Contemporary Authors

1. And we're off https://lccn.loc.gov/2017288726 Schwartz, Dana, author. And we're off / Dana Schwartz. [New York] : Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House, [2017]©2017 253 pages ; 22 cm ISBN: 0448493810 (hardcover)9780448493817 (hardcover)

• Choose Your Own Disaster - 2018 Grand Central Publishing, https://smile.amazon.com/Choose-Your-Disaster-Dana-Schwartz/dp/1478970391/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1514091821&sr=8-2

• Dana Schwartz - http://www.danaschwartzdotcom.com/

  Dana Schwartz is an arts and culture writer based in New York City with writing for The New Yorker, The Guardian, the New York Observer, Marie Claire, Glamour, Mic, GQ, VICE, and more. She's currently a correspondent at Entertainment Weekly.
  ​
  She created a parody Twitter account called @GuyInYourMFA based on the people she's encountered in fiction workshops, and another one called @DystopianYA about the tropes in all of the young adult fiction books she's read. Her own (non-dystopian) YA book (AND WE'RE OFF) was published May 2017 by Penguin/Razorbil, and a memoir (CHOOSE YOUR OWN DISASTER) is forthcoming from Grand Central.

• Refinery 29 - http://www.refinery29.com/2017/05/152312/dana-schwartz-and-were-off-young-adult-book

  How The Creator Of Your Favorite Parody Account Became A Voice For Teen Girls
  Kathryn Lindsay
  May 2, 2017, 10:00 AM
  Photo: Courtesy of Razorbill/Dana Schwartz.
  It’s difficult to introduce Dana Schwartz, because there isn’t just one thing about her. You might know her as the entertainment writer at The Observer who wrote a scathing open letter to her boss, Jared Kushner. You might know her as @GuyInYourMFA, the Twitter account parodying pretentious male writers, which currently boasts more than 86 thousand followers. Or, just as Dana Schwartz, 24-year-old internet star and author. Her first book, And We’re Off, which is out today, follows a high school student taking a whirlwind trip around Europe with her mom before diving headfirst into college applications, deciding once and for all whether she wants to pursue being an artist, or play it safe.
  When I went to meet Dana for coffee — don’t tell my editor, but — I hadn’t prepared any questions. Dana and I are the same age, went to similar schools, and both graduated as creative writers but didn’t really know what that meant. It felt weird to prepare stiff, unfamiliar stock questions for someone with whom I already felt a connection.
  “I figured we could just talk,” I said, hitting record and putting my phone in between us. What followed was an in-depth conversation about writing, being a teenager, and our embarrassing Tumblr personas — but don’t worry Dana, I cut that part out.
  I first discovered you through @GuyInYourMFA, when did you start that?
  "My senior year of college."
  What prompted you to create the account?
  "I was pre-med my entire college career, a bio major, spent my summers working in labs…and then I had like a come-to-Jesus moment — a Jewish come to Jesus moment — where I realized I did not want to be a doctor. I’d always sort of felt like I was on my back foot in that world. Like everyone else had a packet that I didn’t have. And so I sort of addressed that feeling and realized I was becoming a doctor because I felt like I should, not because I wanted to. And then I did a senior year 180, and took all the creative writing classes I could. So it was born out of taking a lot of writing classes at once and having to read a lot of those stories."
  What made you decide to make the 180 to writing? Did you write on the side before?
  "Yes, so I always wrote for fun my whole life. When I was a kid I wrote books, but then even at Brown I wrote a few mediocre short stories. Nothing I ever took seriously because it was never something I thought I’d be able to do."
  Because you were like, “I’m a doctor.”
  "I was like, I’m not going to need this. But I remember having four packets to workshop for the next day, and I think they were all about an unnamed male protagonist leaving his family. I was just sort of rebelling against that instinct in others, and also in myself. I had to sort of fight, as I was writing, my own preconceived notions of what sophisticated literature was."
  Right, like you were saying you were pre-med because you thought you should be a doctor, and I think there is a thing where you write a certain way because that’s how you think writers should write.
  "It was this strange thing where after I had already started @GuyInYourMFA for a little while, I had this weird moment where I looked back and realized all of the pretentious awful short stories I wrote had a male protagonist. I think I wrote men because in my mind that was a more serious story. I definitely had this really intrinsic feeling about what a serious story looked like."
  Right. I was a creative writing major, and it took me until I graduated to be like, “Oh, I don’t want to write that.” I would be like, “Oh, I'll write about a death in the family” and all this stuff, stuff I hadn’t experienced and that I didn’t actually want to write about.
  "Totally. I’m like a Jewish white girl from the suburbs and I sort of felt like my experience wasn’t worthwhile to talk about at all. And then, totally natural segue, the young adult novel really is about a normal girl from the suburbs, and writing it I sort of have to reconcile that those are stories worth telling. 'Normal teenage girls' are worth talking about."
  Do you encounter @GuyInYourMFA types now that you’re in the publishing world yourself?
  "Oh totally, and I think I still encounter it in myself. Also, like, ideas that he has are secretly, not-so-secretly ideas I had. And then I look back like, 'Oh, that is dumb.' I think every writer has that element in themselves a bit, and he’s just the most exaggerated un-self-conscious version of that."
  “

