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WORK TITLE: Another Place You’ve Never Been
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.rebeccakauffman.net/
CITY: Shenandoah Valley
STATE: VA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in OH.
EDUCATION:Manhattan School of Music, B.A.; New York University, M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Has worked as a teacher and in restaurants.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Rebecca Kauffman is a writer based in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in violin performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Kauffman went on to study creative writing at New York University, from which she earned a master of fine arts degree. She has worked as a teacher and in restaurants.
In 2016 Kauffman released her first book, Another Place You’ve Never Been: A Novel. According to a writer on the Kirkus Reviews Web site, “Debut author Kauffman examines the lives of working-class characters connected to Buffalo, New York, in a novel of loosely linked stories.” A variety of narrators tell the stories in the book. Some of them only figure into the stories in a minor way. A disgruntled girlfriend observes her boyfriend’s daughter, Tracy, in the first story in the book. Tracy, the novel’s protagonist, has come to spend the summer with her father near Lake Michigan. Her father has been subsisting on checks from the government for his disability. In the next story, Tracy returns. She is now thirteen years old and is having a sleepover with her friends. Tracy is seen as being the rebellious one in the group. She is an adult in another story in which she has an embarrassing interaction with her cousin and his girlfriend while at a hotel. Later, she is working as a hostess at a restaurant in Buffalo, New York. Tracy and Greenie, one of her coworkers, develop an attraction for one another and begin dating. Their relationship is turbulent, and they break up often. Greenie finally breaks up with Tracy and moves to New Jersey to work at a new job. Other characters include a father who takes his son to Sea World. While watching the Shamu show, the son hugs his father, and the father feels severe anxiety. The father feels more relaxed later, while eating banana bread and listening to the crickets. He vows to become a better person. Native American characters, including a Two-Spirit, or Ojibwa, character appear in the stories. They show little emotion and only speak on occasion. One of the later stories finds Tracy as an adult speaking with her father. Her father tells her that he has cancer and that his death is imminent.
In an interview on the Nervous Breakdown Web site, Kauffman discussed the difficult parts of writing the book. She stated: “One specific challenge that I faced with this book was how to use coincidence to bring characters together without it being too distracting or implausible.” In the same interview, she offered a short summary of the novel’s plot, remarking: “It’s about a little girl who desperately wants someone to take her fishing. It’s about the woman she becomes, and the resilience of love; how much it can endure.” Kauffman commented on how she developed the characters in the book in an interview with Deborah Kalb on the Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb Web site. She stated: “For me, characters almost always rise from a singular moment or gesture before the broader strokes (backstory, motivations, personality, etc.) emerge. For example, Tracy was sitting at a computer manipulating the results of her own job aptitude test before she had a name or an age or a hair color. Marty was walking the beaches of Lake Michigan with a metal detector before he had a daughter or a cancer diagnosis.”
Reviews of Another Place You’ve Never Been were favorable. Faye Chadwell, a critic in Library Journal, asserted: “This is an accomplished debut—at times emotionally gritty but always emotionally true.” Similarly, a Publishers Weekly contributor described the book as “an undeniably moving and emotionally true portrayal of the kitchen sink of human experience.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Library Journal, November 15, 2016, Faye Chadwell, review of Another Place You’ve Never Been, p. 78.
Publishers Weekly, August 1, 2016, review of Another Place You’ve Never Been, p. 44.
ONLINE
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, http://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (October 25, 2016), Deborah Kalb, author interview.
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (July 19, 2016), review of Another Place You’ve Never Been.
Nervous Breakdown, http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/ (October 25, 2016), author interview.
Rebecca Kauffman Home Page, http://www.rebeccakauffman.net (May 12, 2017).
Soft Skull Press Web site, http://softskull.com/ (May 12, 2017), author profile.*
REBECCA KAUFFMAN
Rebecca Kauffman credit Rachel Herr
REBECCA KAUFFMAN is originally from rural northeastern Ohio. She eventually moved to New York City, where she received her MFA in Creative Writing. In the years since, she has worked primarily in restaurants and intermittently as a teacher. She currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
She is the author of:
Another Place You’ve Never Been: A Novel
REBECCA KAUFFMAN is originally from rural northeastern Ohio. She received her B.A. from the Manhattan School of Music in Violin Performance, and her MFA in Creative Writing from NYU. In the years since, she has worked primarily in restaurants and intermittently as a teacher. She currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
QUOTED: "One specific challenge that I faced with this book was how to use coincidence to bring characters together without it being too distracting or implausible."
