For her standout YA novel Out of Nowhere, about race relations among high school soccer players, author Maria Padian researched actual events and interviewed those involved. Here she shares more on the unique experience, as well as why she could never be a doctor.
YOUNG ADULT: What is your earliest memory involving writing?
Maria Padian: I think I began writing in 8th grade. I distinctly remember a yellow tablet, blue ball point pen, and a few pages of a very ridiculous story where people fell down and scrambled eggs ended up on the floor. Not a propitious beginning! I also remember submitting fiction to “Seventeen” magazine when I was a teen, and saving all my rejection notes and taping them to my bedroom door. I had heard that you had to acquire a lot of rejections before an acceptance came in, so I very happily collected all those rejects, absolutely believing each one brought me closer to the promised land of “accepted” work!
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What is different about Out of Nowhere?
MP: Out of Nowhere is a work of fiction inspired by actual events that took place in Lewiston, Maine. For a little more than a decade, Somali refugees have been settling in Lewiston, which is a former mill town predominately French-Catholic, and overwhelmingly white. It was a pretty unlikely place for thousands of destitute, non-English speaking, African Muslims to land, and there were definitely tensions and difficulties. My story is told from the point of view of a teenage boy observing these changes taking place in his town, and directly experiencing them as Somali boys join his soccer team.
YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you.
MP: I like to begin a writing day with my Australian Shepherd, Frisbee. If you know this breed, affectionately known as “Aussies,” you’ll know I’m talking about a BRISK walk, in all kinds of weather! These are busy, active dogs, and they don’t tolerate couch potato owners! Anyway, I use my time outside with Frisbee to think about where I left off the day before, and what part of the story I’m going to work on today. Once home I’ll usually settle down at the computer by 9 a.m., break for lunch, and if I still have some energy for the story I might work a little more in the early afternoon. Late afternoons are for errands, and also for answering email and doing writing “work” (social networking, blogging) that doesn’t have to do with the actual fiction.
YA: Can you describe the path to getting this work published? What were the challenges? What was easy about it?
MP: I sold this story to Knopf with three chapters and a synopsis, which, frankly, I found very hard to write! Truly, it’s easier to write the novel than to write the synopsis! Once I had sold the idea, I had a LOT of research to do, and a lot of people to talk to. I was especially concerned about getting it “right,” meaning accurately portraying the types of relationships these young people would have with each other. I conducted a lot of interviews, and at first, I wasn’t making much progress. I was speaking to adults, and many of them had a particular “agenda” when it came to the Somalis, and I found myself getting caught up in the tribulations rocking the community, rather than learning about the relationships.
I finally broke through when I was introduced to a couple of boys…one white, one Somali…who played soccer together and were both very open to meeting with me and answering my questions. The whole book opened up for me at that point, because I had a real sense of what was possible. For example, I had played with the idea of a white boy having a “romantic” relationship with a Somali girl…and after getting a glimpse at the social scene at Lewiston High School I discarded that idea right away! However, I did hear about how the boys…white and Somali…socialized, or didn’t, outside of school. How they fared at pasta parties, dealt with dietary restrictions, that sort of thing.
YA: In what way is Out of Nowhere a socially conscious work? What do you hope the young adult audience takes away from reading it?
MP: I think the book raises a range of issues, from how we treat immigrants and people we perceive as “other,” to post 9-11 fears and prejudices, to the undertones of class warfare in America, to elitism and youth sports…there’s a lot there. It was never my intention to be preachy about any of these topics, but to dramatize them with honesty and compassion so that readers would care about the characters, and perhaps be compelled to examine their own feelings about these topics.
If I had one “dream” takeaway from the book: I think we fear what we don’t know and don’t understand. I think if we break bread with people and hear their stories and get to know them, we no longer distrust or fear them. We don’t see them as “other” anymore. I’d like to think teens might read Out of Nowhere and be more open to people of other religions and races and life experiences.
YA: If you hadn’t become an author, what path would your career have perhaps taken?
MP: I went through a stage when I was young when I loved science, especially biology, and dreamed of becoming a doctor. As it turns out, I faint at the sight of blood. No joke. There are many, many incidents of Maria hitting the floor when things get the least bit gory. So…no doctoring for me.
If I hadn’t pursued fiction I probably would have stuck with journalism. I was a reporter for a while, and loved it. I had some pretty neat adventures as a reporter and met some fascinating people, so that would have been satisfying work. I’m grateful now for the experience I gained interviewing people: that skill was very useful when I had to interview people for Out of Nowhere.
At Maquoit High School, Tom Bouchard has it made: captain and star of the soccer team, boyfriend to one of the prettiest, most popular girls, and third in his class, likely to have his pick of any college, if he ever bothers filling out his applications. But life in his idyllic small Maine town quickly gets turned upside down after the events of 9/11.
Enniston has become a “secondary migration” location for Somali refugees, who are seeking a better life after their country was destroyed by war—they can no longer go home. Tom hasn’t thought much about his Somali classmates until four of them join the soccer team, including Saeed. He comes out of nowhere on the field to make impossible shots, and suddenly the team is winning, dominating even; but when Saeed’s eligibility is questioned and Tom screws up in a big way, he’s left to grapple with a culture he doesn’t understand and take responsibility for his actions. Saeed and his family came out of nowhere and vanish just as quickly. And Tom may find himself going nowhere, too, if he doesn’t start trying to get somewhere.
Find out more about the author at www.mariapadian.com