  A girl who reads this is a worthwhile protagonist, just because you’re an interesting and worthwhile person.
  ”
  When did you start sitting down, and saying, like, “Okay, chapter one”?
  "I did the totally not normal way that book publishing works. I had an agent from @GuyInYourMFA because I tried temporarily to see if that could be a book, but I couldn’t really figure out how to do it. And then the good people from Razorbill at Penguin reached out to me. They asked me if I was interested in writing a young adult book, and I was like, 'Absolutely.'
  "Usually when you write a book you have to write the whole thing, then it goes to an agent, and an agent sends it to publishers. This was sort of backwards. I met with the publisher, we fleshed out an outline, and I sent them a few chapters. And then they were like, 'Great, sign your name on the dotted line.' So I think I started working on it when I moved to New York after graduation...so that would be fall or late summer 2015."
  The book is more about a mother-daughter relationship. Did you purposefully not want it to be a romance?
  "What I wanted to do the most was tell an honest story about a teenage girl. It goes back to the @GuyInYourMFA thing, where I was re-teaching myself as I wrote it what sort of stories were worthwhile. I was writing it to prove to myself, and hopefully the reader, that a 17-year-old girl who wants to be an artist, who gets to go on an adventure, is a worthwhile story. She doesn’t have to be saving the world in a dystopian fantasy, she doesn’t have to turn out to be a princess of a small town. A girl who reads this is a worthwhile protagonist, just because you’re an interesting and worthwhile person.
  "The thing with the mother-daughter, I think that’s a genuine issue that people have. The mom’s not an abusive mom, she’s not an alcoholic, there’s no logline drama there. I think it’s a problem that everyone sort of faces when you are going away to college. When I was leaving for college, it was like the worst relationship I ever had with my mom. I think people have this anxiety, you’re at the crux of your growing up and there’s this tension there and you don’t know how to release it and you get in fights with people because you know you’re leaving, your parents are scared that you’re leaving. So I wanted to sort of capture that anxiety that I think everyone shares.
  "I feel like if there’s a book about a normal boy growing up, it’s Holden Caulfield. We ascribe a certain significance to the male experience and women’s experiences are seen as flippant and shallow.
  "The main reason I wanted to tell this story specifically is because I did not study abroad, so after I graduated I didn’t have a job... So I took my savings and just traveled... It was amazing. I met amazing people. I met people who the characters in this book are based on. It was the best experience of my life."
  Where did you go?
  "I started in Ireland — which is where a majority of the book takes place — London, Belgium, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, and Rome. My character, mostly, she just happens to go to places that I went to. What a coincidence! She’s an artist who is making the decision to pursue art as a career. She’s becoming a senior in college and she wants to apply to art school, and she’s dealing with a mom who wants her to have a more stable career, and definitely in my mind I was projecting onto that the decision that I was making to be a writer. My parents are incredibly supportive and wonderful. I think the mother’s voice in my book is the other half of my brain telling me I was making a bad choice."
  But you’ve made a pretty good choice. Your most recent brush with fame was the Jared Kushner letter. I think everyone is more involved in politics maybe than they were previously thanks to this election. Is politics something you’re interested in writing about, or did that come from a personal place?
  "I am not a politics writer. I just don’t think I have the training or the knowledge base that the brilliant politics writers do. But there are things that I’m incredibly passionate about and just have to say. I even remember the weekend before I wrote that open letter, I was getting horrible harassment. I was so angry, I was flipping through it, it was like a magma pit of bubbling hate and rage. That whole weekend I was like, I’m gonna write a letter. I’m going to write a letter to Jared Kushner. I’m going to write a letter to my boss. And my boyfriend was like, 'Are you sure you want to do that?' I honestly had blinders on. I was not thinking of the consequences, I was not thinking that anyone would even notice or care. I was just like, I have to write this."
  You have so many followers. What is it like knowing anything you say has such a huge audience?
  "Nothing is different in my life. My room is still messy, I still hit snooze 11 times in the morning, I still think my butt looks fat when it’s naked and weirdly dimpled. Twitter followers, and even like career success, don’t make you happy. It’s all an internal thing. I feel really fortunate every day that I get paid to do what I like, that I get to write and make money from it, and that I’m not shouting into a void. I think my ultimate nightmare is being alone, but not isolated, like, alone in anonymity. People ignoring me. Yelling and no one listening. I really just want to use the opportunity I’ve been given to do good work."
  “

  We ascribe a certain significance to the male experience and women’s experiences are seen as flippant and shallow.
  ”
  You’re writing more. What’s next?
  "I’m working on a memoir. It’s called Choose Your Own Disaster, and it’s a choose your own adventure memoir."
  That’s really cool!
  "So not all of it is true, exactly. It all comes from a place of truth and then you can take tangents. But it’s really about...if this young adult novel is about finding yourself when you’re 17 and who you want to be, this memoir is about kind of the next stage when you graduate, transitioning who you are into the real world."
  Are the experiences just after college? How far back do you go?
  "I talk a bit about college. I had like horrible eating disorders in college and I talk about that a bit. And then I talked about moving to New York and like, dating terrible people.
  "The reason I like the idea of a choose your own adventure memoir in the first place is because I went through phases where I wanted different personas for myself, so that’s what you can choose. I wanted to be the cool New York girl who wore all black, or the literary person. You want an identity. It’s why everyone wants to know what Hogwarts house you’re in, or if you’re a Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, which Divergent character you are. We hate uncertainty. People want to be told who they are so sometimes we put that on ourselves."
  What else are you interested in doing? Are you interested in TV and movies?
  "For sure. I want to write more books. I really love the masochism of writing a long story. I do really want to help with screenplays, maybe adapt screenplays. Adapting a book to screenplay is a dream of mine, not even my book. Just taking something that exists and figuring out a way that it would work on screen is like a dream of mine. I would love to write for a TV show, but I think the ultimate goal is just get better at writing. Just be better, keep working hard, and see what I can do."
  And We're Off by Dana Schwartz is out now.

• NY Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/fashion/weddings/dana-schwartz-robert-seiden.html

  Dana Schwartz, Robert Seiden

  AUG. 13, 2017
  Photo

  Dana Michelle Schwartz and Robert Benjamin Seiden were married Aug. 12 at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, N.J. Rabbi Clifford Kulwin officiated.

