A prominent author of YA novels, Chris Crutcher has penned over ten books. He's unafraid of exploring difficult topics, and for that reason, his stories represent no less than the most authentic and raw depictions of reality. Drawing from his experiences as a family therapist, Crutcher wrote books that reflects children struggling to thrive in poor family environments and how sports let them see the light again.
From October 23rd to 26th, Shanghai American School was fortunate to have Crutcher visit our school and talk to the students about his past experiences. After a quick interview with Crutcher, we were able to learn more about his past experiences and how they all contributed to the writing of his books. We got his glimpse of his life through his PAC presentation, but it just felt a whole lot more authentic in a face to face interaction. His conversations about teenage athletics and self-esteem, kids facing physical and racial discrimination have shaped a generation of kids. A charismatic, honest and brave writer, Chris Crutcher was an honor to have in SAS.
Q: You mentioned that in the community you lived in as a young child, bigotry was implicit but rampant, which in turn shaped the mindsets and behaviors of children because they didn’t give a second thought to what they were exposed to. So what made you give the second thought?
A: What made me give the second thought was the fact that we had several Japanese families in town who had been through internment camps. One of them was my really good friend, he was in my class and he was my college roommate. I just couldn’t believe that somebody would do that to him and his family— the injustice of it really ticked me off. Another thing was, my father was the kind of guy who read my and my brother’s college books. He had an expansive mind; he’d been a bomber pilot in WW2 and he was a news geek. So I’d had lots of information at home that other kids didn’t have. If you grow up in a place that’s small-minded, racism seeps in and you have to pay really close attention to not get sucked in. One thing that was different for me was that I came out of that town, had stereotypical views, but I was aware of it. That allowed me to be more conscious of staying away from stereotypes in my writing.
Q: What is your ultimate goal in writing the stories geared toward teenagers? Are you books directed more toward teenagers or to the general public?
A: The publishers decide the audience of the book and how they market it. So if I had a 17 or 18 year old character, the general marketing they do is toward the YA section. I actually get a number of letters from older people, and that’s because YA books have become more mainstream. When I was writing in ’82, the YA section of libraries would be near the children’s aisle where no teenager would ever go. In my mind, I think my books are directed to anybody who picks them up. My goal in telling a story is to tell a good story — to engage and connect. If there are lessons in a story, they come because of the story. If you start thinking you want to teach a lesson in a story, you’ll do a bad job. The other thing is that the lesson comes from the reader. If someone asks me what I want them to get out of the books, I tell them I want them to get whatever they get. If they don’t like it, I want them to close it early. If they do like it, they get what they get. I’m not smart enough to dictate what they should learn from the book.
Q: All of the stories and characters in your books are based off real life people and their stories. You mentioned that the girl you reconstructed in “Whale Talk” responded sort of cheekily to her life’s portrayal in the books. What was the most memorable response that someone had, having discovered you had weaved them in your book?
A: There was one time that was actually kind of comical. When I wrote “Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes,” and the two characters in Sarah Byrnes are seniors who used to be tormented by this bully back in their middle school days. Well, in my mind, this bully was a kid named Dale Thornton, who used to steal my lunch money back in school. And he was so similar to Dale Thornton, I just went ahead and took his name for the character. When I was done, I thought, I would edit his name out. But I forgot. I wasn’t that worried about it since I knew the last thing Dale Thornton would do is read. And they don't have that book at the Idaho State Penitentiary, ‘cause I figured that was where he would end up. So I get this email from a kid named Morris, and he said, “my wife brought your books home, they’re pretty good! But I noticed you used some real names in the books.” And that’s when I remembered Morris and Dale were cousins. So I emailed him back and asked, “Is Dale after me?” But he replied that Dale died in prison the previous year. So I was actually kind of right. But I think Dale would’ve liked the way he turned out in the book— he sort of becomes a hero. But the point is, a lot of times I publish a book, and my clients ask me, “is that character me?” And I would’ve wrote that book five years before I even met them. There’s just something about hurting and suffering that lots of people can relate to. It’s real familiar territory.
Q: So all your books communicate the idea of compassion and social and cultural empathy in a really profound manner, and you have impacted children all across America. Some read your books and realize that they’re not alone, and others gain more awareness of different cultural controversies and are able to rethink some of their inherent values. When was the most memorable time when someone told you the impact your books had on his or her life?