"It’s about a little girl who desperately wants someone to take her fishing. It’s about the woman she becomes, and the resilience of love; how much it can endure."
Rebecca Kauffman: The TNB Self-Interview
By TNB Fiction
October 25, 2016
Fiction Self-Interviews
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What is a favorite story you would recommend to everyone?
“Honey Pie” by Haruki Murakami. Oh, it just crushed me.
I think this is the best possible experience a person can have with fiction – to be crushed by it. Or maybe “tenderized” is a better word for this.
What is the most challenging part of writing a book?
I like this quote by E.L. Doctorow: “Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re writing is not writing. Writing is writing.” To sort of echo this idea, for me the most challenging part of writing is just doing it. Writing is incredibly frustrating a lot of the time, so making the daily choice to do it instead of doing anything else is the great and ongoing challenge.
One specific challenge that I faced with this book was how to use coincidence to bring characters together without it being too distracting or implausible. Around the time this had me stopped-up, I was reading something unrelated and encountered the “Birthday Paradox” – which states that in a room of only 23 people, there is a 50% likelihood that two of those people will share the same birthday. In a room of 70 people, that likelihood is over 99.9%. Isn’t that incredible? I know nothing of math, so had to stare at the explanation for this statistic for a while to understand (vaguely) that it’s true, and why it’s true. And although it didn’t relate directly to my work, this line of thought about probability and the “overlap” of people helped me push through my misgivings about writing coincidence.
What is the easiest part of writing a book?
Cutting! When the editors at Counterpoint read my manuscript, they suggested that I basically chop the book in half in terms of length. The idea of this pained me at first, but once I re-imagined the book with only the chapters they thought were essential, I came to a much deeper understanding of it. Cutting is exhilarating and almost always the right choice in my experience, whether it’s an adverb or an entire subplot.
Have you always been a writer?
I wrote a lot when I was very young, then not at all for many years, and I started up again in my mid/late twenties. So no, I wouldn’t say I have always been a writer, but I have always had an unnatural (or so it would seem) curiosity about other people’s lives, and I think the two go hand in hand.
What is Another Place You’ve Never Been about?
Kelly Winton, the brilliant artist who designed the cover of the book, provided me with a great answer to this hard question: it’s about a little girl who desperately wants someone to take her fishing.
It’s about the woman she becomes, and the resilience of love; how much it can endure.
Any words about the excerpt?
I don’t think much context is necessary except to know that Tracy has arrived at this place because she was driving in heavy snow, her truck slid into a ditch, and she is seeking help at the nearest home. As far as Tracy and Charlie are aware, this is the first they have ever encountered one another, however the reader knows by this point that their lives are deeply intertwined.
Final thoughts?
Returning to the first question, it occurs to me that I can only recommend Murakami to people of a certain age. A favorite story that I would actually recommend to everyone, including my six-year-old nephew, is “A Swim” from Frog & Toad Are Friends, by Arnold Lobel. The ending is just magnificent.
Thank you so much, TNB, for reading and sharing.
____________________________
REBECCA KAUFFMAN is originally from rural northeastern Ohio. She eventually moved to New York City, where she received her MFA in Creative Writing. In the years since, she has worked primarily in restaurants and intermittently as a teacher. She currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
QUOTED: "For me, characters almost always rise from a singular moment or gesture before the broader strokes (backstory, motivations, personality, etc.) emerge. For example, Tracy was sitting at a computer manipulating the results of her own job aptitude test before she had a name or an age or a hair color. Marty was walking the beaches of Lake Michigan with a metal detector before he had a daughter or a cancer diagnosis."
