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‘Anything that encourages people to read is a good thing’: Writer Sophia Lee on YA


Lee (center) with the judges and the other finalists of the Scholastic Asian Book Awards.
 
Writer Sophia Lee, the Grand Prize winner of the 2014 Scholastic Asian Book Awards, will soon be a published author: her young adult (YA) novel, “What Things Mean,” will come out next year.

In the meantime, Lee is working towards a masters degree in Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines at Diliman. She was a fellow at the 52nd Silliman National Writers Workshop, and a member of the group Kwentista ng mga Tsikiting (Storytellers for Children).

Q: How does it feel to win the Scholastic Asian Book Award?

A: It feels really wonderful. I am still bowled over by the thought that Scholastic is going to publish my work and that people are going to read it! I am overwhelmed by the kindness of those who have reached out just to say that I made them happy and proud because I won, and also those who have offered to help me promote the book even before it is published. I am very honored to share this with everyone. I feel really blessed to have this opportunity to shine a light on Filipino writing, and I hope that my win paves the way for more Filipino writers writing YA, and to more readers supporting Filipino writing.

Q: Should readers expect anything with its publication?

A: The manuscript will still have to go through a series of editing by Scholastic’s editors. I can’t really say how the manuscript will look after that, but I’ll be sure to keep you posted when I know more.

Q: Tell us a little something about the book that isn't in the summaries or blurbs.

A: Do you know how kids sometimes think they have to be like their mom or their dad—follow the same path, do the same things? The main character of my story, Olive, is like that. She struggles to find a person outside of the traits she inherited from her absent father and the ones she struggles to learn from her mother.  

Q: How was “What Things Mean” born?

A: I was taking a young adult fiction writing workshop under Professor Heidi Eusebio-Abad, and one of her requirements was to produce a YA novel during the semester. “What Things Mean” was my manuscript for that class.

Writing is a bit like driving a car for me. When I start, I’m not really sure where the story will go. For “What Things Mean,” I knew that I wanted to have strong female protagonists, and I had this image in my head of a girl who is opening a jar of something on her own. For me, that’s something that’s physically hard to do—and a chore often left to the men in a household. I thought it was a good metaphor for strength and independence, and so that’s how I began my story—just a girl, opening a jar of pickles on her own. I let the ideas for the story run from there.

Q: How do you think your being Filipino played into “What Things Mean” and in your writing in general?

A: Like many Filipinos, I have a particularly large extended family. We live within minutes of my aunts and cousins, and we are always around each other’s homes for one reason or another. For “What Things Mean,” my character has a similar background—she lives in a house with her grandmother, her aunts, and cousins—and though they are very different, and they drive each other crazy at times, they are always supportive and loving in their own ways.

In writing classes, we are always told to “write what we know”. In the same way that I was inspired by my own extended family for my story, I think that certain aspects of being Filipino like having close familial bonds, being dutiful children, and having an insatiable hunger for food at all times of the day will always find their way into my stories.

Q: Why YA? What does it do for you that other genres don't? And what can you say about those who have been very vocal against YA lately?

A: It was through YA stories that my love for reading grew. As with most girls my age, I began with Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley and moved on from there.

I loved how you could open a book and find yourself in the middle of a completely different world. There is something very universal about the themes of YA books—even though I was a Filipino reading about the adventures of American girls, I loved reading about people my age who lived very different lives, but who were experiencing the same things that I was going through.

I also like how honest and open YA books are—I think this is also the reason why a lot of adult readers gravitate towards young adult novels. Apart from being fun reads, they are reminders that people aren’t perfect, that we don’t have to have all the answers at once—that we are constantly changing—and that’s okay.

I disagree with the notion that only young adults should read YA books. I think anything that encourages more people to read and to explore perspectives different from their own is a good thing.

Q: When did you start writing?

A: I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. When I was around seven or eight, I would be taken to Tarlac for summer vacation. While there, my Tita Lynn would take me to her office and the people there would always be very encouraging. Her officemates would pay me five pesos to write a poem about them, and at the end of the week, they would give me my “salary,” complete with a payslip that my aunt would type up. I loved the idea that you could create something from your mind and get paid for it!
 
I modeled myself after the characters I read about—I wanted to write news articles like Elizabeth Wakefield and investigate like Nancy Drew, so I joined the Journalism Club in my school. It didn’t occur to me though that I could write fiction stories until much later. I got a job writing flash fiction for a content providing company—I had to write one-page stories about love and hope, six times a week. I still have that job, actually, and I’m very grateful for it. It forces me to be creative even when I don’t feel particularly inspired.

Q: Who are your inspirations?

A: There are so many! One of my favorite authors is Sarah Weeks, who wrote the YA novel “So B. It,” also published by Scholastic. I am in awe of how she is able to simplify very real and complex situations for young readers. Another favorite is Nicole Krauss, who wrote “The History of Love.” She writes beautifully and is able to take on the voice of all her characters so convincingly that you forget they aren’t real.

Locally, I admire Kerima Polotan, Susan Lara, Gina Apostol, Ian Casocot, Jose Dalisay, Dean Alfar, Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, Eric Gamalinda—the list goes on. I find myself repeatedly reading their works to see how they structure their stories, how they depict their characters—every time I read them, I always learn something new!

Q: Where can we find your other stories?

A: This will be my first fiction story to be published, actually. I only started seriously writing fiction when I enrolled in the Creative Writing MA program at the University of the Philippines, and I was very insecure about sending in my work. I feel really fortunate to have this opportunity to show you my story!

Q: What sorts of stories would you like to try in the future, and do you have other stories in the works?

A: I am currently doing research on food and travel for my thesis, which will either be a novel or a short story collection revolving around the two themes.

For the future, I would like to try my hand at writing a mystery, maybe try speculative fiction too.

Q: Given that you won an international writing contest, do you have any advice for Filipinos who would like to try their luck in such markets?

A: The most important thing is for you to write. Push yourself to put words on the page and keep doing it until you find the story that only you can write. Don’t concern yourself with market trends in genre or style first—just write about things you are passionate about and let the inspiration take you from there. I really believe that good writing will always find readers. — BM, GMA News
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