Revolution, released in October, is, like all Donnelly’s novels, grounded in copious research. They just so happen to write for young adults.” “I think young adult writers, some of them at least, are the ones who are taking the biggest risks right now,” she adds, naming two of her favorites, M. That said, she doesn’t mind at all being called a young adult novelist. “I think a good story with a compelling character that’s well written should appeal to anybody.” Her young adult novels are narrated by characters in their teens, but that doesn’t mean that only teens should find them interesting, Donnelly says. “People look for an easy categorization,” she says. In 2010, she released Revolution, and the third and final work in the Tea Rose trilogy, The Wild Rose, is slated for release by Hyperion later in 2011.ĭonnelly argues the distinction between adult and young adult fiction is limiting. In 2006, she published The Winter Rose (HarperCollins), the second novel of the Tea Rose trilogy. Cast as a reimagining from a young hotel worker’s perspective of the events that inspired Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, the book won multiple awards, including Britain’s Carnegie Medal for children’s literature, an honor that has gone to just one other American author. Novelist Frank McCourt called the novel “a splendid, heartwarming novel of pain, struggle, decency, triumph.” A year later, she rose to higher acclaim with her second novel, A Northern Light (Harcourt), a work for young adults. Morning, during her evenings, and on weekends, she worked on what would become her first novel, and the first of a trilogy,Ī historical epic for adults, The Tea Rose (St. Perhaps the compliment reflects the fact that Donnelly moves effortlessly between writing for young adults and older ones.Īfter graduating from Rochester with a degree in English, she worked as a journalist. Says Donnelly: “One of the most gratifying things I heard, from a 16-year-old girl was, ‘You didn’t talk down to me. The tour brought her not only to bookstores, but also to high schools, where she spoke in auditoriums of anywhere from 100 to 300 students. Last fall, Donnelly, who makes her home in New York’s Hudson River Valley, was on a tour promoting her fourth novel, Revolution (Delacorte, 2010)-not exactly a title that panders to stereotypes of modern teens.

And, she says, they’re not only up to the challenge, they’re grateful for it. Jennifer Donnelly ’85 is a historical fiction writer who demands quite a bit of her mostly teenage readers. PORTRAITS: Donnelly (opposite) says an article about the death of revolutionary France’s Prince Louis Charles (above) was the inspiration for her new novel.

The tea rose trilogy