SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: WE ARE THE WILDCATS
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.siobhanvivian.com/
CITY: Pittsburgh
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 335
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born January 12, 1979, in New York, NY; married Nick Caruso; children: Vivian, Marie.
EDUCATION:Philadelphia University of the Arts, B.F.A., 2001; New School University, M.F.A., 2006.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, editor, educator, and screenwriter. Alloy Entertainment, former editor; University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, professor of creative writing. Former scriptwriter for the Disney Channel; also worked on children’s programs such as Sesame Street and The Little Einsteins and for independent animation companies. Presenter at schools and libraries.
AVOCATIONS:Sewing, music, writing letters.
AWARDS:American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults listee, 2010, for Same Difference.
WRITINGS
Author of television scripts for the Disney Channel.
SIDELIGHTS
SUBMITTED IN SGML FORMAT. Siobhan Vivian is the author of books for both children and teens, all of which feature her sometimes humorous, sometimes quirky viewpoint. In Vunce upon a Time she introduces young children to a vampire whose sweet tooth prompts him to join human children in their Halloween festivities, while A Little Friendly Advice and Same Difference are written for teen readers and focus on young women learning to navigate friendships and family dramas while being true to themselves.
Vivian earned her bachelor’s degree at the Philadelphia University of the Arts in 2001 before going on to receive her master of fine arts degree from the New School University in 2006. Her first published work, a collaboration with J. Otto Siebold titled Vunce upon a Time, introduces readers to Dagmar, a vampire who loves to eat vegetables. In addition to his love of healthy foods, Dagmar loves sweets, and he is despondent when he runs out of candy. The vampire learns about the human holiday of Halloween from a skeleton friend, and he is excited to find out that, as long as he wears a costume, he will be given vast amounts of candy. Dagmar’s vampire parents, however, are skeptical; they worry that their son is too young to celebrate Halloween. Dagmar proves them wrong by making his own costume, but it is promptly eaten by zombie moths. Reviewing Vunce upon a Time, a Publishers Weekly critic described Dagmar as a compelling protagonist who “has a charming habit of turning into a bat when startled.” Although a Kirkus Reviews writer found Vivian’s plot to be perhaps too complicated for younger readers, there is “humor inherent in the premise” of a vegetarian vampire.
In A Little Friendly Advice Vivian addresses a slightly older audience than Vunce upon a Time. As the author told a Teen Book Review online interviewer, she started the novel “during my last semester at school… . David Levithan was my thesis advisor, and he helped me massage a very rough idea into a full-fledged novel. He was vital in helping me tell Ruby’s story in the best, most engaging way.” When Levithan expressed the possibility that Vivian could publish her story, she “got an agent and sold the book, unfinished, to Scholastic a few weeks later,” as she recalled to the interviewer.
A Little Friendly Advice focuses on four high-school friends. The protagonist, sixteen-year-old Ruby, was abandoned by her father at the age of six, and Ruby’s mother has never addressed the man’s departure. Close friends Beth, Katherine, and Charlie are there for Ruby whenever the teen needs support. Beth is caring and kind, but she can often be bossy when dispensing her advice, wanted or not. When Ruby’s father suddenly reappears to make amends with his daughter, her friends help her through the ordeal. Soon, however, Ruby learns that Beth has intercepted a letter to her from her father, and she is unsure how to handle the situation. Critics applauded A Little Friendly Advice , finding it a mature and riveting read. As Francisca Goldsmith noted in Booklist, the protagonist is “a compelling, evolving character who eventually comes to terms with her friends’ shortcomings.” Kliatt critic Myrna Marler recommended Vess’s novel for middle-grade readers, adding that “the contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.”
In Same Difference Vivian follows the experience of Emily, a suburban New Jersey high schooler who dreams of a career in the arts and enrolls at a summer art school located in Philadelphia. Despite her affluent existence, Emily feels like an outsider compared to her city-sophisticated yet artsy classmates until Fiona takes the suburban teen under her wing and helps Emily define her unique identity. In Booklist Heather Booth recommended Same Difference for “teens longing to break free from predefined roles,” and a Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that “the author’s talent for scene-setting and evocative imagery” in Same Difference “is especially effective.” According to a Kirkus Reviews writer, Same Difference taps the interest of many readers through its “focus … on teenage girls’ quests for identity and the consequences for their friendships.”
Described by a Kirkus Reviews as “another powerful, involving exploration of teen girls’ identities and relationships,” Not That Kind of Girl introduces Natalie Sterling, a senior at Ross Academy who lives up to her last name in her type-A approach to everything in life. With winning the student council presidency and getting admitted to her college of choice at the top of her to-do list, Natalie has no intention of becoming distracted by affairs of the heart. When she crosses paths with not one but two young men who do not appear threatened by her capable nature, she wrestles with finding an appropriate balance between competency and vulnerability. Not That Kind of Girl shows Natalie to be “both empathetic and genuine,” wrote a Publishers Weekly critic, “and her transformation is believable.” Acknowledging that high-school relationships are not always driven by hormones, Booklist critic Krista Hutley asserted that Vivian’s novel “sends a positive message about acceptance, forgiveness, and love,” while Voice of Youth Advocates critic Hilary Crew praised Not That Kind of Girl as a “thoughtful novel” about a young woman whose “traditional feminist views … are challenged.”
In The List Vivian presents what Paula J. Gallagher described as “a scathing look at popularity” in her Voice of Youth Advocates review. At Mount Washington High it is a school-wide tradition to compile a formal ranking of the prettiest and ugliest girls in each of the four grades and then post it for all to see. As the author reveals the thoughts of the eight teens who are so “honored” she places them within the context of each girl’s personal issues as well as the effort to discover exactly who it is who has made this year’s list.