  Mrs. Seiden, 29, is a staff lawyer for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League, Prudential Center in Newark and the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association. She graduated magna cum laude from Lehigh and received a law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

  She is the daughter of Marcy F. Schwartz and Mark A. Schwartz of Short Hills, N.J. The bride’s father is the global head of analytics at S&P Global Platts, a provider of information for the commodities and energy markets in New York. Her mother, who is retired, was a strategic intervention teacher at Hartshorn Elementary School in Short Hills.

  Mr. Seiden, also 29, is the senior manager of business affairs for Vevo, a New York-based music video and entertainment platform. He graduated from Tufts and received a law degree from Georgetown.

  He is a son of Kathy Seiden and Steven J. Seiden of Woodbury, N.Y. His father, who works in New York, is a founding partner in Seiden & Kaufman, a law firm in Carle Place, N.Y.

  The couple were introduced in New York by a mutual friend in 2012.

  A version of this article appears in print on August 13, 2017, on Page ST12 of the New York edition with the headline: Dana Schwartz, Robert Seiden. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
  Continue reading the main story

• A Women's Thing - https://awomensthing.org/blog/in-conversation-with-dana-schwartz-creator-of-guyinyourmfa/

  You Wouldn’t Understand: In Conversation with Dana Schwartz, Creator of @GuyInYourMFA
  March 6, 2015 by Allison Geller
  It wasn’t long after finding the Twitter account @GuyInYourMFA that it became my favorite feed. Its precious nuggets of self-importance—think of it as mansplaining with a literary bent—could have been drafted on a vintage typewriter by any number of writer types I’ve encountered in my life (example: “Colors aren’t real. They’re subjective like everything else in this world.”). I was even more delighted when I found out that the person behind the @GuyInYourMFA persona is a woman.

  AWT_GuyInYourMFA-misunderstood
  Dana Schwartz
  Dana Schwartz

  22-year-Dana Schwartz, a pre-med-student-turned-creative-writing-fiend who is in her last semester at Brown, told me that the idea for @GuyInYourMFA came to her late one night, when she was hanging out backstage in the green room during a university production of “Sweeney Todd.” She had a lot of time to kill and a stack of stories to read for the next day’s fiction writing workshop. “More than one piece in that pile was about a man who had to leave his family because he was so complicated and the woman just didn’t understand that.”

  She realized that the writers behind those pieces embody a character most of us have encountered, be it across the workshop table or the coffee shop: the narcissistic hipster artiste hunched over his Moleskine, his backpack heavy with the burdens of his creative calling along with his copy of Infinite Jest. Schwartz explains: “It’s someone who is reclaiming what he believes masculinity is through his literature, and he’s emulating white male figures.”

  AWT_GuyInYourMFA-kafkaesque

  She decided to try and give him a voice on Twitter, a fittingly self-indulgent platform. “I feel like he’s the kind of guy who loves hearing his own voice and would actually love the idea of crowds of people listening to his brilliant ideas, so it seemed like a natural fit.”

  AWT_GuyInYourMFA

  Schwartz started the account at the end of last September. It has now reached 42K followers, and it’s growing every day. She was thrilled to generate online buzz with comedians and writers she admired, including BJ Novak, who retweeted her and then offered to call her and chat about working in TV. Schwartz spent “the first seven minutes” of the conversation thanking him profusely and trying to keep her fangirl under control.

  But as @GuyInYourMFA would be quick to point out, there’s more at stake in the Twitter account than plumbing an archetype for laughs. The tweets also exemplify a sense of assumed artistic authority that is specifically male, and which is deeply—almost imperceptibly—ingrained. Schwartz says she found herself using male pronouns in academic papers to sound scholarly, and in her stories to remove a heavy stylistic hand. “When I wanted to be as clean and empty as possible, I would use a male protagonist because that’s been the default for so long.”

  AWT_GuyInYourMFA-cashonly

  In comedy, too, she found that male characters were the “default.” During a summer research internship for Conan, she had the chance to ask one of the show’s writers why women were so infrequently featured in comedy sketches. The writer told her that male characters are simply the go-to in comedy. When a writer pitches a sketch, it automatically revolves around a man (e.g., “a guy is walking into a bar when …”). Audiences are conditioned to expect male characters, which act as a blank page on which comedic devices can be layered. Female characters make the joke complicated—the audience wonders if “femaleness” is part of the joke. What’s more, audiences are uncomfortable with women in physical comedy.

  Schwartz is working hard at making her own voice in comedy challenge the male default mode, following the example of gutsy female comedians like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Even as she finishes school she’s “writing a ton”—two to three thousand words a day—and working on a dystopian YA novel in addition to a pilot (see her other Twitter persona, @DystopianYA). In addition to writing books and screenplays, her “dream is to work in comedy TV.”

  If you’re wondering about the @GuyInYourMFA avatar, it’s her friend Simon. But the irony (there had to be irony) is that he’s wearing Schwartz’s hat. In addition to being a comedic and critical outlet, Schwartz’s @GuyInYourMFA alter-ego is also also a way for her to check her own writerly pitfalls. “A lot of the ideas that @GuyInYourMFA tweets are ideas I’ve had,” she says. “It’s a chance for me to laugh at myself and air out my work impulses.”

  Maybe somewhere down the line, she’ll even get her MFA.

