Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Gallery of Unfinished Girls
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.laurenkarcz.com/
CITY: Atlanta
STATE: GA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Atlanta, GA; married.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Has worked as an ESL teacher and a linguist.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Lauren Karcz was born and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where she lives today with her family. She calls herself a “professional language nerd,” having studied linguistics and been an ESL teacher. She has a job in the field of linguistics and writes in her spare time. She took to writing early in life, sitting on the sofa at home with her “blue binder and a mechanical pencil.” As she put it at her eponymous website: “I loved sister stories, surrealist settings, and characters who get what they need instead of what they want.” This was the genesis of her debut novel, The Gallery of Unfinished Girls.
The Gallery of Unfinished Girls follows the story of high schooler Mercedes Moreno, an artist. Mercedes finds herself suffering a creative block when her grandmother falls ill and lapses into a coma. At the same time, Mercedes falls in love with her best friend, Victoria. Her mother has left to care for her own mother in Puerto Rico, and Mercedes must look after her younger sister, Angela.
The tale soon becomes fantastical when a neighbor, Lilia Solis, tells Mercedes that she can come and paint at the Red Mangrove Estate. There she is in the company of other artists and finds herself able to create once more. She hopes to be able to match the award-winning work she created in her junior year. The oddity is that she cannot take her artwork off the Estate with her. The minute she leaves, she is cast back into her uncertain life. Elements of magical realism predominate, imparting a “dream-like quality” to Mercedes’s life, according to Kristy Rademacher, writing in Voice of Youth Advocates. Rademacher found the story a “murky read” that was “unlikely to have broad appeal.”
Caitlin Kling, critic in Booklist, called Karcz’s debut novel “bold” in its mixing of magic realism and surrealism, with “expertly executed irony” that “propels the narrative.” A contributor to Kirkus Reviews noted that while the narrative is “initially compelling, . . . this tribute to young artists ultimately underdelivers.” On the other hand, a reviewer in Publishers Weekly applauded the “mix of self-discovery, art making, and the unknown.” Faythe Arredondo, in School Library Journal, pronounced the novel a “great title that tackles death, love, creativity, growing up, and moving on.” At Teenreads, a reviewer called The Gallery of Unfinished Girls “the discovery of a girl’s self” and observed that Karcz’s writing is “impeccable.” The critic concluded: “Mercedes’s life is about having faith and making choices. Gradually, she learns that sometimes all you need to do is to choose to believe in something impossible to learn how to make the unattainable a reality.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June, 2017, Caitlin Kling, review of The Gallery of Unfinished Girls, p. 92.
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2017, review of The Gallery of Unfinished Girls.
Publishers Weekly, May 22, 2017, review of The Gallery of Unfinished Girls, p. 95.
School Library Journal, May, 2017, Faythe Arredondo, review of The Gallery of Unfinished Girls, p. 105.
Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 2017. Kristy Rademacher, review of The Gallery of Unfinished Girls, p. 73.
ONLINE
Lauren Karcz Website, https://www.laurenkarcz.com (February 1, 2018).
Teenreads, https://www.teenreads.com (July 28, 2017), review of The Gallery of Unfinished Girls.
About
LAUREN KARCZ is the debut YA author of The Gallery of Unfinished Girls, releasing July 25. 2017 from HarperCollins / HarperTeen. She's a professional language nerd, having worked as an ESL teacher, a linguist, and now as an author. Lauren lives with her family in Atlanta, Georgia.
(Psst. How is "Karcz" pronounced, you ask? Like "cars.")
Hey! How about a longer and more first-person-y bio? I always read these, don't you?
I was born in Atlanta and grew up mainly in the suburbs, where I was a quiet, dreamy kid with a big imagination and a long memory. I was the kid that teachers avoided calling on because they thought I was shy, but I was always the first to volunteer to read my creative writing assignments in front of the class. Throughout elementary and middle school, my younger sister and I dreamed up a whole world of our own, a slightly surrealistic town and school, populated with characters upon characters. We created maps and a board game for our setting, and even tried to make a poster about each character's life. These wound up wallpapering our bedrooms and the family basement before we could ever finish. Of course, as in any fictional world, some of our characters were more intriguing than others, and these were the ones I began writing about.