Noting that The List focuses on the power of labeling people, Elissa Schappell added in her New York Times Book Review appraisal that Vivian’s novel illustrates “now cruel girls can be, but also the longtime psychological scarring they inflict on one another.” In Publishers Weekly a reviewer praised the work as both “insightful and provocative,” the critic explaining that its story “proves that beauty and ugliness aren’t always a matter of appearance.” “Teen readers will find Vivian’s breezy, easily consumable prose more than skin deep,” predicted Gallagher, while in Booklist Courtney Jones maintained that the answer to the mystery at the core of The List “will make readers think twice about their own prejudices and opinions of self.”
A collaboration with Jenny Han, Vivian’s Burn for Burn focuses on three teenagers living in an upscale community on Jar Island. Kat is dealing with nasty rumors started by former best friend Rennie, and Mary is back in town after a long absence with the intention of confronting a popular school athlete who mistreated her. Lillia, the third in the trio, hopes to protect her younger sister from Alex, a former friend whose predatory behavior has compromised the younger girl. Inspired by a classic murder-mystery scheme, the teens have never been friends: they team up in secret, vowing to help the others with their pay-back plans in exchange for services in kind. As readers learn in their three separate narrations, their schemes are effective in humiliating their intended targets until one plot goes too far.
While a Kirkus Reviews writer remarked on the large dose of “delicious bitchiness” that the coauthors serve up in Burn for Burn, a Publishers Weekly reviewer asserted that Vivian and Han’s collaborative novel “offers an atmospheric setting and enough drama to captivate readers as they decide whether revenge is ever justified.”
Fire with Fire is the second book in the “Burn for Burn” series. Lillia, Kat, and Mary are still in the mood for revenge against Reeve, even after their actions resulted in him getting a broken ankle in the first book. Lillia wants to make Reeve fall in love with her, and after he does so, she wants to leave him with no explanation, breaking his heart. This is to help Mary get over what Reeve has done to her in the past. Unfortunately, toying with emotions may have more consequences than Lillia expects. Meanwhile, Lillia and Kat are having conflict with school popular girl Rennie, a collision of personalities that has the potential to end in tragedy, and Mary’s supernatural powers seem to be increasing. Each of the three main characters “has a distinct voice, making it easy to follow the engaging story,” commented Brandy Danner in a School Library Journal review.
The third “Burn for Burn” series book, Ashes to Ashes, encompasses even more supernatural elements than the previous books. Mary comes to an abrupt realization that she is now a ghost after an attempted suicided succeeded. She is trapped on Jar Island. Lillia and Reeve have reconciled and entered into a relationship, which they try to keep secret. Even though she is now a spirit, Mary is still determined to have her revenge against Reeve. Newfound abilities as a ghost are going to help her with that plan. Now, unfortunately, she also seeks revenge against former allies Kat and Lillia, whom she believes betrayed her. “Teens who have read the first two installments will be clamoring for this conclusion,” Danner stated in another School Library Journal assessment.
A natural disaster provides a tense backdrop for Vivian’s The Last Boy and Girl in the World. In the riverside town of Aberdeen, a deadly combination of forces is threatening the entire community. The town is sinking, and expected torrential rains are likely to not just flood the town but put much of it entirely underwater. Mandatory evacuations are underway as residents are required to make critical choices for what to save but are only given a short time to make them. Keeley Hewitt is a teenage girl with a free spirit, a quick sense of humor, and most of the normal worries of a girl her age. She has long had an unrequited crush of Jesse, and she thinks she would never have a chance with him. When the rains start to fall and disaster seems imminent, however, Jesse finally notices her. Around her, friends and other high schoolers are taking their last opportunity to have a blowout before the town is gone and their opportunity is permanently lost. With the remainder of her world quickly falling apart, the stress of having a new boyfriend she thought unattainable begins to become overwhelming. “Vivian draws readers into the story effortlessly,” observed Valerie Burleigh writing in Voice of Youth Advocates. “The almost-dystopian setting of post-flood Aberdeen makes a beautifully surreal setting,” observed a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Booklist writer Maggie Reagan commented that Keeley “is a relatable heroine who will speak to teens facing their own times of transition.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June 1, 2008, Francisca Goldsmith, review of A Little Friendly Advice, p. 67; May 1, 2009, Heather Booth, review of Same Difference, p. 74; September 15, 2010, Krista Hutley, review of Not that Kind of Girl, p. 73; April 15, 2012, Courtney Jones, review of The List, p. 66; September 1, 2013, Ann Kelley, review of Fire with Fire, p. 114; March 15, 2016, Maggie Reagan, review of The Last Boy and Girl in the World, p. 59; April 1, 2018, Maggie Reagan, review of Stay Sweet, p. 79.
BookPage, April, 2020, Norah Piehl, review of We Are the Wildcats, p. 29.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, April 1, 2008, Karen Coats, review of A Little Friendly Advice, p. 357; October, 2010, Karen Coats, review of Not That Kind of Girl, p. 100.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2008, review of A Little Friendly Advice; July 15, 2008, review of Vunce upon a Time; January 15, 2009, review of Same Difference; September 1, 2010, review of Not That Kind of Girl; July 15, 2012, review of Burn for Burn; February 15, 2016, review of The Last Boy and Girl in the World; March 1, 2018, review of Stay Sweet; January 15, 2020, review of We Are the Wildcats.
Kliatt, March 1, 2008, Myrna Marler, review of A Little Friendly Advice, p. 21.
New York Times Book Review, April 8, 2012, Elissa Schappell, review of Sink or Swim.
