Vancouver-based author Emily Pohl-Weary fell into the Young Adult genre in a roundabout, serendipitous way. Born into a family of scribes, her grandparents were famous science fiction writers Frederik Pohl and Judith Merril, the latter of whom died halfway through writing her personal memoirs. Pohl-Weary stepped up for her grandmother, took over the text, and Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril became Pohl-Weary’s first published book. 

Since then, the author has added novels, poetry and plays to her collection of work. She’s what I like to call a “writer’s writer,” in that she can and does write anything and everything — or at least, wants to try. Her forte, for now, is YA, and her latest, How to Be Found, is a nearly perfect specimen in  269 fast-paced, plot-driven pages with everything you could possibly want in a teen drama: two very different but inseparable BFFs; a serial killer dubbed “The Strangler” stalking the streets of Toronto; parents who don’t pay as much attention as they should; a dramatic love triangle with a little bit of heavy petting; and all of it wrapped inside a mystery that needs solving.

 

 

Packing that much into one book is an impressive feat, but Pohl-Weary’s long got the teen novel down to an easy art, which is a very good thing since her day job is teaching aspiring authors how it’s done at the University of British Columbia’s School of Creative Writing. Zoomer called the West Coast writer — 50 in calendar years, but forever young at heart — to discuss the unique perks of YA, the joys of reliving her teen years and how she stays hip with forward-thinking, socially conscious kids.

Rosemary Counter: According to your website, you’ve written two novels, two poetry collections, a biography and a play. Is there anything you can’t write?

Emily Pohl-Weary: Absolutely! I’ve tried writing for film and television, and even had a screenplay optioned, but it hasn’t happened yet. I’m working on some non-fiction, some essays. I’m known for getting excited about anything that crosses my path. But I have to pick one at a time or otherwise none of them will happen. I really wish I was better at art, because I’d love to make comics. It would be so nice to be an illustrator because you always have something in your head as you’re writing, then someone else comes in and draws it completely. I actually do draw my characters, just to keep track of them, but not very well. 

RC: Of all the genres, why do you think YA became your forte? 

EPW: I just fell into YA, to be honest. I wrote my first novel, A Girl Like Sugar, without thinking about who would read it or anything like that. Even though my main character was 24, the readers who related to it and wrote to tell me so, were about 18 to 20. It was my publisher who then said, ‘Your writing skews kind of young, have you ever thought about YA?’ I said, ‘No, not really.’ The only time I had written in any voice but my own was a biography of my grandmother, a 73-year-old science fiction writer. She passed away half-way through writing her memoirs, so I finished it for her. Anyhow, once the publisher suggested it, I thought back to my teen years and how horrible they were, and I decided to document my awful high school experience. Only in this version, I took photos and made a zine and solved a mystery. I wish I were that cool. 

RC: Now you can be, even if it’s only in your imagination! What’s the difference between a YA novel and a ‘regular’ one? We don’t put other novels into categories like ‘mid-life’ or ‘senior’?

EPW: Yes, you’re right, but the answer is that a YA novel takes place in its own kind of teen universe. Your main character usually carries the story, and it matters so much that the reader really knows their character, because teenagers are often looking for a roadmap on how to understand what’s going on. A teen makes a great main character because they make a lot of mistakes, they act without thinking, they overreact. There’s a ton of drama in their world. A pimple can be drama. 

RC: That’s so interesting and I totally get it: A pimple on a grown-up means nothing, but a pimple on a teenager feels major. 

EPW: Their brains aren’t fully formed yet, so they can and do all kinds of dumb things that it would make no sense for an adult to do. They’re not aware of the consequences, so characters in YA novels just tend to plunge into situations. This makes for good writing, and reading. But I don’t just mean kids are dumb, because they’re not, and in a lot of ways they’re well ahead of the rest of us. Teenagers tend to be on the cusp of social change and social issues. Teens these days understand identity and sexuality and difference a lot better than we do. 

RC: I really like that How to Be Found reflects a modern social reality; the dads aren’t around, the girls live together with their single moms, the friends sometimes hook up. It doesn’t get overexplained and doesn’t seriously affect the plot, it’s just their everyday lives. 

EPW: To them, it’s normal. I think we used to read so much about nuclear families that anything else was strange. But I don’t think that was true in real life. I grew up in Toronto, in Parkdale, which was complex and rich. My parents divorced when I was young and my mother sold half our house to her best friend, who lived with her daughter who was my age. I borrowed a lot of my story for this book, and I decided I didn’t have to explain anything if I didn’t want to. The dads aren’t there, but it’s not important to the story, so I don’t have to explain. This is not an issue novel, though it does have some themes that I hope people will come away with, but I don’t have to take any stances. 

RC: It’s been almost 20 years since your first YA novel came out. Has the genre changed since then? 

EPW: Oh yes. It’s so diverse, first of all, by which I mean there’s so much more than Judy Blume and Sweet Valley High. I still love both of those, by the way. YA now is so fast-moving, nothing is slow and meandering. They’re so much more willing to tackle social issues and social change — faster than adults, even, who often haven’t grasped the concept by the time teens have totally accepted it. It’s also diverse in that there’s queer characters, disabled characters, trans characters, characters who reject labels entirely. I remember myself at that age and I keep those feelings, but I also remember times have changed. I’m trying to be as honest as I possibly can be about what life is like for them.