  We’re so glad you’re with us. We’re a community of women who are changing women’s media. That’s no small task. But because you’re here, we know that you care, too. For us to keep doing what we do, we need your support. So we can keep printing, posting and furthering our mission. With you.
  Get the latest issue in print

Schwartz, Dana: AND WE'RE OFF
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 15, 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Schwartz, Dana AND WE'RE OFF Razorbill/Penguin (Children's Fiction) $17.99 5, 2 ISBN: 978-0-448-49381-7
Seventeen-year-old Nora Parker-Holmes has only one obstacle to her upcoming European grand tour: her mother, "five foot three inches tall, newly minted paralegal, and parental nightmare." The white teen's artist grandfather has prepared a treasure hunt for her with clues to various artworks in different European cities. Nora is excited to go abroad for the first time and to pursue her dream of becoming a great artist, but her enjoyment is cut short by her mother's insistence on accompanying her and micromanaging her every move. Her mother regards art as a disposable hobby and strongly discourages Nora from pursuing it--which makes Nora more determined than ever to succeed. She finally comes into her own during an intensive art course in rural Ireland, where her social life perks up considerably when she meets a charming Irish white boy and his friends. Rapprochement between mother and daughter comes in Florence, in front of a painting of her grandfather's that incorporates Nora's fan-fiction cartoons. In a satisfying conclusion, Nora's ambition is vindicated in her mother's eyes, and mother and daughter learn to appreciate each other for who they truly are. Nora's first-person narration does not particularly stand out from the crowd, but her artistic bent gives her character some individuality, and it's hard to beat a European holiday for vicarious fun The up-to-the-minute details about travel in Europe make this an engaging, enjoyable, and even informational read. (Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Schwartz, Dana: AND WE'RE OFF." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2017. PowerSearch,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A489268577/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=15b07ee2. Accessed 23 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A489268577
1 of 4 12/23/17, 10:59 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
And We're Off
Publishers Weekly.
264.14 (Apr. 3, 2017): p77. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
And We're Off
Dana Schwartz. Razorbill, $17.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-448-49381-7
Schwartz, a writer for the New York Observer and the creator of the popular @DystopianYA and @GuyInYourMFA Twitter accounts, debuts with the story of 17-year-old Nora Parker-Holmes, whose summer trip to Europe is upended by her mother's spontaneous decision to tag along. Nora and her mother bicker their way through Paris, Amsterdam, and Ireland, where Nora has been accepted as a summer fellow at an art colony. She longs to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather, a famous artist who has paid for this trip and given her art-related assignments for each city, such as sketching portraits on Paris's Left Bank. Nora's time in Ireland and the friends she makes there (including romantic interest Callum) help her character deepen beyond her anger at her mother. This story follows a predictable trajectory as Nora comes to see her mother's presence as lucky, but her journey to understand who she is, both as a person and an artist, is rewarding, as is the evident love behind her grandfather's assignments and advice. Ages 12-up. Agent: Dan Mandel, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"And We're Off." Publishers Weekly, 3 Apr. 2017, p. 77. PowerSearch, http://link.galegroup.com
/apps/doc/A489813805/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=005ee177. Accessed 23 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A489813805
2 of 4 12/23/17, 10:59 PM

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Schwartz, Dana: And We're Off
Shoshana Flax
The Horn Book Guide.
28.2 (Fall 2017): p144. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 The Horn Book, Inc. http://www.hornbookguide.com
Full Text:
Schwartz, Dana And We're Off
255 pp. Penguin/Razorbill ISBN 978-0-448-49381-7 $17.99
(3) American teenager Nora's summer trip to an Irish artists' colony and other European sites--a gift from her famous artist grandfather--becomes a different experience than she expected when her mother insists on joining her at the last minute. While both travel companions have their bratty moments, the funny first-person narration makes for a breezy trip through some of Europe's artistic highlights.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Flax, Shoshana. "Schwartz, Dana: And We're Off." The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2017, p. 144.
PowerSearch, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A511524242/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=179b45a9. Accessed 23 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A511524242
3 of 4 12/23/17, 10:59 PM

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Schwartz, Dana. And We're Off
Cary Frostick
School Library Journal.
63.5 (May 2017): p106+. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
SCHWARTZ, Dana. And We're Off. 272p. Penguin/Razorbill. May 2017. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780448493817.
Gr 9 Up--Art has been Nora's passion as long as she can remember. A junior in high school, she's already making money selling fan fiction cartoons through her Tumblr account. And now Nora is one of the select few chosen to attend the Donegal Colony for Young Artists in Ireland this summer. Her famous artist grandfather is paying for her to travel through Europe before and after her three weeks at the school. But the best part--Nora will be on her own, away from her judgmental mother for die first time. She has visions of wandering care free along the streets of Paris, Brussels, and Florence; making new friends at the youth hostels; and sipping cappuccinos with gorgeous boys. Then, on the way to the airport, her mother announces that she's decided to tag along, and Nora's dream summer takes on a decidedly nightmarish hue. This light mother/daughter tale is told in the first person. Readers will feel Nora's mounting resentment toward her mother warring with the sympathy and understanding on which her mother is counting. When Nora is forced to question the extent of her artistic ability, then finds her summer crush in the arms of another, she sees all of her dreams crashing down around her. The protagonist's ever-present worries and frustrations are nicely balanced with dry humor, delightful description, and a little bit of naughty pleasure. Teens will relate to Nora's plight, delight in loathing her mother, and appreciate the satisfying conclusion. VERDICT A fun choice for summer reading shelves.--Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Frostick, Cary. "Schwartz, Dana. And We're Off." School Library Journal, May 2017, p. 106+.
PowerSearch, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491032177/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=3e3599b0. Accessed 23 Dec. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491032177
4 of 4 12/23/17, 10:59 PM

"Schwartz, Dana: AND WE'RE OFF." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2017. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A489268577/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=15b07ee2. Accessed 24 Dec. 2017. "And We're Off." Publishers Weekly, 3 Apr. 2017, p. 77. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A489813805/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=005ee177. Accessed 24 Dec. 2017. Flax, Shoshana. "Schwartz, Dana: And We're Off." The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2017, p. 144. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A511524242/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=179b45a9. Accessed 24 Dec. 2017. Frostick, Cary. "Schwartz, Dana. And We're Off." School Library Journal, May 2017, p. 106+. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491032177/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=3e3599b0. Accessed 24 Dec. 2017.