I wrote a lot.
Like, I envy how much I wrote when I was younger. Starting in the fifth grade, I would try to write a novel during each school year, finishing by the night before the last day of school. And then I'd write even more in the summer. I still have this one July day enshrined in my head as my Best Writing Day Ever. I was 14, and I was writing a diary-style novel with six different points of view in a big, blue, cardboard binder, on the backs of recycled class notes from the eighth grade. I woke up that morning wanting to work on that story, and so I did -- all day long, and into the night. I remember my family watched a movie during dinner (it was Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, if you must know), and I sat on a corner of the couch, with the blue binder and a mechanical pencil, still writing. I blasted through over fifty pages that day. I might not ever do that again. That's okay.
Please note I did not say I actually revised any of my writing during that time. Because I didn't.
I'd come to the end of the story, close the proverbial binder, stash it away in my closet or desk drawer, and move on to the next story. Sometimes I shared the stories with friends; sometimes I didn't. Mostly I was just playing around with words and characters, getting them into trouble and out again, occasionally throwing magic at them to see what happened, and always describing their clothes, bedrooms, food, and pets in great detail.
I was also a huge reader. I shifted between the middle grade and the small YA section of my library, reading as much as I could. I loved Judy Blume and Norma Klein, Betsy Byars and Christopher Pike. My favorite babysitter was Stacey McGill, although I was more a Mallory Pike in real life. I loved books set in New York City, and time travel books, and books about weird kids who weren't always able to save the day.
Eventually, I started sharing my work, although it was hard for me (and still is!).
I wrote a short story for my high school's literary magazine that won first place in the annual contest -- the main characters of that story just so happened to be Mercedes and Angela Moreno. A few years later, I started a blog about my life. It gained a following and I kept it up throughout college and beyond, though probably any blogger or former blogger will tell you that trying to fit your life into a narrative structure gets exhausting after a while. I switched back to fiction, did NaNoWriMo for many years, and wrote draft after draft of a YA novel that I really thought was going to work.
If you've read as many author bios as I have, maybe you know this part of the story.
That part where the author has to struggle through that first "this will get published!" novel for a while -- and then give up on it.
That part where they get rejected over and over -- whether it's by the publishing industry or the author themself.
That part where they have no choice but to move on to something new. And better.
Yeah. So I was the one rejecting me, for years. I would write a draft of my YA novel, get to the end, realize it didn't work on enough levels to be reviseable, and I'd toss the whole thing and start again. On the same story. I did this until I hit a breaking point: so many years with the same (dark) story and the same very flawed characters, and I couldn't do it anymore. I knew I wouldn't quit writing, but I needed to get as far away from that first novel as I could.
What, I asked myself, did I love?
I loved art and music and dance. I loved stories about girls, and the complicated friendships and relationships between them. I loved sister stories, surrealist settings, and characters who get what they need instead of what they want.
So I set out on a journey of art and love with Mercedes, one of my favorite characters I'd created with my sister so many years ago. Writing The Gallery of Unfinished Girls (first titled No More Blues) wasn't always easy (because Writing Is Hard), but there was so much joy in the process. After six months of drafting and a few months of revision, I signed with my agent, Victoria Marini, who sold the book in the summer of 2015 to my fabulous editor, Emilia Rhodes at HarperCollins / HarperTeen.
After more revision and rewriting and second-guessing myself and staying in love with the book despite having read it approximately 6000 times, it's so very close to being on shelves. (July 25, if you don't want to scroll up.)
I now live in midtown Atlanta with my family. I have a day job in the linguistics industry, and continue to write stories about delightfully weird teens.
Karcz, Lauren. The Gallery of Unfinished
Girls
Kristy Rademacher
Voice of Youth Advocates.
40.3 (Aug. 2017): p73.
COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
2Q * 2P * J * S
Karcz, Lauren. The Gallery of Unfinished Girls. HarperTeen, 2017. 352p. $17.99. 9780-06-246777-5.
