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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: Rabbit & Juliet
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WEBSITE: https://www.rebeccastaffordauthor.com/
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PERSONAL
Raised in GA.
EDUCATION:Davidson College, B.A., 2000; University of Notre Dame, M.F.A., 2005; Florida State University, Ph.D., 2010.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Educator, poet, and writer. North Central College, Naperville, IL, associate professor of English.
AWARDS:Jay C. and Ruth Hall Fellowship, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010-11; Vermont Studio Center and Sewanee Writer’s Conference fellowships; Discovery/Nation Prize; Wheeler Prize, and Ohio State University Press/Journal Award in Poetry, 2011, both for Fair Copy; Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Contest winner, 2012; Pushcart Prizes (two).
WRITINGS
Contributor of poems to periodicals, including Agni, American Book Review, Cream City Review, Hopkins Review, Pleiades, Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, New Republic, New Yorker, Poetry, and Virginia Quarterly Review; and to anthologies, including Best New Poets 2011, Best American Poetry 2013, and Best American Poetry 2015.
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2024, review of Rabbit & Juliet.
ONLINE
North Central College website, https://www.northcentralcollege.edu/ (April 10, 2025), author profile.
Rebecca Stafford website, https://www.rebeccastaffordauthor.com (April 10, 2025).
School Library Journal, https://www.slj.com/ (October 16, 2024), “Author Rebecca Stafford on YA Debut ‘Rabbit & Juliet’ | 5 Questions and a Rec.”
Rebecca Stafford is a novelist.
Before I was a writer, I was a reader. I grew up in rural Georgia and spent most of my afternoons in my town’s library. Books were my refuge and my escape; I would not have survived adolescence without them!
I love writing and helping others find their voice as authors, and I’m so lucky to have the privilege of working with the talented undergrad and graduate students of North Central College in Illinois.
My first young adult novel, Rabbit and Juliet, is out now from Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books.
If you’re interested in booking a school visit, a library event, or a book club visit, contact me for availability.
English
Rebecca Stafford
Associate Professor of English
Contact
+1 630 637 5122
rhstafford@noctrl.edu
Office Location
KH 210
Profile Picture
Biography
Selected Scholarship
Rebecca Hazelton Stafford is a poet and writer.
She is the author of Gloss, from the University of Wisconsin Press, Vow from Cleveland State UP, and Fair Copy from Ohio State University Press, winner of the Wheeler Prize. She is the co-editor of The Manifesto Project, with Alan Michael Parker, from the University of Akron’s Series in Contemporary Poetics. She has won the Discovery/The Nation prize, and been awarded two Pushcart Prizes, along with the Jay C. and Ruth Hall fellowship from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and fellowships for Vermont Studio Center and the Sewanee Writer’s Conference. Her poems have been published in journals such as Poetry and The New Yorker, and anthologized in Best New Poets and Best American Poetry.
Rabbit and Juliet is her debut young adult novel and releases in 2024. To learn more about Rebecca’s distinguished body of work, visit her online at www.rebeccastaffordauthor.com.
Areas of Interest
poetry
creative writing
gender
fiction
creative non fiction
Degrees
B.A., Davidson College, 2000; M.F.A., University of Notre Dame, 2005; Ph.D., Florida State University, 2010
Author Rebecca Stafford on YA Debut ‘Rabbit & Juliet’ | 5 Questions and a Rec
by SLJ Reviews
Oct 16, 2024 | Filed in News & Features
0
In this Q&A series, SLJ poses five questions and a request for a book recommendation to a debut YA author. In the latest installment, Rebecca Stafford shares about Rabbit & Juliet.
1. Congrats on your YA debut! How would you describe your book to readers?
When Rabbit loses her mom to cancer, she loses everything: her dad slides into alcoholism, her friends retreat, and her ex-boyfriend, Richard, keeps showing up everywhere she goes. At this point, her only goal is survival. But then she meets gorgeous, charismatic Juliet, and Rabbit's lonely life is upended by their intense connection and Juliet’s unpredictability. When Sarah, Rabbit's ex-best friend and Richard's current girlfriend, tells them a terrible secret warm portrait of Rebecca Stafford inside by window surrounded by plantsabout Richard and his friends, the three vow revenge. But as Juliet pushes for increasingly violent acts, Rabbit must determine her loyalties—to Juliet, to Sarah, and to herself.
That’s the long version.
The short version is: queer sad girl meets queer bad girl and they beat up sexual predators.