• NPR
  https://www.npr.org/2017/05/07/525769373/and-were-off-proves-brevitys-not-always-the-soul-of-wit
  Word count: 891

  'And We're Off' Proves Brevity's Not Always The Soul Of Wit
  May 7, 20177:00 AM ET

  Tasha Robinson
  And We're Off
  And We're Off

  by Dana Schwartz

  Hardcover, 253 pages
  purchase

  Until now, debut author Dana Schwartz has made a compelling asset out of brevity. She's the humorist behind the popular Twitter accounts Guy In Your MFA and Dystopian YA Novel, twin platforms for perfectly crafted satire about literary pretention. The former sends up self-important, David Foster Wallace-worshiping writing students who gaze deep into their navels and see only literary symbolism and tortured, unappreciated genius. The latter parodies the tropes of derivative young-adult fiction, complete with a female protagonist caught between competing male admirers as she tries to navigate her oppressive society. To readers who've dealt with either of these archetypes, the accounts are funny because the voices are so recognizable, and Schwartz's jokes at their expense are so incisive, even at a 140-character limit.

  But where concision strengthens Schwartz's humor, it limits her debut novel, And We're Off. Her young-adult story about a teenage artist's growing pains covers a lot of physical and emotional ground, but at such breakneck speed that the landscape rarely comes into focus. It's a quick, compelling read, with vividly described emotions and an intense inner landscape. (And, for longtime Schwartz fans, some Dystopian YA Novel in-jokes.) But it also feels like it's a couple of expansions short of a fully realized story, one that would fill in the space between the characters' impassioned peaks and valleys.

  Schwartz's protagonist in And We're Off is 17-year-old Nora Parker-Holmes, a soon-to-be high-school senior headed for a weeklong jaunt across Europe, followed by a summer stint at Ireland's Donegal Colony for Young Artists. Like her grandfather Robert, who became a famous, museum-exhibited painter late in life, Nora is an artist. But she's afraid she lacks talent, and that others are humoring her because of her grandfather. Her mother Alice, on the other hand, doesn't humor her at all. She thinks Nora's art is a distracting, impractical hobby. Even though every blunt, hateful thing she says about Nora's art leads to a fight, she's still as unsubtle as a Disney animated villain when it comes to conversations with her daughter.

  'And We're Off' feels like it could have been twice the length without wearing out its welcome. Expanded and slowed down, it might have been a ... deeper dive into how an immature artist develops her own voice and confidence.

  So the stage is set for drama when Alice suddenly regrets their fractured relationship, and invites herself along on Nora's European trip. Robbed of her much-anticipated taste of freedom and adulthood, Nora is understandably sullen, but oddly unresisting. There's a bitter sort of comedy in the ways Alice finds to ruin Nora's trip, but there's a deeply dysfunctional relationship there too, built around Alice's pushiness and Nora's limitations in fighting back.

  Schwartz takes an unusual approach to writing Nora, who isn't always sympathetic. Her pouts and loud, performative pity-me sighs seem designed to be judged by older readers. She's impulsive and erratic, self-pitying and self-hating. In other words, she's a teenager, written from a not-always-affectionate perspective. Alice, for her part, is a bratty, self-absorbed tyrant one minute, and a hurting woman struggling with divorce and disappointment the next. It's possible to mentally connect these traits into fully formed personalities, but And We're Off rarely takes the time as it whisks briskly from one screaming crisis to the next.

  The same approach holds for the book's many other subplots. Nora's summer romance with an Irish boy hits the familiar marks — party, infatuation, painful discovery — without developing any unique flavor. Her time at Donegal boils down to a few brief lessons and a fit of jealousy over a more effortlessly talented schoolmate. And her feelings of inadequacy emerge abruptly, then become a preoccupation for a book that could more profitably spend the space on deepening its relationships.

  And We're Off opens with a promising specificity that the rest of the book lacks. Within the first few pages, Schwartz references Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, and Buzzfeed. The first chapter reveals that Nora makes side cash drawing commissioned erotic fan art of Harry Potter and Sherlock characters. It's a funny detail, but it also places her firmly in an of-the-moment world where online social communities shape young artists, and where Nora would presumably get the support her mother doesn't give her.

  But past that opening chapter, Schwartz entirely drops the notion of Nora having fun with art, interacting with fans, or having social links beyond the ex she's pining for, and the best friend who's dating him. It's just one of the many ways And We're Off feels like it could have been twice the length without wearing out its welcome. Expanded and slowed down, it might have been a richer book like Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, a deeper dive into how an immature artist develops her own voice and confidence, and navigates the barriers blocking her. On Twitter, brevity is necessary. But it isn't always the best tactic for a novel.

  Tasha Robinson is a culture writer at Vox Media's technology and entertainment site The Verge.

• Lit Reactor
  https://litreactor.com/reviews/bookshots-and-were-off-by-dana-schwartz
  Word count: 719

  Bookshots: 'And We're Off' by Dana Schwartz
  Review by Christoph Paul June 7, 2017 3 comments
  In:

  Bookshots Dana Schwartz Review YA Young Adult

  Bookshots: 'And We're Off' by Dana Schwartz
  Bookshots: Pumping new life into the corpse of the book review
  Title:

  And We’re Off
  Who wrote it?
  Going after your dreams and dealing with your mother can feel more psychologically grueling than any Hunger Game/Battle Royale.