Mercedes is an artist. At least everyone thinks so after she won last year's art competition. Yet now, she
cannot seem to create anything. Or confess to being in love with her ballerina best friend, Victoria. Or help
her beloved abuela who is in a coma. Mercedes is lost. One morning, a piano unexpectedly appears on the
doorstep, and her little sister Angela magically plays it as if she has had years of lessons. A mysterious new
neighbor, Lilia, invites Mercedes to come with her to paint in an old building called The Estate. Inside,
surrounded by fellow artists, she is able to create art again, filled with energy and creativity. But nothing
about the odd, changeable building makes sense, and the feelings stop when she leaves. Mercedes becomes
paralyzed by indecision, unable to move forward with her life, her art, her love, or her family.
This debut novel pairs the uncertainty of high school's senior year with the fragility of creating art. Magical
realism winds through the story, giving The Estate a life of its own and shrouding everything Mercedes does
in a dream-like quality. The reader never knows what is really happening or whether characters actually are
as they appear to be. Despite the multi-cultural cast, the details about art and music, and a host of positive
LGBTQA+ characters, this novel is unlikely to have broad appeal. It is a murky read with a hesitant, unsure
protagonist, and most readers will likely get bogged down in the middle, never making it to the end. For
excellent, accessible magical realism, choose Laura Ruby's Bone Gap (HarperCollins, 2015/VOYA
February 2015) or Stiefvater's Scorpio Races (Scholastic, 2011/VOYA October 2011).--Kristy Rademacher.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Rademacher, Kristy. "Karcz, Lauren. The Gallery of Unfinished Girls." Voice of Youth Advocates, Aug.
2017, p. 73. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A502000859/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3d6cd495. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A502000859
1/28/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517178337784 2/5
The Gallery of Unfinished Girls
Caitlin Kling
Booklist.
113.19-20 (June 2017): p92.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
The Gallery of Unfinished Girls. By Lauren Karcz. July 2017.352p. HarperTeen, $17.99 (9780062467775).
Gr. 9-12.
Karcz's bold debut straddles the line between magical realism and surrealism as high-school senior
Mercedes Moreno comes to terms with her identity as an individual and an artist. When Mercedes' mother
leaves to take care of Mercedes' terminally ill abuela, a piano mysteriously appears on her front yard, setting
off a bizarre chain of events. Passionate fellow artist Lilia moves in next door and introduces Mercedes to
the Red Mangrove Estate, an ephemeral building that houses artists and brings the most raw, significant
paintings out of Mercedes. Expertly executed irony propels the narrative forward as Mercedes finds
meaning and insight in her art at the estate but can't bring anything outside. Her best friend, Victoria, has
been instrumental as Mercedes struggles to accept herself as bisexual, but Mercedes still can't bring herself
to tell Victoria she's in love with her. Mercedes emerges as a fiercely independent female protagonist who
normalizes insecurity and indecision at the end of high school.--Caitlin Kling
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Kling, Caitlin. "The Gallery of Unfinished Girls." Booklist, June 2017, p. 92. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498582827/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=11f61d1a.
Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498582827
1/28/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517178337784 3/5
Karcz, Lauren: THE GALLERY OF
UNFINISHED GIRLS
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Karcz, Lauren THE GALLERY OF UNFINISHED GIRLS HarperTeen (Children's Fiction) $17.99 7, 25
ISBN: 978-0-06-246777-5
Mercedes Moreno rediscovers her muse at a mysterious, invitation-only artists' sanctuary. Latina high
school senior Mercedes is desperate to create a painting worthy of her junior-year award-winner, Food
Poisoning #1. But Food Poisoning #2 isn't coming along, and Mercedes feels blocked artistically and
personally. Recently out as bisexual, Mercedes is secretly in love with her white, dancer best friend,
Victoria. Mercedes is also stuck watching over her 14-year-old sister, Angela, while their mother is in
Puerto Rico taking care of comatose Abuela Dolores. A week after their mom's departure, a piano shows up
on the sisters' front lawn, and Lilia Solis, a beautiful artist Mercedes thinks might be Latina as well, moves
in next door. Lilia invites Mercedes to accompany her to her "studio" in the Red Mangrove Estate, a
shuttered old Sarasota beach condo, where Mercedes finds she has boundless energy to paint and meets
other artists, musicians, and photographers fulfilling their artistic dreams. The catch? Nothing created at the
Estate can be taken out of it; time inside the Estate seems to work differently; and Mercedes begins to crave
being there. Unfortunately, the execution hobbles the premise. Mercedes remains mostly unlikable despite
the first-person narration, and the dialogue comes across as affected and inauthentic, as in the way Victoria
constantly calls Mercedes "dearie" or how often the teens wax philosophical about art. Initially compelling,
this tribute to young artists ultimately underdelivers. (Magical realism. 12-17)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Karcz, Lauren: THE GALLERY OF UNFINISHED GIRLS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2017. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A493329108/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=42d58971. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A493329108
1/28/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517178337784 4/5
The Gallery of Unfinished Girls
Publishers Weekly.