A: I’ve had a number of those. I get a lot of emails saying “this book saved my life.” It probably didn’t save their life, but what it really meant was that he or she saw a character in my story that had a tougher life, or a life that’s so much like theirs that it felt like somebody understood. I got a really interesting letter that kind of stands out as a response for “Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes,” which is a story about this girl who’s pushed against a hot stove by her alcoholic father. Sarah Byrnes got teased a lot when she was younger because of her physical deformities. And the girl who wrote the letter said, “none of those things have ever happened to me, but I think I might be one of the people who treats those people badly. And when I read the book I decided to stop doing that.” And that has more power in my mind because you don’t hear the perpetrator’s account as often, and also if you get the people who do the damage to stop doing the damage, that kind of has an umbrella effect. “Stotan!” is about this swim team that goes through grueling psychological and physical situation, and people have told me that they’re trying to push themselves harder playing sports after they read it. I’ve had a number of wrestling teams who have had “Stotan!” emblazoned on their attire as well.
Q: Why do you think parents are afraid of their children reading those books that addresses real-life problems?
A: Concerned parents want their kids to be safe, and that’s okay. But the idea that you can keep someone safe by keeping them ignorant doesn’t make sense to me. In my world, the more we know, the better chance we have of making good decisions. The more we know, the less likely we’re going to have our heads or hearts broken. A lot of people think that if my kid doesn’t read any bad words or doesn’t read stories that have lesbian characters or stories that have controversial characters, they won’t be that way. That doesn't translate. People say they want to keep their children innocent for as long as they can. And I think that it’s a natural thought, as I do for my grandchildren. But it starts becoming damaging if you don’t understand where innocence flips over to ignorance. Most of us are good sensors— if you pick up a book and it’s got stuff you don’t want to read, or if it’s too intense, you close it. People who are conservative or religious don’t like my books because they consider a lot of the things I write about to be “evil”. When I started being a family therapist, no one talked about the horrible things that children were going through. Little kids are being hurt in a way that’s going to hurt them the rest of their lives. And we’re not doing anything about it because we’re not willing to talk about it. So I made a decision to be loud about it.
Q: What books and authors do you think have most influenced your writing?
A: When I started reading as a senior in college, the go-to guy for me was Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut could state some of the most astute visions of the world in very little words— he was as good as you get it in word economy. He had a lot of effect on me. I read “The Color Purple” when I’d been writing for a little while. I bet I read it five times. “how in the world is she doing this?” People used to give me a hard time about rough stuff that I put in books. Alice Walker passed me in the first chapter. Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” was a collection of short stories that together becomes a novel. It’s the before, during, and after of the Vietnam War for a guy who was too afraid not to go but was too embarrassed to resist. It looks like a war story, but it’s a life story. And then I go back to authors who write YA like me, you got Lois Lowry who wrote “The Giver” and Walter Dean Meyers. I love writers who come up with these magical ideas and pursue them. I read a lot of non-fiction too. I just read a book called “The Boys in the Boat” which is about a couple of Americans forming a ragtag team and storming the rowing world while the Germans were trying to conquer Europe. It’s non-fiction, but it reads like a story. Also an amazing book that connects sports and life.
Q: Are you currently working on a book?
A: I have one that I finished that’s coming out on April and it’s about a girl who grew up in foster care and has a family of drug users. But she’s being raised by a responsible family who can also be controlling, and the two families don’t like each other very much. Her heart is with her blood, but she knows where she’s supposed to be. So she’s kind of sneaking around to see her mom and dad. The book is called, “Loser’s Bracket”. In Spokane, there is a basketball tournament in the summer time called, “Hoop Fest”. It’s the largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament in the country, with 12,000 people playing basketball in the streets of Spokane. If you lose your first game, you get to play twice as many games. She’s forbidden to see her parents unless she sees them in public. So they come to her games, and she goes up to the loser bracket to see her “crazy” mother more.
I’ve got another book that is finished but needs editing. It’s about a group of high school kids who are juniors and seniors and when they were kindergartens, they’ve gone to an opening of a mall, down seeing Santa Claus. Then they see a shooter and he starts shooting people. He’s hidden about two stories up so it takes some time. The kids who were still alive are having to deal with the survivor’s guilt and being 6 years old and losing your best friend or your mom, it deals with the nastiness that goes with school shootings.
Q: Most important pieces of advice you could impart to a budding writer?
