Two new novels for honored Mt. Airy 'Young Adult' author

Posted 3/15/18

Mt. Airy resident Cordelia Jensen has not one, but two new novels being released in the weeks to come. by Len Lear A Mt. Airy author who earned rave reviews for her audacious 2015 novel, …

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Two new novels for honored Mt. Airy 'Young Adult' author

Posted

Mt. Airy resident Cordelia Jensen has not one, but two new novels being released in the weeks to come.

by Len Lear

A Mt. Airy author who earned rave reviews for her audacious 2015 novel, “Skyscraping,” a semi-autobiographical tale of 17-year-old Mira, who learns that her father is gay and dying of AIDS, has not one but two new novels about to come out that should cement her blossoming reputation as a significant Young Adult author not only in prose but also in verse.

Cordelia Jensen, 42, was in 9th grade in 1990 when she discovered that her father, whom she described as "bisexual," had contracted AIDS. "I had been hearing my dad on the phone with all these doctors, so I asked my therapist. She said, 'Don't you know? He's HIV-positive.'”

“Skyscraping,” Jensen's book that came out of the cauldron of that tragic experience, was named a 2016 ”Best Book for Young Adults” by the American Library Association and won numerous other plaudits. The powerful story was published by Penguin Books, one of the nation's leading publishers.

On the website Booklist, reviewer Jennifer Barnes wrote about Jensen's literary debut: “After walking in on her professor father and his teaching assistant James, both naked, Mira finds her world upturned ... In exquisite free-verse poems, Jensen traces Mira’s struggle as she drifts away from her family before being jerked back into their orbit ... but it’s Jensen’s stunning ability to bring the raw uncertainty of the AIDS crisis in the 1990s to vivid life that is so exceptional. Illuminating and deeply felt!”

Now Cordelia has another young adult verse novel coming out March 27 called “The Way the Light Bends” (Penguin/Philomel Books) about fitting in, defining your own self-worth, standing out and what it takes to keep a fracturing family whole. In the book, virtual twins Linc and Holly were once extremely close. But while artistic, creative Linc is her parents' daughter biologically, it's smart, popular Holly, adopted from Ghana as a baby, who exemplifies the family's high-achieving model of academic success.

But, according to the publisher, “When a long-buried family secret comes to light, Linc must decide whether her mother's love is worth obtaining. A novel in verse that challenges the way we think about family and belonging.”

Jensen told us last week, “I came up with the idea for 'The Way the Light Bends' after hearing a story on NPR about Seneca Village (a long-gone village in New York City where Central Park now stands). Upon hearing that story, I immediately had a vision of two sisters walking through Central Park. I knew immediately that they had been close but were now distant, and I knew one was black and one was white. I went from there.”

"Skyscraping," Jensen's previous novel written in verse, was bought by Penguin Books, one of the nation's leading publishers, and received ecstatic reviews.

Jensen's other novel coming out soon, “Every Shiny Thing,” for children 10 to 14, was co-written with Northern Liberties writer, Laurie Morrison, a former classmate of Cordelia's at Vermont College of Fine Arts. “I am incredibly lucky to have Cordelia in my writing life,” said Laurie. “I admire her writing immensely. She is a true master of the verse novel.”

“Every Shiny Thing” (Amulet/Abrams Books), which takes place in Mt. Airy, is about two sisters who come up with a Robin Hood scheme to raise money for autistic kids with very limited resources. According to Cordelia, the bookwas inspired by kids I worked with as a counselor and a situation that involved my own niece. Essentially, I wanted to write about a kid who was a caretaker for an addict parent, and even though she is in a new and better situation, has a fierce loyalty and love for her parent. I also wanted this character to get into a situation with a friend in which she played a caretaker role that becomes ultimately destructive to both girls.

“I wanted to show kids that if they are feeling overwhelmed in a friendship situation, they need to ask an adult for help. As a kid, I was often overwhelmed in friendship situations, and I think I would have really benefitted by some adult intervention.”

“The Way the Light Bends” took about a year and a half to write. It went through eight revisions and changed a lot through the course of these revisions. Cordelia and Laurie wrote “Every Shiny Thing” in just two months, but after the book was bought, they then worked on revisions and copy edits for a year or so.

What are the biggest challenges in writing in verse? “The biggest challenge is in revision, I think,” said Cordelia. “You edit for the story and lose the language; you edit for language and lose the story. Another big challenge is developing secondary characters since you are so much in the main character’s head and because you are using a minimal amount of dialogue.”

Cordelia's hope for both new books “is for the story and/or language to move someone emotionally and spark inspiration or ideas or questions.”

Jensen is a Writer in Residence at The Big Blue Marble Bookstore in West Mt. Airy, where she runs a kids’ literary journal called the Mt. Airy Musers. For more information, visit www.cordeliajensen.com.