264.21 (May 22, 2017): p95.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Gallery of Unfinished Girls
Lauren Karcz. HarperTeen, $17.99 (352p)
ISBN 978-0-06-246777-5
Last year, 17-year-old Mercy Moreno won the county art competition with an interpretation of salmonella;
the expectation that she'll come up with something brilliant for this year's competition is overwhelming.
Coupled with her personal dramas--she might be in love with her best friend Victoria, and her grandmother
is in a coma in Puerto Rico--Mercy wonders if she's an artistic hack. When a woman named Lilia moves in
next door and encourages Mercy to join the Estate, a dilapidated condo converted into artists' spaces, Mercy
once again feels the desire to create. Mercy is seduced by the power she feels there, but the Estate isn't
exactly what it seems. The strength of Karcz's debut novel lies in Mercy's friendship with Victoria,
relationship with her younger sister, and confusion over whether to confess her love to Victoria. Those
strands are at times overshadowed by Mercy's insecurities about her art and the magical realism of the
Estate, but the novel's mix of self-discovery, art making, and the unknown should resonate with fans of A.S.
King's work, especially Still Life with Tornado. Ages 13-up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman
Literary. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Gallery of Unfinished Girls." Publishers Weekly, 22 May 2017, p. 95. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A494099137/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=aa0d2ea6.
Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A494099137
1/28/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517178337784 5/5
Karcz, Lauren. The Gallery Of Unfinished
Girls
Faythe Arredondo
School Library Journal.
63.5 (May 2017): p105.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
KARCZ, Lauren. The Gallery of Unfinished Girls. 352p. HarperCollins/HarperTeen. Jul. 2017. Tr $17.99.
ISBN 9780062467775.
Gr 8 Up--Mercedes Moreno is an award-winning artist. But she's in a bit of a slump and is going through a
lot. Mercedes's mom just rushed to Puerto Rico to be with her comatose mother, leaving the high school
senior to take care of her 14-year-old sister, Angela. Complicating matters further, Mercedes is in love with
her best friend Victoria and everyone seems to know it except for Victoria. A week later, a piano appears on
Mercedes's front lawn. Angela falls in love and starts to play all the time. Shortly after the piano shows up,
so does a new neighbor named Lilia, and she's a painter like Mercedes. Lilia soon becomes a part of the
Moreno sisters' lives. She helps Angela, who might be a savant, on the piano. Lilia also invites Mercedes to
paint with her at the Red Mangrove Estates. It's here that Mercedes finds clarity, begins to create, and feels
inspired again. As her life continues to weigh on her, Mercedes spends more and more time at the estates
and soon realizes she can't handle living two lives: one inside the estates and another outside of them. This
is a great title that tackles death, love, creativity, growing up, and moving on. There are no tidy endings
here, but that just makes this book that is sprinkled with some magical realism more relatable. It's a good
read for fans of Natalie Standiford's How To Say Goodbye in Robot. VERDICT A strong purchase for most
libraries.--Faythe Arredondo, Tulare County Library, CA
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Arredondo, Faythe. "Karcz, Lauren. The Gallery Of Unfinished Girls." School Library Journal, May 2017,
p. 105. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491032169/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e6255d09. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491032169