2. What drew you to YA to tell this story?
My characters are dealing with a lot of "firsts"—first loves, first griefs, first betrayals—so YA was a natural fit. As a teenager, you’re constantly dealing with new circumstances, and you haven't yet developed a tool kit for fixing messy situations on the fly. It's a lot of trial and error, and inevitably, you’ll make exciting, funny, dangerous, unexpectedly wonderful, and even terrifying mistakes. And as much as well-intended adults want to protect teenagers from messing up or making bad choices, it’s unavoidable. It's how we learn who we are, and who we want to be. The mistakes my characters make might be a bit "bigger" than your average teen's, but I think they are relatable.
3. What, if anything, surprised you while writing it?
There were scenes that I knew I wanted in the book from the get-go. Some were inherent in the premise, and others were intentional homages to tv and movie tropes aimed at teenagers. For example: the house party scene, the makeover scene, the scene where a character emotionally confesses their love in the rain, etc. I kept the tropes (I love a good makeover) but added my own queer spin.
Rabbit & Juliet book coverBut later in the writing process, I surprised myself by writing several lighter, more playful scenes. For example, the girls in my book attend a 4th of July fair, and while they do discuss their vengeful plans, they also get their faces painted and eat delicious, greasy fair food. They get to be ordinary girls for a breath. Scenes like these provide counterpoints to the book's heavier moments, and I'm glad they found their way to me.
4. Tell us more about the characters. Which character do you most identify with and why?
Rabbit is sarcastic, prickly, and dare I say it, unlikeable at times. She’s had so much disappointment that she can’t see any possibilities for herself. But it’s hard to be a delight when you’re going through a painful time, and trauma can make us act out in self-destructive ways. While I haven't been in her exact situation, I have leapt at the chance to escape from myself and my problems via love and risky choices.
Juliet is essentially a collection of all my worst impulses given free rein. Juliet doesn't bite her tongue, she doesn't play it safe, and she certainly doesn't pull her punches. She’s awful and I adore her. Writing her let me experience life without fear of consequences, and I had so much fun seeing what terrible, exhilarating thing she’d do next.
Sarah is the quieter of the three girls, and for a long time Rabbit doesn’t recognize her strength. She’s living in a highly religious household that she finds constraining and doesn’t know how to break free or assert herself. One of the joys of writing Sarah is her journey toward agency.
5. What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
That being angry about the injustices and harms young women face daily is not an emotional response; it's a rational one.
For readers who have lost a loved one, I hope it helps to see someone navigating those dark waters. Rabbit's grief won't look just like yours, but I'd be honored if parts of her journey spoke to you.
And, finally, that it's easy to lose yourself in love, but there's no one in the world so wonderful and alluring that their happiness should take precedence over your own.
The Rec: Finally, we love YA and recommendations—what’s your favorite YA book you've read recently?
There are so many good ones! I've been reading Neal Schusterman's "Scythe" series, which is fantastic. I also really enjoyed A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid, and I'll Give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Daniel Handler's Why We Broke Up is such a formally interesting book and I can’t stop thinking about its structure and his devotion to the idiosyncratic self.
Stafford, Rebecca RABBIT & JULIET Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins (Teen None) $19.99 9, 24 ISBN: 9780063351363
A small-town teen meets a promising new friend.
Both Sadie, who goes by the nickname "Rabbit," and her dad are mired in grief, but they're coping in different ways: Her dad's remedy is gin, while Rabbit attends group therapy. Rabbit is lonely--her sorrow over her mom's death is so all encompassing that she's alienated herself from her friends. It's summer break when Juliet, the daughter of the only movie star in Hart's Run, Georgia, turns up in her bereavement group. Rabbit is immediately bowled over by Juliet. Early in their friendship, Rabbit spots Richard, her wealthy ex, at the local diner. Without yet knowing the details of how awful Richard was, Juliet senses from Rabbit's discomfort that something troubling happened, and she slams a food tray into his face. Rather than setting off warning bells, this moment solidifies Rabbit's awe of Juliet. Told with wry humor and unfolding with a sense of impending dread, the narrative homes in on how easy it is to misplace your trust--whether in people you've known your whole life or someone shiny and new. The impact of misogyny reverberates throughout the book, which centers on girls who want to speak out but are cautious to do so. It also offers a window into the complexities of how vengeance feels while taking a hard look at the consequences of revenge. The leads are cued white.
A thrilling ride into the heart of a dangerous friendship.(Fiction. 14-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Stafford, Rebecca: RABBIT & JULIET." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A806452625/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=28d373b9. Accessed 23 Feb. 2025.