Publishers Weekly, September 8, 2008, review of Vunce upon a Time, p. 50; March 2, 2009, review of Same Difference, p. 62; August 30, 2010, review of Not That Kind of Girl, p. 55; February 27, 2012, review of The List, p. 91; July 30, 2012, review of Burn for Burn, p. 67; February 19, 2018, review of Stay Sweet, p. 79; February 1, 2016, review of The Last Boy and Girl in the World, p. 70; December 2, 2016, review of The Last Boy and Girl in the World, p. 98; March 15, 2018, Shannon Maughan, “Q&A with Siobhan Vivian”; November 27, 2018, review of Stay Sweet, p. 77; January 27, 2020, review of We Are the Wildcats, p. 77.
School Library Journal, February 1, 2008, Julianna M. Helt, review of A Little Friendly Advice, p. 130; May, 2009, Alison Follos, review of Same Difference, p. 118; October, 2013, Brandy Danner, review of Fire with Fire, p. 122; September, 2014, Brandy Danner, review of Ashes to Ashes, p. 144; March, 2016, Anna Stover, review of The Last Boy and Girl in the World, p. 162; March, 2018, Morgan O’Reilly, review of Stay Sweet, p. 112; January, 2020, Janet Hilbun, review of We Are the Wildcats, p. 81.
Voice of Youth Advocates, December, 2010, Hilary Crew, review of Not That Kind of Girl, p. 463; June, 2012, Paula J. Gallagher, review of The List, p. 167; April, 2016, Valerie Burleigh, review of The Last Boy and Girl in the World, p. 68; April, 2018, Kristin Anderson, review of Stay Sweet, p. 67.
ONLINE
Bookends Review, http://www.thebookendsreview.com/ (January 31, 2018), Alyssa Fry, “When It Just Clicks” The Meeting of Teaching and Writing Full-Time (an Interview with Siobhan Vivian).”
Bookish Lifestyle blog, http://evie-bookish.blogspot.com/ (April 27, 2018), interview with Siobhan Vivian.
Hello Giggles, http://www.hellogiggles.com/ (August 17, 2013), Kerry Winfrey, “Fire with Fire and an Interview with Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian!”
Littsburgh, http://www.littsburgh.com/ (August 15, 2018), “Five Questions: Siobhan Vivian.”
Mind of a (Book) Dragon blog, http://mindofabookdragon.wordpress.com/ (May 20, 2016), “Q&A Friday: Author Interview—Siobhan Vivian.”
Musing, http://www.parnassusmusing.net/ (May 12, 2016), “A Town Washing Away, a Girl Growing Up: Siobhan Vivian’s Heart-Stopping Story,” interview with Siobhan Vivian.
Read.Sleep.Repeat., http://www.readsleeprepead.org/ (April 28, 2016), interview with Siobhan Vivian.
Siobhan Vivian website, http://www.siobhanvivian.com (August 15, 2018).
Teen Book Review website, http://teenbookreview.wordpress.com/ (February 28, 2008), interview with Vivian.
Teenreads.com, http://www.teenreads.com/ (October 24, 2008), interview with Vivian.*
No bio
Siobhan Vivian
USA flag (b.1979)
Siobhan Vivian, the author of A Little Friendly Advice, received her BFA in Writing for Film and Television from The University of the Arts and her MFA in Writing for Children from The New School. In 2001, she was one of only thirty-five graduates nationwide selected for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences professional mentorship program. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, and writes at her kitchen table.
Genres: Young Adult Romance, Young Adult Fiction, Romance
New Books
March 2020
(hardback)
We Are the Wildcats
Series
Burn for Burn (with Jenny Han)
1. Burn for Burn (2012)
2. Fire with Fire (2013)
3. Ashes to Ashes (2014)
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Novels
A Little Friendly Advice (2008)
Same Difference (2009)
Not That Kind Of Girl (2010)
The List (2012)
The Last Boy and Girl in the World (2016)
Stay Sweet (2018)
We Are the Wildcats (2020)
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Omnibus
The List / Same Difference / Not That Kind Of Girl (2017)
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Picture Books
Vunce Upon a Time (2008)
Q & A with Siobhan Vivian
By Shannon Maughan | Mar 15, 2018
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For her new YA novel, Stay Sweet, Siobhan Vivian serves up a blend of feminism, friendship, history, romance, work ethic, and—oh yeah—ice cream. In the book, 17-year-old Amelia, Head Girl at the all-female-run Meade Creamery, finds her true passion while navigating relationships and trying to emulate the legendary ice cream stand’s impressive founder, Molly Meade. We spoke with Vivian about the tasty research she did for the book, her high school summer job resume, and how her discovery of creative writing partly inspired the story.
What’s your favorite summary of Stay Sweet so far? How are you describing the book to people?
I think it was on my ARC that somebody called it Mystic Pizza meets The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and I thought that was such a fun ‘this meets that’ for the book. Though the connotation of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is these magical pants, the mystery and the magicalness of the pants goes away and it’s really about the relationships of the girls. And I love Mystic Pizza too. You have the great relationship between three girls working at a small business and an older woman making the pizza, who has the secret recipes, and wondering if she will pass along these recipes to the girls. I’ve kind of loved that pitch. Those are two nice comparisons to the book, I think.
To me, it’s a story about a girl falling in love with work, falling in love with the thing she wants to do. It kind of mimics my own experience discovering creative writing, feeling really adrift and then finding this thing that doesn’t feel like work in the way that I always thought work was supposed to feel. It felt just wonderful. When people, particularly my husband, see me around deadline time, unshowered after hours spent cramming to get my draft together and turned in, I’m sure from the outside I probably look like I might not be enjoying myself. But the truth is I’m so happy being at my desk chest-deep in my story trying to wade my way through. And I wanted to write about that experience.
Was that self-discovery about your passion for writing part of what sparked the idea for this book?
