. I'm on tour in the United States for 25 straight days and then come home, go into a three-week coma, and emerge to tour the U.K. for another three weeks.

You recently wrote several issues of Wonder Woman. Were you a fan of comic books prior to this?
When I was a little girl, I used to go with my dad every Sunday to buy The New York Times at the newsstand. I was allowed to pick out a Charms lollipop and a comic book. I was a big fan of X-Men at the time. Wonder Woman, in the '70s, wasn't doing it for me. She needed me to revamp her.

If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be?
The ability to change people's minds without them even realizing it was being done. Oh wait, that's what a writer does, isn't it?

Ed. Magazine

The magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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