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Q&A with Rebecca Kauffman
Rebecca Kauffman is the author of the new novel Another Place You've Never Been. She has worked in restaurants and as a teacher, and she lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Q: You note that many of your book's themes are inspired by Ojibwa culture. Can you say more about that, and how you incorporated the cultural themes into the book?
A: The Ojibwa character introduced in the prologue (who appears in different forms throughout the book) is based on the Native American term Two-Spirit which, as I understand it, refers to an individual who is not strictly male or female but both, or in some cases a third or different "gender" altogether.
My early thoughts about this were informed by the PBS documentary Two Spirits, which tells the incredibly tragic and moving story of an individual who identified as a Two-Spirit, and died young as the victim of a hate-crime in 2001.
From this story and others, I learned that historically, Two-Spirits were thought to possess special insights and abilities, and often acted as storytellers, spiritual leaders, or healers.
I wanted to explore the idea of a powerful healing figure walking among characters and offering words that could change a person's course in subtle yet enduring ways.
Other connections to Ojibwa culture are less explicit, but various ideas about storytelling, death, and the after-life were inspired by related research.
Q: How did you come up with your main character, Tracy, and with the idea of seeing her from multiple perspectives over several decades?
A: For me, characters almost always rise from a singular moment or gesture before the broader strokes (backstory, motivations, personality, etc.) emerge.
For example, Tracy was sitting at a computer manipulating the results of her own job aptitude test before she had a name or an age or a hair color. Marty was walking the beaches of Lake Michigan with a metal detector before he had a daughter or a cancer diagnosis.
As for utilizing various POVs through which Tracy is observed over several decades...Years ago, I fell in love with the BBC's Up documentary series, which consists of 14 individuals who are interviewed at seven-year intervals, starting in early childhood and moving all the way into late adulthood. It is riveting, surprising, and often deeply sad.
For me, it raised questions about the idea of change, and if people are truly capable of it. Exploring Tracy at different points in life and through different perspectives was a way for me to pick at this curiosity.
Q: Did you know from the start that you would be writing a novel, or did you initially see the chapters as short stories and later link them?
A: The chapter titled "Southtowns" is the first story I wrote about Tracy, and I quickly realized that I wanted to write an entire book about her. Even so, writing 15 contained short stories felt more manageable to me than trying to imagine a 300-page work right off the bat.
Also, I found that having several different stories going at the same time suited my temperament - if one story became a frustration or a bore, I could work on something else for a few weeks without leaving that world altogether.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: A sense of place is always important to me – its colors, textures, people, and the feeling it stirs up within you – and the initial title I had chosen for this book was Southtowns (the title of that first story I just mentioned, and referring to the cluster of suburbs south of Buffalo, Tracy’s hometown, where many of the stories take place).
Others wisely pointed out that anyone unfamiliar with this area might assume, based on that title, that the book took place in the South.
The words chosen for the actual title, (which was a happy compromise between my publisher, my agent, and me), are offered during a conversation in which one character is trying to help another character contextualize death. The idea of "place" as a state of mind or belonging interests me and guided this decision.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: It's hard for me to work on anything at all during the month of October when the world is glorious and I just want to be out in it, but when I have managed to work, it’s been on a novel about five childhood friends whose bond was fractured at an early age, and they are reuniting for the first time, in their 30s.
I'm still wondering if people are capable of change. I'm wondering what I might learn.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
QUOTED: "This is an accomplished debut--at times emotionally gritty but always emotionally true."
Kauffman, Rebecca. Another Place You've Never Been
Faye Chadwell
Library Journal. 141.19 (Nov. 15, 2016): p78.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
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* Kauffman, Rebecca. Another Place You've Never Been. Soft Skull. Oct. 2016. 204p. ISBN 9781593766566. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781619028517. F
Focusing on thirtysomething Tracy, Kauffman's debut novel could be mistaken for a story collection if the pieces weren't so incredibly interwoven. The setting is working-class Buffalo, NY, and Kauffman reveals the passage of time as she recounts Tracy's interactions with other characters, notably her father, whom we first meet when Tracy visits him at age ten. Later, we see Tracy as the daring bad girl in the neighborhood and, from the perspective of her boyfriend and a cousin, as a grown-up restaurant hostess wanting more. Throughout, the presence of mysterious Native American figures adds insight and depth into the characters' experiences. The novel's snapshots reveal lonely, often unfulfilled people whose relationships with loved ones have largely missed the mark. Tracy's father allows a jealous girlfriend to come between them, for instance, and her boyfriend can't commit. VERDICT While a series of stories don't always add up to a novel, this is an accomplished debut--at times emotionally gritty but always emotionally true. For all fiction collections. [Long-listed for the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.--Ed.]--Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis
QUOTED: "an undeniably moving and emotionally true portrayal of the kitchen sink of human experience."