I think sometimes the magic of a book coming together is like several experiences dovetailing under the umbrella of the story. But the real impetus of this book came to me following a library visit in rural Ohio. As I was leaving, some of the kids there told me, “You should make sure to hit the ice cream stand down the road. It’s really great, the spot in town.” So, yeah, of course, I’m definitely doing that! I traveled a bit down the road and there was this roadside stand with not much around it, except some picnic tables. And there’s a line, even though it’s kind of an off time, maybe 2 pm on a Saturday afternoon. I get up to the window and there are all these girls working in the pit of the ice cream stand making their cones. It’s a really small space but they’re almost like dancers, gracefully moving about the stand with cones and getting the job done.
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However, I did notice that the girl who was helping me was wearing a t-shirt, like a uniform, that said, “Hot Fudge Hotties.” And I thought, that’s weird; that’s kind of a strange saying. And so I asked her, ‘What’s the deal with the t-shirt?’ She sort of rolled her eyes at me and thumbed towards the back of the stand, where I saw a young man, probably college-age, on the phone with his feet kicked up on the desk, like the lord of the castle, and he wasn’t wearing the shirt, he wasn’t a hot fudge hottie. So I just took my cone and went and sat at the picnic table, and from that experience, this thing just started to pop inside me like popcorn, all different kinds of ideas about what that meant, what that kind of workplace would be like. Here are these girls working so hard but they have these shirts on that are demeaning, and here’s this guy looking like the alpha male with all these girls in his charge.
This thing really festered and sat inside me. And during recent times, certainly during this past [presidential] election, while watching women really come into their own as leaders, all that started to percolate in there too. It kind of became this perfect storm of issues of female empowerment and girls being strong with other girls. How do you manage your peers? How do you remain likeable while being a manager? All of this was churning together when I sat down to write the book.
Your books have been critically lauded for their portrayals of realistic, strong girls. Have you always seen yourself that way? And, how does it feel to be a champion of feminism when, in many ways, women are having a moment, their voices re-invigorated?
As an extroverted person, I am oftentimes one of the loudest voices in the room. That said, I really struggle with my peers and wanting to maintain likeability, and I have some trouble with confidence or projecting myself as somebody who is a leader or in charge. I often default to jokester, or a person who doesn’t take herself seriously and I like to disarm people sometimes in that way. And I recognize that that is not necessarily putting me in a position of strength. I read an article in the New York Times a couple of years ago about a leadership academy where girls can go and act out ways to project confidence, because oftentimes confidence comes off as being unlikeable. What a trap that is. There were girls in this article who were saying, “we don’t like to be picked to manage a project at school because delegating work to our peers makes us come off like we’re mean.” And I thought, oh my gosh, how difficult it could be to be a strong woman, a woman who’s in charge, if you feel like you can’t execute basic responsibilities of leadership. That somehow makes you fear being unlikeable, just having expectations of people. God forbid somebody doesn’t live up to those expectations. Then what do you do?
Personally speaking, this is something I have struggled with and continue to struggle with, and seeing that it’s something that contemporary teens are struggling with, it sets up a difficult path to success, for women to really embrace roles of leadership. Certainly that question of likeability came out plenty during the election, with a woman who was arguably the most prepared, experienced candidate. Her articulating that success, and being comfortable with that success was judged—women included in that—as unlikeable. That is really sticky for the future. We need to be talking about that more.
You’re a mom and your daughters are still very young. But are there any ways that you consciously think about addressing these issues with them?
It is something I think about. It’s sort of half fixing my own issues with it. How can I model this behavior for my daughters if some of these things are things that I struggle with? I can see that my younger daughter, especially, is praise-driven in a way that I am, and I can see down the line where that sort of thing can become an impediment to being self-possessed, being self-motivated, being strong. My hope is that I get to address those shortcomings in myself and in tandem try to steer my daughters toward a stronger, more self-possessed place.
What kind of summer jobs did you have when you were a teenager? Did any of those experiences make their way into Amelia’s story?
My very first job in high school, I worked for a local pharmacy. It was kind of in the waning days where a mom-and-pop shop could survive. The Rite-Aids and the Walgreens hadn’t moved in so hard into our town. It was a very small store that had once had a soda counter that was then repurposed into storage. And I always liked the idea that this place had been around for a long time and you could see that history in the space.
And then, after that, I worked all through high school and into my college years at my local Pier 1 Imports. It sounds so funny, but we had such a cool crew of young people who worked there and we got along so well. I would work the early shift, the stock shift, to unload the trucks. It was 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and we were sort of left to our own devices. We worked really hard but we also had so much fun. I remember one time where we expected a large truck to come and we unloaded it so quickly that the five of us ended up climbing into the pillow wall until the store opened for the day. This is many, many years ago now but I’m still really friendly with the five people I used to work that shift with.
In addition to sharing behind-the-scenes information about the ice cream world in your book, you include [ice cream stand founder] Molly’s diary entries from her business’s earliest days during WWII. What kind of research did you do?
In the ice cream half of that question, Pittsburgh [where Vivian lives] has two very well-known ice cream artisans here. There are two women who own a small business called Leona’s, and they make ice cream sandwiches. And we have Millie’s, which is more of an ice cream scoop shop. I reached out to both of them and both were incredibly generous with time and access, and answering my questions. I got to go into the production facilities of both of these ice cream makers and watch them do their stuff. At Leona’s, they do everything they need to do with one big Emery Thompson ice cream machine and it’s really astounding to me that you could have such a small footprint and have such incredible output. I got to sit there in the factory space watching them make ice cream and have them talk to me about what happens if you do this or that, how things can go wrong, what the machinery looks like. They take it very seriously. The ladies at Leona’s went through the Penn State ice cream program which is super rigorous and I wanted to get in the weeds with them. They really helped me with unwrapping what Molly’s secret recipe could be in the book. We talked about things that we could flavor ice cream with if sugar wasn’t available [due to wartime rations, for example]. Just to have them as a sounding board for that was incredible and a real gift to the writing process, because certainly, those details I wanted to get right. And they definitely made that possible.