A: Read a lot! One of the reasons I didn’t write until I was 35 was because I wasn’t a voracious reader, particularly when I was in high school dealing with ADHD. It was really hard for me to concentrate. I could not have written if I haven’t read. Read a lot of what it is you want to write, because there are rules to fantasy and rules to realistic fiction. Those rules come from the people who write. And if you read a lot of what the genre that you want to write, you will see very quickly what’s good writing and what isn’t. I also would say get a very decent vocabulary and having precise language. Pay a lot of attention to poetry because it requires real word precision. But the biggest thing is, write everyday if you can. Write anything that makes you mad or happy. Also, don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it. When I started writing, I was scared that nobody is going to publish my books. But I wanted it to happen, and I was willing to find out how to get it done. My books were way simpler, because I haven’t give myself the skill. The things that you are really good at, you throw those things into writing, and you will become a better writer.
Qinyi Ma and Caroline Yang
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| via Broke Bohemian |
From October 23rd to 26th, Shanghai American School was fortunate to have Crutcher visit our school and talk to the students about his past experiences. After a quick interview with Crutcher, we were able to learn more about his past experiences and how they all contributed to the writing of his books. We got his glimpse of his life through his PAC presentation, but it just felt a whole lot more authentic in a face to face interaction. His conversations about teenage athletics and self-esteem, kids facing physical and racial discrimination have shaped a generation of kids. A charismatic, honest and brave writer, Chris Crutcher was an honor to have in SAS.
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| Taken by Kelsey Heeringa |
Q: You mentioned that in the community you lived in as a young child, bigotry was implicit but rampant, which in turn shaped the mindsets and behaviors of children because they didn’t give a second thought to what they were exposed to. So what made you give the second thought?
A: What made me give the second thought was the fact that we had several Japanese families in town who had been through internment camps. One of them was my really good friend, he was in my class and he was my college roommate. I just couldn’t believe that somebody would do that to him and his family— the injustice of it really ticked me off. Another thing was, my father was the kind of guy who read my and my brother’s college books. He had an expansive mind; he’d been a bomber pilot in WW2 and he was a news geek. So I’d had lots of information at home that other kids didn’t have. If you grow up in a place that’s small-minded, racism seeps in and you have to pay really close attention to not get sucked in. One thing that was different for me was that I came out of that town, had stereotypical views, but I was aware of it. That allowed me to be more conscious of staying away from stereotypes in my writing.
Q: What is your ultimate goal in writing the stories geared toward teenagers? Are you books directed more toward teenagers or to the general public?
A: The publishers decide the audience of the book and how they market it. So if I had a 17 or 18 year old character, the general marketing they do is toward the YA section. I actually get a number of letters from older people, and that’s because YA books have become more mainstream. When I was writing in ’82, the YA section of libraries would be near the children’s aisle where no teenager would ever go. In my mind, I think my books are directed to anybody who picks them up. My goal in telling a story is to tell a good story — to engage and connect. If there are lessons in a story, they come because of the story. If you start thinking you want to teach a lesson in a story, you’ll do a bad job. The other thing is that the lesson comes from the reader. If someone asks me what I want them to get out of the books, I tell them I want them to get whatever they get. If they don’t like it, I want them to close it early. If they do like it, they get what they get. I’m not smart enough to dictate what they should learn from the book.
Q: All of the stories and characters in your books are based off real life people and their stories. You mentioned that the girl you reconstructed in “Whale Talk” responded sort of cheekily to her life’s portrayal in the books. What was the most memorable response that someone had, having discovered you had weaved them in your book?
A: There was one time that was actually kind of comical. When I wrote “Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes,” and the two characters in Sarah Byrnes are seniors who used to be tormented by this bully back in their middle school days. Well, in my mind, this bully was a kid named Dale Thornton, who used to steal my lunch money back in school. And he was so similar to Dale Thornton, I just went ahead and took his name for the character. When I was done, I thought, I would edit his name out. But I forgot. I wasn’t that worried about it since I knew the last thing Dale Thornton would do is read. And they don't have that book at the Idaho State Penitentiary, ‘cause I figured that was where he would end up. So I get this email from a kid named Morris, and he said, “my wife brought your books home, they’re pretty good! But I noticed you used some real names in the books.” And that’s when I remembered Morris and Dale were cousins. So I emailed him back and asked, “Is Dale after me?” But he replied that Dale died in prison the previous year. So I was actually kind of right. But I think Dale would’ve liked the way he turned out in the book— he sort of becomes a hero. But the point is, a lot of times I publish a book, and my clients ask me, “is that character me?” And I would’ve wrote that book five years before I even met them. There’s just something about hurting and suffering that lots of people can relate to. It’s real familiar territory.