Another Place You've Never Been
Publishers Weekly. 263.31 (Aug. 1, 2016): p44.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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* Another Place You've Never Been
Rebecca Kauffman. Soft Skull (PGW, dist.), $25 (204p) ISBN 978-1-59376-656-6
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
At the center of Kauffman's wonderful debut, a novel told in stories, is Tracy, who first appears as a 10-year-old visiting her father, living on disability near Lake Michigan, and then at 13 as the neighborhood bad girl in a story about a sleepover. Two nearly perfect stories feature Tracy as an adult: one in which she interrupts her cousin's moment of intimacy with his girlfriend at an Embassy Suites, and another in which Tracy, now a restaurant hostess, begins an on-and-off relationship with a younger coworker named Greenie. Readers are also introduced to other characters that circle her in and around Buffalo, N.Y., including alcoholic Jim; his troubled son, Charlie; and Jim's ex-wife, Laura. Greenie himself gets his own story as he leaves Tracy behind for an ill-fated job in New Jersey, culminating in a memorable moment atop a Ferris wheel. Watching how these characters intersect is incredibly satisfying. In clear and vivid prose, Kauffman potently depicts lonely and isolated lives, marked by rash decisions made in the hope of finding connection. By the end of the novel, the pieces of the puzzle that is Tracy's life fit together, her disappointments as much a part of her as her small victories, resulting in an undeniably moving and emotionally true portrayal of the kitchen sink of human experience. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary Agency. (Oct.)
QUOTED: "Debut author Kauffman examines the lives of working-class characters connected to Buffalo, New York, in a novel of loosely linked stories."
ANOTHER PLACE YOU'VE NEVER BEEN
by Rebecca Kauffman
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KIRKUS REVIEW
Debut author Kauffman examines the lives of working-class characters connected to Buffalo, New York, in a novel of loosely linked stories.
A father attempts to be a good parent when his daughter visits for the summer but gets an ultimatum from his girlfriend: either the kid goes or she does. He chooses the girlfriend, and the ramifications of this decision echo through the book in subtle ways. The novel is composed of short, storylike chapters, many told from the points of view of minor characters. We see the girl, Tracy, first through the eyes of her father's resentful girlfriend and later the girlfriend of a cousin. But gradually the connections deepen. As we follow Tracy from childhood to adulthood, she searches for love and purpose. Kauffman's compassion for her lonely characters is evident. At an ill-fated holiday gathering, Tracy watches her cousin Shelly "looking, as usual, like she was a woman who really knew how the world worked." Another divorced father, unsure of his ability to parent, feels "a private, throbbing panic" when his son throws his arms around him at the Shamu show at Sea World. Later he finds himself comforted by a chirping cricket and a loaf of banana bread as he tries to "become a man who finally deserved the things he once had." A character takes his ancient, sedated cat, Monkey, for a ride on a Ferris wheel. As he explains at the vet's, he asked for a monkey when he was 10, but "I got what I got." "We all get what we get, don't we?" the woman said. "No matter what we ask for." One misstep is the mysterious Native Americans who appear periodically, laconic and stoic, to deliver some of the novel's best lines. Tracy's father reveals he's dying of cancer to a stranger who tells him that death could be "just another place you've never been."
In this debut novel, characters affected by "the cruelty of carelessness" nonetheless make the best of what they get.
Pub Date: Oct. 11th, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59376-656-6
Page count: 204pp
Publisher: Soft Skull Press
Review Posted Online: July 19th, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1st, 2016