With the historical stuff, that had really evolved from draft one of this book. When I decided that I wanted to do a deep dive into the story of a woman [from Molly’s era] also struggling to have her aspirations taken seriously, it felt like a nice counterpoint to the modern-day story, and was also a way to look at—how far have we really come? The first person I reached out to was Judy Blundell, who won the National Book Award and has written a lot of historical fiction. And I said to her, “You know, I only remember half of my history lessons from high school, where do I start with this?” She suggested tuning in to Turner Classic Movies to get the cadence down of the speech of the time, and, she said, you can find magazines from that time period, and those are really helpful too. I went on to eBay and started digging around and [found] these Seventeen magazines from the time of WWII. I ordered seven of them and started to flip through them and they were amazing.
The war is so central to everything—this idea that the boys are off, and the war is going on, and times are different, and it’s good to be a patriot. The lipsticks from the time are named things like Victory and Winning Red. Then you also have this awakening of women at the time about what they might want to do and what things are important to them counterbalanced against advertisements for wedding dresses—which is unbelievable to think that Seventeen magazine would have advertisements for wedding gowns! It was so remarkable. And there was even discussion of race relations then. I remember reading a letter to the editor that was written by a woman who said, “I don’t think you paid enough attention to the girl who won the contest that you featured because she is black. And I’m writing an upset letter to the editor to say that.” The activism and awakening that was happening during this time seemed unreal. It was a treasure trove for me. I would sit and read these things cover to cover and would find so much that I wanted to use.
There’s also some romance going on in Stay Sweet, too. Did you enjoy writing that?
I had a lot of fun with this romance and I think one of the reasons is that I wanted my main character, Amelia, to really blossom in the love of her work and the love of figuring out that this is something that she loves. And it was nice to have a character react to that change in her, watching her come into her own, and find that so incredibly attractive. That was balanced against Amelia, who was feeling, well, yes, there is this really cute boy in the room and she likes being around him and thinks that he’s smart. The real love is figuring out what she wants to do and realizing that she’s good at it, and it clicks for her. I almost feel like I got to write two love stories, and that felt great.
What kinds of things will you be doing to promote the book? Will you be hitting the road?
Yes. I’ll be going out on a national tour just before the book comes out for a full week of stops. And every event is going to feature ice cream or sweets of some kind. My Pittsburgh event is going to have an ice cream truck parked out in front of the bookstore [White Whale Bookshop], and at my New York event I’m having a full-service sundae bar [with ice cream from Brooklyn’s Ample Hills Creamery] at the bookstore [Books Are Magic]. We’re really trying to take the theme and run with it, all while supporting local businesses.
And, finally, I have to ask: What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Easy. I always go coffee ice cream, chocolate sprinkles. And a sugar cone; sugar cones are my favorite. That’s my go-to.
Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian. Simon & Schuster, $17.99 Apr. ISBN 978-1-4814-5232-8
Siobhan Vivian is the author of the young adult novel We Are the Wildcats, as well as Stay Sweet, The Last Boy and Girl in the World, The List, Not That Kind of Girl, Same Difference, A Little Friendly Advice, and the Burn for Burn trilogy, cowritten with Jenny Han. A former editor for Alloy Entertainment, she received her MFA in creative writing at the New School. She teaches creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh. Visit her at SiobhanVivian.com.
Siobhan Vivian
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Siobhan Vivian
Vivian at the 2016 Texas Book Festival
Vivian at the 2016 Texas Book Festival
Born Siobhan Vivian
January 12, 1979 (age 41)
New York City,
United States
Occupation Novelist
Nationality American
Period 2008–present
Genre Realistic fiction
Subject Young adult literature
Children 2
Website
www.siobhanvivian.com
Siobhan Vivian (born January 12, 1979) is a bestselling American novelist, editor, and screenwriter.
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 Bibliography
5 References
6 External links
Early life and education
Siobhan Vivian was born in New York City on January 12, 1979. At a young age, Vivian moved to Rutherford, New Jersey where she went to school and often got in trouble for sneaking out and not doing her homework.[1] A 1997 graduate of Rutherford High School, Vivian has used her childhood in Rutherford as a "deep well" of ideas for her work.[2]
Vivian moved to Philadelphia after high school where she attended the University of the Arts and graduated in 2001 with a degree in Writing for Film and Television.[3] Vivian then moved back to New York City where she earned an MFA in Creative Writing: Children's Literature from The New School.[4] It was while in graduate school that Vivian met fellow authors Morgan Matson and Jenny Han,[5] the latter of which she would go on to cowrite the Burn for Burn Trilogy with.[6]
Career
After college, Vivian worked as an editor at Alloy Entertainment where she worked on a number of New York Times Bestselling Series and also was the screenwriter for Playhouse Disney's Little Einsteins.[7]
In 2008, Vivian's first book, A Little Friendly Advice, was released and was shortly followed by a picture book she cowrote with J. Otto Seibold titled Vunce Upon A Time. Vivian's next book, Same Difference, which was published in 2009, garnered Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year as well as 2012 ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults. Both of these awards were also awarded to her next book, Not That Kind of Girl, along with a Caroline W. Field Award Nomination. Her most recent solo book, The List, inspired by true events at a high school in New Jersey, was published in 2012 and earned the ALA 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults, was a Junior Library Guild Selection,[8] and was a best seller in France. The novel was also optioned by MTV with Stephen Chbosky as executive producer. All of Vivian's individually written books were published by Push, an imprint of Scholastic.[9]
In 2012, Vivian also published Burn for Burn the first book in the Burn for Burn Trilogy with fellow young adult author, Jenny Han. The following two books were published each following year. Vivian's most recent novel, The Last Boy and Girl in the World, was released in April 2016.[10]
