They admire the “brilliant and wonderful” nature of young adult audiences, particularly teenagers. It was there that they first recognized how seriously young people approach storytelling and realized they might enjoy writing for young readers instead of producing “high-brow literary work” for adults.Ĭornwell says their connection with literature for young people comes from a “heart place,” an attempt to make a genuine connection. Though Cornwell always wanted to be a writer, the desire to write for young adult (YA) audiences first emerged during an internship at Teen Ink. If I do a retelling, then I have the plot and I can kind of focus on my pretty language. A course titled “Fairy Tales and Gender” at Cornwell’s undergraduate school, Smith College, offered a new perspective on storytelling.īC: A fairy tale is this plot that has worked for a lot of people for a long time, and I can use it as plot training wheels.

But early feedback informed Cornwell that their strengths were in description and poetry, not plot. This kind of writing by retelling hadn’t always been their plan. Over the course of Cornwell’s career, these children’s stories also evolved into a New York Times bestselling Cinderella retelling ( Mechanica), its sequel ( Venturess), a female Robin Hood retelling ( The Forest Queen), and a circus-themed retelling of Snow White and Rose Red ( The Circus Rose). The selkie bride story that inspired their first novel, Tides (2013), was one of many tales in their grandparents’ illustrated copy of Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee. As a child, they read Lang’s Fairy Books, which includes stories from Hans Christian Anderson and Brothers Grimm. In a starred review, Kirkus called this retelling of Cinderella “a smart, refreshing alternative to stale genre tropes.” Mechanica is a YALSA Teens’ Top Ten nominee for 2016.īetsy’s debut novel, Tides, was published in 2013 to critical acclaim including a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, a place in the Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year, and a Bisexual Book Awards nomination.īetsy has two more novels forthcoming from Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in 20.YA Novelist Betsy Cornwell has always loved fairy tales. Mechanica was published in 2015 and has featured on several best of the year lists, including ’s Best Young Adult Books and USA Today‘s Must-Read Romances. in creative writing from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. She is the story editor and a contributing writer at Parabola, and her short-form writing includes fiction, nonfiction, and literary translation and has appeared in Fairy Tale Review, Zahir Tales, The Violence Prevention Initiative Journal, and elsewhere.

Betsy Cornwell is a New York Times bestselling author living in west Ireland.

Tides by betsy cornwell