  Dana Schwartz. She is a humorist and columnist for the Observer. She also curbs my disenchantment about writing professionally with the hilarious Twitter account @GuyInYourMFA and writes my favorite Bachelor/Bachelorette pieces/recaps. MSNBC asks her opinion on culture and politics. And We’re Off is her first novel.
  Plot in a box:

  Nora gets accepted into the Donegal Colony for Young Artists. Though Nora draws erotic slash art for money (Hey Razorbill, please put some drawings in the paperback edition), unfortunately it is not enough to pay for the trip and school. Instead of taking out her Bat Mitzvah savings, Nora’s grandpa and fellow artist agrees to pay for the trip as long as she creates an original piece of work at each stop. Sign me up! The only problem is Nora’s mother decides to tag along for the trip, (Growing up with a Jewish mother, this is more scary to me than all of Lovecraft’s stories combined.)
  Invent a new title for this book:

  Was Picasso’s Mom A Pain in the Ass Too?
  Read this if you like(d):

  The Gilmore Girls, Maureen Johnson, Nicola Yoon, and Jennifer Weiner
  Meet the book’s lead(s):

  Nora Holmes—talented seventeen-year old artist

  Callum Cassidy—the cute and cool Irish boy

  Robert Parker—the cool Grandpa who is an artist too

  Alice—the annoying but well-meaning mother
  Said lead(s) would be portrayed in a movie by:

  I just finished a Riverdale binge so I’m going to use their actors:

  Nora Holmes—Lili Reinhardt (Betty Cooper)

  Callum Cassidy—Cole Srouse (Jughead)

  Robert Parker—Luke Perry (We give him old people make up Gen Xers, relax, you are not that old)

  Alice— Marisol Nichols (Hermione Lodge)
  Setting: Would you want to live there?

  Chicago, Paris, Brussels, Donegal, Florence, Italy, and London. I would live in every place except Chicago (sorry, Jason Diamond).
  What was your favorite sentence?

  Is it possible for STIs to go airborne?

  The Verdict:

  My fiancé and I have the most annoying and crazy Jewish mothers that ever existed. The idea of having to travel with our mothers to Europe would be our worst nightmare. It actually triggers me, and that is why I loved this book so much. Schwartz uses humor and great character development to make this story work. It shows that high stakes in YA don't always have to be dystopian or involve dying, that going after your dreams and dealing with your mother can feel more psychologically grueling than any Hunger Game/Battle Royale. The novel hits a lot the genre expectations of great YA novels, but also adds something poignant to say about family relationships. It has one of the most satisfying endings I’ve read this year.
  Image of And We're Off
  And We're Off
  Manufacturer: Razorbill
  Part Number:
  Price:
  Christoph Paul
  Review by Christoph Paul

  Christoph Paul is an award-winning humor author. He writes non-fiction, YA, Bizarro, horror, and poetry including: The Passion of the Christoph, Great White House Volume 1 and Volume 2, Slasher Camp for Nerd Dorks, and Horror Film Poems. He is an editor for CLASH Media and CLASH Books and edited the anthologies Walk Hand in Hand Into Extinction: Stories Inspired by True Detective and This Book Ain’t Nuttin to Fuck With: A Wu-Tang Tribute Anthology. Under the pen name Mandy De Sandra, he writes Bizarro Erotica that has been covered in VICE, Huffington Post, Jezebel, and AV Club. He is represented by Veronica Park at the Corvisiero Literary Agency.

• Online Review of BooksAnd We’re Off
  http://www.onlinereviewofbooks.com/and-were-off/
  Word count: 709

  And We’re Off

  By Dana Schwartz

  Fiction

  Razorbill, 253 pp., $17.99

  May 2, 2017

  http://www.danaschwartzdotcom.com/

  Dana Schwartz has built a Twitter following other people only dream about by telling inside jokes that everyone seems to get. The pinned tweet on her parody account @GuyinyourMFA reads, “Capitalism is a disease, and the only cure is a major publishing company giving me a book deal for a hardcover to sell at Urban Outfitters.” Another parody account that targets young adult novels, @DystopianYA, features tweets such as “I just feel like there should be MORE beyond this gated community none of us have ever ventured beyond.” [The Twitter parody account that’s consistently made me laugh harder than any other, though, must be @kristol_history, which makes a mockery of Bill Kristol’s frequent wrong predictions.]

  Given Ms. Schwartz’s background, I was somewhat surprised to see a quote from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath introducing the book: “I was supposed to be having the time of my life.” That novel was about the mental illness of its’ protagonist, Esther Greenwood, who gets a prized summer internship in New York only to feel unfulfilled and severely depressed. She tries and fails to kill herself. The book very obviously mirrored Plath’s own feelings about life. Shortly after the publication of The Bell Jar, she killed herself.

  “The time of my life” that Nora Holmes is supposed to have in And We’re Off comes courtesy of the Donegal Colony for Young Artists in Ireland, which offers her a summer fellowship. She does not get along smoothly with her mother, who does not seem to understand her artistic talents and tells Nora that she’s going to throw away many of her drawings while she’s in Ireland in order to clean her room. It barely phases Nora, though, who has her medium term life completely planned out: a fantastic summer in Ireland and then a sure acceptance to the Rhode Island School of Design where her romantic life as an artist can take shape. Nora may know exactly where she wants to go, but that doesn’t mean she has no doubts about her ability to get there and she clearly has perfected sarcasm to new heights in an effort to not face the unpleasant details of her life, such as her parents divorce, her mother’s continued sadness, and her father’s marriage to her former math teacher.

  On the way to the airport, Nora and her mother argue about her future. Realizing that this may be her last chance to connect with her daughter, Alice Parker (that’s Nora’s mother’s name) impulsively decides to go with her daughter to Europe. ‘Having the time of your life’ suddenly just became ‘Supposed to be having the time of your life.’ Needless to say, Nora does a lot of growing up over the summer, even if it is not the summer that she had planned for herself.

  Schwartz demonstrates that she is the Queen of short, pithy phrases and the book is filled with humor that works extremely well. But, she is also able to instill And We’re Off with pathos that consistently works as well. The book is fun, easy to read, and meaningful – an amazing composite that means both old and young readers will find it enjoyable.

  There are times when I’ve thought about Sylvia Plath’s last night and what went through her mind. Her only novel and her poetry are haunting and beautiful, but she burned out only as her career was beginning. What might have been. But, among the challenges faced by Plath, one of the most overwhelming was the hard time she had at improvisation. Her life simply did not go according to the plan she had laid out, although her life, like all lives, still contains secrets.