In the June 19, 2016 edition of the New York Times Book Review, Vivian placed at number 2 in the Young Adult E-book category for The List.[11]
In November 2019, Vivian participated in the harassment and abuse of Brooke Nelson, a college student who was mentioned in her local newspaper as saying she thought that author Sarah Dessen's YA novels were not suitable for the Common Read program run by Northern State University, Aberdeen. [12][13] When the story was reported in Jezebel [14], The Guardian [15], the Washington Post [16], and Slate [17], Vivian reportedly regretted her actions.[18]
Personal life
She currently resides in the Highland Park neighborhood of Pittsburgh[19] with her husband, designer Nick Caruso, and their daughters, Vivian[20] (born 2013)[6] and Marie (born 2015).[21] Additionally, Vivian is a professor of creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.[22]
Bibliography
2008 – A Little Friendly Advice
2008 – Vunce Upon A Time (with J. Otto Seibold)
2009 – Same Difference
2010 – Not that Kind of Girl
2012 – The List
2012 – Burn for Burn (Burn for Burn, #1) (with Jenny Han)
2013 – Fire with Fire (Burn for Burn, #2) (with Jenny Han)
2014 – Ashes to Ashes (Burn for Burn, #3) (with Jenny Han)
2016 – The Last Boy and Girl in the World
when it just clicks: the meeting of teaching and writing full-time (an interview w/ siobhan vivian)
By Alyssa Fry
Posted on January 31, 2018
Siobhan Vivian
Siobhan Vivian is the award-winning author of 2016’s The Last Boy and Girl in the World, 2012’s The List, and the trilogy of novels, Burn for Burn, which she co-wrote with Jenny Han. She graduated from the University of the Arts with a degree in Writing for Film and Television and received her MFA in Creative Writing: Children’s Literature from The New School in NYC. She was an editor at Alloy Entertainment and was a scriptwriter for The Disney Channel. Siobhan currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA, and teaches a Writing Youth Literature course at the University of Pittsburgh.
What was the first story you ever wrote?
It was a piece I had written to get into undergrad. I had done a little creative writing in high school because someone told me the [creative writing] class was easy. I was a terrible student in high school—basically, I was directionless. I took this class and loved it. I felt like, “This is work? This is fun!” And I was getting praise, which I had never really gotten before from high school teachers. So, when my teacher said to me, “You know, there are universities where you can basically go for writing and do what we’re doing in class,” it blew my mind. I did a little research and I ended up applying for two schools. And I did a short story and it was the first thing I ever wrote.
So, what was it about?
It was about me losing a scrabble game to my high-school-drop-out boyfriend and feeling very indignant about my loss.
It was fiction?
It was fictionalized. Mostly, it was a true story. It was funny that [my fictionalized self] ended up being a Young-Adult character. It was right there from the beginning.
So it was natural, writing YA?
My voice just lends itself well to that audience. The media I consume is mostly teen media. Growing up, I watched every episode of Saved By the Bell 150 times. It was the stuff I enjoyed, so it just felt like a good fit for me.
What was your favorite book as a child?
I loved reading as a younger kid, and then I didn’t. I did not enjoy the books that were put in front of me in high school. I read very little. What I did enjoy were magazines. I loved Sassy magazine, which was a sort of 90’s hip, kind of irreverent, teen-girl-focused magazine. People to this day are still obsessed with Sassy magazine, and it’s long defunct. They wrote with such an interesting, very smart, YA voice, so I gobbled it up. Books weren’t really clicking for me in high school.
Was that the period of reading all the Classics?
I remember taking a class called “Great Books,” and it was little bits of the classics. We would have roundtable discussions in class and I really enjoyed that, but it didn’t move me or connect with me on a level that made me like, “ooh, this is writing, I like to write, could I do something like this?” It felt so foreign. But, the other stuff really felt like it was touching my soul. This is my voice, this was written just for me. That was my connection. I’m a big believer in when you have the “click,” follow the click. Looking back, it’s so clear what I was into and how it led me to where I am.
What was the best advice you received as an aspiring author?
“Finish something.” Many people who I have met along the way are incredible talents. and they get in their own way and stop themselves. [They might] need a thing to be perfect before they finish it, and then they never publish anything and give up. Once you finish something, you have something you can share with people. You can get an agent, try to submit it. It takes a butt in the chair, and you have to hate yourself a lot, and not know what you’re doing and be okay with that. Fight your way through to the end.
What was your first rejection?
I was never rejected. I sort have been on a ridiculous streak.
And your first acceptance?
I sold my senior thesis in Grad School, and I didn’t really even have to do anything for that. My thesis advisor, David Levithan, who is also a writer, was a VP at Scholastic, and he basically called me the day before graduation and was like, “I wanna buy your book.” So, it was really quite smooth.
What was your senior thesis on?
It was my first book “A Little Friendly Advice.” And that was 10 years ago this year that I sold it.
How was your time with Disney?
Before I knew that I wanted to write books, I worked in kids’ television. I worked for Sesame Street, several independent animation companies, and my last job before moving into the book-world was at Disney, where I helped develop the preschool programming for the Disney Channel. Then, later, I had the opportunity to write for The Little Einsteins, which was really fun. I like writing screenplays, I like writing for TV. I enjoyed doing that, but the stories and characters that really come to me are more on the upper-end of YA. I shifted gears and left my career in TV and started looking into books.
What led you to teach a class at Pitt?
I was living in NY, working fulltime as an author, and I met my husband there. He was from Pittsburgh, so we decided to move here. I had no friends, I didn’t know anyone, so I did a little bit of research and saw that Pitt had this Children’s Literature Certificate program. I shot the woman who ran it, Marah Gubar, an email, thinking they might want to have me as a guest to talk about writing. I looked at the class list and it was a lot of studies of the classics, not really where I’m coming from. But, they might like talking to a real author. I also did publishing for several years and I missed that, so I thought I could talk about that.
