Ann Dee Ellis has published six books so far, with more in the making. She read excerpts from her pieces at an English Reading Series, sharing the stories behind them that made her into the author she is today.
While trying to make it as a kid’s fiction author, Assistant Professor Ann Dee Ellis (Fiction, Graphic Novels, Essay) received a rejection letter from a publishing house in New York, claiming that she sounded “very much like an adult trying to sound like a kid.” This gut-wrenching feedback drove her to be creative with her voice, and she spent time having fun with her pieces—playing with words like kids would with shovels in a sandbox.
Now the author of six published works and many manuscripts, Ellis read excerpts from her novels at BYU’s English Reading Series (ERS), showing students that writing about big topics such as family and grief doesn’t have to be complicated: it just may require you embrace your inner child.
Building a World from Your Own
Ellis was born and raised in Provo, Utah, a setting that inspires many of her pieces. “I do take a lot from my life,” she said, “you can see there’s Provo at the setting for a lot of places.” One of her more recent novels This Cookie Will Change Your Life takes place in the heart of Provo, including places such as the Provo City Library and the 7-Eleven across the street.
Though her home city has become the background for many of her books, she emphasized that all of her pieces mix fact with fiction, giving each story a fictional world based on reality. Each novel contains characters with different backgrounds and experiences; as she intertwines their worlds, she writes about three main topics: families, community, and grief. This triad has led her to be successful in her writing, in large part because her passion is apparent in each of her pieces.
Expressions of Grief
Ellis’s novel The End or Something Like That tackles the conversation of grief by examining the loss of two individuals in 15-year-old Emmy’s life, her best friend and her science teacher. The beginning of this novel very closely mirrors one of Ellis’s first experiences with loss, which she faced after the passing of her own middle school science teacher.
She recalled attending her late teacher’s funeral with a childhood friend and was shocked to see only two others in attendance. “Ever since,” she said, “[her funeral] has weighed heavily on my mind, and that was one of the ideas that started this novel.”
Just then, a spaceship landed. I got in, and I never came back.
Likewise, her book You May Already Be a Winner addresses another kind of loss—the absence of a parent after divorce. Ellis read excerpts from this piece describing the many ways that 12-year-old Olivia copes with the reality of her family situation by leaning on her community. In one scene where Olivia experiences the peak of her distress, Ellis read, “Just then, a spaceship landed. I got in, and I never came back.” Using Olivia’s vocabulary and experience, Ellis helps her young readers explore heavy topics, such as stress and change.
Writing for Yourself
Though her stories are fictitious, Ellis explained that many of her books arose from very real emotions and, sometimes, even personal events. She said that when writing fiction, it’s important to find “one grounding detail that will do a lot of work for you.” Ellis continued, “Find concrete details that will ground the reader, and they can imagine the rest.”
Learn more about upcoming ERS lectures here.