  The tone of And We’re Off is nothing like The Bell Jar, but the lesson may be similar: adapting to the unexpected and throwing away our best plans is a critical part of the path towards fulfillment.

• Lost in Literature
  https://www.lostinlit.com/2017/04/off-dana-schwartz-europe-bound/
  Word count: 868

  And We’re Off by Dana Schwartz \\ Europe Bound!

  April 24, 2017 // Posted by Lisa in Reviews // 2 Comments
  And We’re Off by Dana Schwartz \\ Europe Bound!And We're Off
  by Dana Schwartz
  Release Date: May 2nd 2017
  Publisher: Razorbill, Listening Library
  Narrator: Lauren Fortgang
  Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
  Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
  Format: ARC, Audiobook
  Source: Publisher
  Find It: Goodreads • Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Audible
  One StarOne StarOne Star

  Seventeen-year-old Nora Holmes is an artist, a painter from the moment she could hold a brush. She inherited the skill from her grandfather, Robert, who's always nurtured Nora's talent and encouraged her to follow her passion. Still, Nora is shocked and elated when Robert offers her a gift: an all-expenses-paid summer trip to Europe to immerse herself in the craft and to study history's most famous artists. The only catch? Nora has to create an original piece of artwork at every stop and send it back to her grandfather. It's a no-brainer: Nora is in!
  Unfortunately, Nora's mother, Alice, is less than thrilled about the trip. She worries about what the future holds for her young, idealistic daughter and her opinions haven't gone unnoticed. Nora couldn't feel more unsupported by her mother, and in the weeks leading up to the trip, the women are as disconnected as they've ever been. But seconds after saying goodbye to Alice at the airport terminal, Nora hears a voice call out: "Wait! Stop! I'm coming with you!"

  lisa chats

  Travel – check! A swoony guy – check! An annoying, intruding mother – check check!

  Nora loves art. Her very successful artist grandfather has always encouraged her passion for art, yet her mother doesn’t offer up the same support to Nora. When Nora’s grandfather offers her the chance of a lifetime, an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe to study art, Nora is beside herself with excitement. That is, until her mother drives her to the airport to drop her off, and at the last minute decides to accompany Nora on the trip. Well, let’s just say Nora and her mother, Alice, don’t have the most warm and fuzzy relationship. You see, Alice doesn’t approve of Nora’s passion for art, as she feels it isn’t a successful career and that Nora should be focusing on something that will bring her more success in her future. The last thing Nora wants on her trip is her mother’s company… but without a choice, the two set off to travel Europe together, in hopes of finding what they’re each looking for.

  As you can imagine, the settings in this story were a lot of fun!! I’ve always wanted to travel to Europe myself, so any time I can travel through the eyes of characters in books, I’m all there! This story was cute and exactly how I thought it would be. Nora is the typical teenager, hoping to find a tall, dark and handsome boy on vacation to sweep her off her feet. I mean, really… what teenager traveling alone wouldn’t want that?! But with her mother always around to cramp her style, Nora is finding it harder and harder to have the trip of a lifetime that she really wanted.

  My favorite thing about this story was the writing style. I loved Dana Schwartz’s sassy, witty and fun writing! When you open a book and immediately connect with an author’s style… it’s such a wonderful feeling!!

  My issues with this book surround the characters themselves. I was expecting more growth for both Nora and Alice. I thought the last few chapters would have been more impacting, leaving more of an impression about how these two had grown from their experiences together. It was definitely missing something there, something that would have brought this story up a few notches for me. I also struggled with Nora’s and Alice’s behaviors on the trip. I can completely understand how Nora was bothered by her mother basically taking over their trip… but I struggled with how she let it impact her entire trip. Instead of acting like an adult on taking over the trip like she had originally planned, she let the fact that her mother tagged along affect her entire attitude day after day. I also thought it was pretty crappy of her mother to basically just crash her trip, and then take it over, planning out their days entirely. The behavior of these two day after day on their trip made it hard for me to really connect with them. Honestly, I wanted to smack them both a time or two. Get it together, ladies!

  Overall though, this was a really fun contemporary story involving travel, one of my favorite things! Since I don’t travel a lot myself, I adore reading books about others venturing out in the world. This was a cute story that would be perfect for a day at the beach. A quick, easy read. And just look at that cover!! *heart eyes*

• Compass Book Ratings
  http://www.compassbookratings.com/reviews/index.php/review/view/2612
  Word count: 846

  Publisher's Note:

  Seventeen-year-old Nora Holmes is an artist, a painter from the moment she could hold a brush. She inherited the skill from her grandfather, Robert, who's always nurtured Nora's talent and encouraged her to follow her passion. Still, Nora is shocked and elated when Robert offers her a gift: an all-expenses-paid summer trip to Europe to immerse herself in the craft and to study history's most famous artists. The only catch? Nora has to create an original piece of artwork at every stop and send it back to her grandfather. It's a no-brainer: Nora is in!

  Unfortunately, Nora's mother, Alice, is less than thrilled about the trip. She worries about what the future holds for her young, idealistic daughter—and her opinions haven't gone unnoticed. Nora couldn't feel more unsupported by her mother, and in the weeks leading up to the trip, the women are as disconnected as they've ever been. But seconds after saying goodbye to Alice at the airport terminal, Nora hears a voice call out: "Wait! Stop! I'm coming with you!"