Maura wrote me back that they’d always wanted a creative-writing component to the Certificate program, and she asked, “Would you be interested in doing that?” And I thought, “Totally!” because I always loved work-shopping. Like, I miss being an editor, picking apart somebody’s book, and helping them put it back together. I miss creating with people like that—taking something raw and helping someone execute their vision. That was 7-8 years ago. I only come on Wednesdays; I don’t really know anyone. I do my own thing here and I love it. I always have interesting, super-passionate kids who come into my class and want to write, and this is what they’re interested in. I’m really geeky about it. I just feel really lucky. It’s really my cup of tea.
Do you have any funny teaching memories or stories?
I was very unsupervised. It was like, “Here’s the Cathedral of Learning, you will have an office here and you will teach this class.” And then they left me to my own devices, which was wonderful and nerve-wracking. I was so nervous my first semester. I think I went my first round of workshopping and never gave anyone a grade. I forgot, so I was like, “alright, you’re all getting As!”
How does teaching fit into your writing schedule?
It’s tough. Especially when I’m first-drafting, I can be a lot more flexible with my work day. I’m able to do most of my schoolwork for class on Wednesdays. My whole work schedule has evolved a lot in the last four years because I’ve had kids. I haven’t been able to just work all night and catch up. This book has been a bit painful to deliver on time. I try to be present as much as I can for my kids, but I’m staring down work schedules that might go until two or three in the morning [during the revision stage].
Do you have any advice for aspiring readers who might want to write and publish books, but work other jobs?
You just have to be really protective over your writing time. This is a challenge that I am facing now, so here I am: an author, writing is my full-time job, my only job. I sort of do [the class at Pitt] just for fun. I have life obligations, I have kids, I have a husband, but you have to be really firm. I’m waking up every day one hour earlier and I sit down and I just write for an hour. I can’t let anything intrude upon that time. So, I can’t just hit the snooze button, or go to bed late the night before, cause that’ll just screw me up. Unless you’re really protective of the time you want to dedicate to writing, it’s not gonna happen.
What do you do after that one hour?
You keep going. If it’s something that’s important to you, something you enjoy doing, you’ll make time for it. Then the next thing is to finish something.
Are you working on anything currently?
It’s called “Stay Sweet,” and it is coming out in next April, from Simon & Shuster. It is sort of a teen-workplace comedy about an all-female-run ice cream parlor. It’s very feminist and summer-y. I’m examining the pressures girls face to be likable and how to be a leader and have expectations, and ask people for stuff with conviction. Girls growing into leadership positions and managing other girls.
It feels very timely.
Yes. There’s also a boy who comes in, sort of a young, Trumpian, know-it-all who comes in and wants to change the way things have been run. And the girls are gonna get to take him down. It’s very cathartic to work on that one.
– alyssa fry
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Posted on September 20, 2019
Author Interview: Siobhan Vivian on Stay Sweet
Posted on September 20, 2019
Stay Sweet was a surprise favorite for me when I picked it up this summer. I knew I would enjoy this story about friends, ice cream, and change but I didn’t expect to fall in love with Amelia as she navigated the murky waters of her last summer before college and figuring out what comes next. Today I’m thrilled to have Siobhan Vivian answering a few questions about her latest novel.
Miss Print (MP): Can you tell me a bit about your path as a writer? How did you get to this point?
Siobhan Vivian (SV): I started my career working in children’s television. Part of my job was to scout for picture books that might make good cartoons. I would receive publishing catalogs from all the major houses and found myself gravitating towards the back pages, where the YA book descriptions were listed. This was when YA novels were just beginning to explode on the scene. And I became totally hooked.
MP: What was the inspiration for Stay Sweet?
SV: It was inspired by a lot of things, but the impetus for the idea came from an actual ice cream stand I visited years ago, called Durbin’s Magic Freeze in Barberton, OH.
MP: In addition to following Amelia’s story, you include excerpts from Molly Meade’s diary as she first starts what will become Meade Creamery. Did you always know that you’d be telling Molly’s story as part of the plot for this book? How did you decide what details to share?
SV: I didn’t initially. It wasn’t until I started researching the history behind the ice cream stand I mentioned above that Molly’s story began to appear. I went online and bought a bunch of Seventeen magazines from the 1940s and things really caught fire. It was incredible to me how young girls who showed career ambitions—then and now—struggled with many of the same issues.
MP: Do you have a favorite scene or a scene you are excited for readers to discover?
SV: I love the moment when Amelia discovers Molly’s story and starts diving into the past.
MP: One of the things I loved about Stay Sweet is the thread of friendship that runs through the story as Amelia and Cate navigate their last summer together before college. What are some of your favorite fictional frienships?
SV: I have so so many. I guess my all-time favorite would be Anne and Diana from Anne of Green Gables. I loved how different they were—personality wise—and how deeply they loved each other.
MP: Can you tell me anything about your next project?
SV: Yes! I am thrilled to say that my new novel, We are the Wildcats, is coming out this spring. It’s a 24-hour clock and the story unfolds over multiple narrators, much like a book I wrote called The List. It’s a bit of a mystery, with a ton of tension and suspense unfolding over one wild night, and the deep friendships shared between a group of girls sits front and center. I love it so much.
MP: Do you have any advice to offer aspiring authors?
SV: Get used to feeling uncomfortable. There is a always a point when a project feels terrible, when you don’t know what you’re doing, when you think your book sucks, and you want to give up on it. It happens to everyone. But you can’t let those feelings stop you. You have to keep pushing through and trust that you’ll find your way.