  This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Razorbill

  And We're Off
  by Dana Schwartz

  Review Date:
  06/22/2017

  Recommended Age:
  16+

  Overall Rating:
  ***1/2

  Profanity / Language Rating:
  *********

  Violence / Gore Rating:
  **

  Sex / Nudity Rating:
  ***

  Overall Review:

  When seventeen-year-old Nora is accepted into a summer art program in Ireland she's elated. However, the anticipation of a summer of independence comes to a screeching halt when her mother decides to "crash the party" and join her. Nora is livid and throws several fits throughout the trip about her mother coming along. She is the kind of character that teenagers will maybe relate to and mothers will likely want to give her a little love slap because she tends to be a bit whiny and disrespectful. On one hand, you can see Nora's perspective of losing the opportunity for independence that she was looking forward to. On the other hand, Nora's mom who's crashing said party, is really struggling with many things in her life and just wants to escape reality for a short time. You can understand both sides of the story.

  And We're Off is a light read that doesn't really delve into things too much, and it felt like a few things were hinted at without resolution (i.e. the identity of Nora's biological father). The dialog felt real and the characters were interesting, but I would've liked to get to know them a little better. (Side note: One thing to be aware of is that there is a lot of underage drinking happening and a little bit of glamorizing smoking.) Nora gets to visit some amazing places and you can't help but want to jump on a plane and head to Europe after reading this. Those who enjoy a quick read about European travel and trying to find yourself (especially teenage girls wishing to be in Nora's shoes) will likely enjoy And We're Off.

  Review of an Advance Reader's Copy

  Content Analysis:

  Profanity/Language: 17 religious exclamations; 3 mild obscenities; 1 religious profanity; 1 derogatory name; 8 scatological words; 5 anatomical terms; 11 f-word derivatives.

  Violence/Gore: Several (13) brief incidents including character fantasizing about strangling people (a joke); metaphor of knife twisting in stomach; imagining someone being a bad guy who kicks babies; want to punch someone; imagining knife in stomach (joke); reference to character who was decapitated; reference to serial killer; story that mentions suicide; reference to someone who cut off ear and shot self; secondhand report of killer; reference to The Hunger Games when characters compete to the death; references to zombies.

  Sex/Nudity: Many (41) brief incidents including flirting; kissing; character imagines being sexy; dancing; arm around; hand on shoulder; holding hands; character makes references to other characters and things being sexy; picture of two men making out; picture of two men in a tub; reference to breasts; reference to sexually transmitted infections; character hears lewd comments made (no further detail); teenage character imagines living with someone and he cheats on her; second-hand reports of teenagers having sex; reference to reproduction; reference to pubic hair painted in picture; story mentions attempted rape; teen character wants to have sex; second-hand report that unmarried character gets pregnant by boyfriend who is referenced as being a sperm donor; candy looks like naked toddler; character's legs in another's lap while kissing; teenage characters sleeping beside each other; reference to nude painting; reports of teenagers having sex.

  Mature Subject Matter:

  Divorce, underage drinking, reports of teenage sex.

  Alcohol / Drug Use:

  Characters smoking; picture of someone smoking; reference to a drug deal; reference to character smoking pot; many references to characters drinking alcohol; character imagines smoking; several incidents of characters drinking at parties or bars, often those characters are underage.

  Reviewed By Jenny
  No image available

• Teen Reads
  https://www.teenreads.com/reviews/and-were-off
  Word count: 649

  And We're Off
  by Dana Schwartz

  [Buy this book at IndieBound]
  [Buy this book at Amazon]
  [Buy this for Amazon Kindle]
  [Buy this book at Barnes and Noble]

  Nora Holmes has always been in love with art. With the support from her role models who have made a living from their art, Nora has dreamed of becoming a professional visual poet since she was first able to hold a paintbrush. With the help of her wealthy grandfather, she sets out on an all-expenses paid trip through Europe. The only thing she is asked to do is follow the instructions given to her that correspond with each place she visits. The end result is an internal study of Nora’s artist style, which will help her find her way as an artist.

  "Just from reading this book, I felt like I traveled through Europe with Nora. As my review reflects, this is book is on my favorites list. It was very down to earth and seemed very relatable...."

  However, there’s a catch. Her mother does not share this same desire to let her daughter pursue such a risky life style. She would rather Nora find an “actual” job and continue art as a hobby. Nora has never felt the support she wanted from her mother, especially after her parents’ harsh divorce. She has grown accustomed to the natural mother-daughter emotional split they have lived with, and is excited to explore the world on her own. So when she hears her mother yell down the airport terminal that she’ll be joining her on the Europe trip, she is not ready for the adventure that awaits her.

  AND WE’RE OFF is a fun, humorous story that follows the adventure of a teenager trying to find herself, with the constant reminder that her mother is right by her side. It’s beautifully written and reminds me of “Gilmore Girls.” Although the mother daughter relationship is not as strong in the book compared to the TV show, Nora and her mother have the same chemistry as Lorelai and Rory. The relationship is based off of the need to become one’s self but also the natural familial dependency on each other.

  This book will make you feel a strong sense of wanderlust. I found myself looking up the places Nora visited, and they’re now documented on my bucket list. This read was such a good inspiration to go travel and see new places. The description of Nora’s documented travels through her art made me want to start my own journal and travel to new, enriching places.

  The only thing I would want to see more of in this book would be more description of the relationships between her friends. Even this book is more about the relationship between mother and daughter, more friendship details may help round out the story. With this aside, AND WE’RE OFF was a super quick read and I completely recommend it to anyone who may deal with some parental relationship difficulties, or just has the wish to travel places. Just from reading this book, I felt like I traveled through Europe with Nora. As my review reflects, this is book is on my favorites list. It was very down to earth and seemed very relatable; I strongly recommend this easy read to anyone who is down for an adventure.

  Reviewed by McKenzie S., Teen Board Member on May 20, 2017

  [Buy this book at IndieBound] [Buy this book at Amazon] [Buy this for Amazon Kindle] [Buy this book at Barnes and Noble]

  And We're Off
  by Dana Schwartz

  Publication Date: May 2, 2017
  Genres: Fiction, Young Adult 14+
  Hardcover: 272 pages
  Publisher: Razorbill
  ISBN-10: 0448493810
  ISBN-13: 9780448493817

Word Count