—
Vivian, Siobhan WE ARE THE WILDCATS Simon & Schuster (Young Adult Fiction) $18.99 3, 31 ISBN: 978-1-5344-3990-0
"The girls who played varsity last season each still nurse a secret wound, the thinnest of scabs capping a mountain of scar tissue."
The intense pressure that Coach exerts on these former field hockey champions is far less than what they place on themselves. They are tormented by last season's championship loss: Ali and Kearson choked; Mel, the leading scorer, didn't score at all; and Phoebe limped off the field. This year, the West Essex Wildcats--including new members Grace and Luci--are willing to give up romance, free time, and family for the privilege of being a Wildcat. At sleepovers before weekend games the girls enjoy dinner, movies, and bonding, but on this night, the first before the new season, devastating secrets are revealed. Anyone who raised a high school championship trophy--or dreams of doing so--will find Vivian's (Stay Sweet, 2018, etc.) book powerfully familiar and sink deeply into this juicy read. The writing is both poetic and blunt, just like the badass Wildcats. The pace may frustrate--it takes a while to grasp that the book is not about the season but a series of perspectives and shocking reveals over the course of one long night. The end, while satisfying, lacks sophistication. Most main characters are white; Ali is Korean American, and Luci is Argentinian and white American.
A fresh, beautifully written look at high school sports that sparkles with strong female athletes. (Fiction. 12-16)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Vivian, Siobhan: WE ARE THE WILDCATS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2020. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A611140170/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=423477ba. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.
Vivian, Siobhan. Stay Sweet. Simon 8c Schuster, April 2018. 368p. $17.99. 978-14814-5232-8.
Amelia is about to head off to college, but before she leaves, she has one more summer to work at the local ice cream stand. Meade Creamery hires two new girls every year and they come back, summer after summer, until they graduate and leave town for college. This is Amelia's year to be head girl. She is not sure why she was selected over her best friend, Cate. She is excited for the summer until she finds the dead body of Molly Meade on the floor of the stand and realizes this is not going to be the summer she expected. A handsome college sophomore, Grady, has inherited the stand and he wants to make some changes. As one might expect, romance and discord between best friends ensues.
The author's decision to set the story against the backdrop of Molly Meade's origin story helps this summer romance rise above the standard beach read. Molly started the stand during World War II while her fiance was overseas, and Molly's emotional journey parallels Amelia's as the young women both discover themselves over the course of the summer. Unfortunately, the romantic lead's characterization is thin. His set up is the classic too-good-to-be-true trope, so the final decision about Amelia and Grady's romance is somewhat disappointing. That said, this is the kind of light summer read that will appeal to readers who want purely happy endings in their contemporary realistic fiction.--Kristin Anderson.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Anderson, Kristin. "Vivian, Siobhan. Stay Sweet." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 41, no. 1, Apr. 2018, p. 67. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A536746183/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4bf071ef. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.
Vivian, Siobhan STAY SWEET Simon & Schuster (Young Adult Fiction) $17.99 4, 24 ISBN: 978-1-4814-5232-8
Meade Creamery opened for business in 1945, and after the owner's unexpected death, Amelia is determined to keep this local institution going--if she can.
Molly Meade began selling ice cream in the small holiday town of Sand Lake, employing only local girls. When Grady Meade, age 19, the great-nephew to whom Molly's left the Creamery, arrives to run the business, Amelia's at first thrilled. (His good looks don't hurt.) A business major guided by his tycoon father, Grady plans big changes--profits are too small, salaries too high, the location could be better. Dismayed and alarmed, Amelia--usually deferential--resists, realizing that Grady needs her hands-on experience to run the Creamery successfully. As their partnership and mutual attraction grow, Grady's dad pushes him to maximize profits. Meanwhile her growing commitment to the business distances Amelia from her best friend and fellow employees. All major characters are white. A meandering start and focus on Creamery minutiae slow the narrative, but patient readers are rewarded with a rare, enjoyable portrait of a woman-run business. Operations and decision-making detailed include the stash of PMS tea and tampons in the office and the intricacies of allocating bathroom cleanup.
Amelia possesses the qualities she needs to achieve her goals but, like many girls, lacks confidence in using them; watching her evolve is empowering. (Fiction. 12-16)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
"Vivian, Siobhan: STAY SWEET." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A528959771/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=68560d99. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.
VIVIAN, Siobhan. We Are the Wildcats. 352p. S. & S. Mar. 2020. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781534439900.
Gr 8 Up--Last year the Wildcats, the varsity field hockey team, had a winning season, until they lost the state finals for the first time in years. The night before the first game of the new season, the team holds the traditional sleepover to forge friendship and trust, but this year Coach interferes. Coach, a former Olympic-hopeful player, enlists new team member and youngest player Luci to keep him apprised of the team's activities. Grace dyes her hair blue to show her team spirit and try to fit in. Ali, who blames herself for the championship loss, is uncomfortable with the other girls. Phoebe, whose injury kept her from helping the team win, tries to hide the pain from her knee surgery. And Mel, the player closest to Coach, tries to make the night like every other, despite things that keep going awry. Secretly maneuvered by Coach, tire girls find themselves kidnapping the other team's mascot and ultimately sharing secrets that take them all by surprise. The ending plot twist, the strong female characters, and the solid writing make this a hard-to-put-down read with appeal even for those who are not sports fans. Vivian's development of plot by using the perspectives of multiple characters keeps the narrative moving at a steady pace. The characters are both flawed and likable, and tire bond that develops among them is realistic. VERDICT A first purchase with lots of appeal, both for athletes and readers on the sideline.--Janet Hilbun, University of North Texas, Denton
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Source Citation
MLA 8th Edition APA 6th Edition Chicago 17th Edition
Hilbun, Janet. "VIVIAN, Siobhan. We Are the Wildcats." School Library Journal, vol. 66, no. 1, Jan. 2020, p. 81+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A610418474/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=89ce7bd7. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.