Q: So all your books communicate the idea of compassion and social and cultural empathy in a really profound manner, and you have impacted children all across America. Some read your books and realize that they’re not alone, and others gain more awareness of different cultural controversies and are able to rethink some of their inherent values. When was the most memorable time when someone told you the impact your books had on his or her life?
A: I’ve had a number of those. I get a lot of emails saying “this book saved my life.” It probably didn’t save their life, but what it really meant was that he or she saw a character in my story that had a tougher life, or a life that’s so much like theirs that it felt like somebody understood. I got a really interesting letter that kind of stands out as a response for “Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes,” which is a story about this girl who’s pushed against a hot stove by her alcoholic father. Sarah Byrnes got teased a lot when she was younger because of her physical deformities. And the girl who wrote the letter said, “none of those things have ever happened to me, but I think I might be one of the people who treats those people badly. And when I read the book I decided to stop doing that.” And that has more power in my mind because you don’t hear the perpetrator’s account as often, and also if you get the people who do the damage to stop doing the damage, that kind of has an umbrella effect. “Stotan!” is about this swim team that goes through grueling psychological and physical situation, and people have told me that they’re trying to push themselves harder playing sports after they read it. I’ve had a number of wrestling teams who have had “Stotan!” emblazoned on their attire as well.
Q: Why do you think parents are afraid of their children reading those books that addresses real-life problems?
A: Concerned parents want their kids to be safe, and that’s okay. But the idea that you can keep someone safe by keeping them ignorant doesn’t make sense to me. In my world, the more we know, the better chance we have of making good decisions. The more we know, the less likely we’re going to have our heads or hearts broken. A lot of people think that if my kid doesn’t read any bad words or doesn’t read stories that have lesbian characters or stories that have controversial characters, they won’t be that way. That doesn't translate. People say they want to keep their children innocent for as long as they can. And I think that it’s a natural thought, as I do for my grandchildren. But it starts becoming damaging if you don’t understand where innocence flips over to ignorance. Most of us are good sensors— if you pick up a book and it’s got stuff you don’t want to read, or if it’s too intense, you close it. People who are conservative or religious don’t like my books because they consider a lot of the things I write about to be “evil”. When I started being a family therapist, no one talked about the horrible things that children were going through. Little kids are being hurt in a way that’s going to hurt them the rest of their lives. And we’re not doing anything about it because we’re not willing to talk about it. So I made a decision to be loud about it.
Q: What books and authors do you think have most influenced your writing?
A: When I started reading as a senior in college, the go-to guy for me was Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut could state some of the most astute visions of the world in very little words— he was as good as you get it in word economy. He had a lot of effect on me. I read “The Color Purple” when I’d been writing for a little while. I bet I read it five times. “how in the world is she doing this?” People used to give me a hard time about rough stuff that I put in books. Alice Walker passed me in the first chapter. Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” was a collection of short stories that together becomes a novel. It’s the before, during, and after of the Vietnam War for a guy who was too afraid not to go but was too embarrassed to resist. It looks like a war story, but it’s a life story. And then I go back to authors who write YA like me, you got Lois Lowry who wrote “The Giver” and Walter Dean Meyers. I love writers who come up with these magical ideas and pursue them. I read a lot of non-fiction too. I just read a book called “The Boys in the Boat” which is about a couple of Americans forming a ragtag team and storming the rowing world while the Germans were trying to conquer Europe. It’s non-fiction, but it reads like a story. Also an amazing book that connects sports and life.
Q: Are you currently working on a book?
A: I have one that I finished that’s coming out on April and it’s about a girl who grew up in foster care and has a family of drug users. But she’s being raised by a responsible family who can also be controlling, and the two families don’t like each other very much. Her heart is with her blood, but she knows where she’s supposed to be. So she’s kind of sneaking around to see her mom and dad. The book is called, “Loser’s Bracket”. In Spokane, there is a basketball tournament in the summer time called, “Hoop Fest”. It’s the largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament in the country, with 12,000 people playing basketball in the streets of Spokane. If you lose your first game, you get to play twice as many games. She’s forbidden to see her parents unless she sees them in public. So they come to her games, and she goes up to the loser bracket to see her “crazy” mother more.
I’ve got another book that is finished but needs editing. It’s about a group of high school kids who are juniors and seniors and when they were kindergartens, they’ve gone to an opening of a mall, down seeing Santa Claus. Then they see a shooter and he starts shooting people. He’s hidden about two stories up so it takes some time. The kids who were still alive are having to deal with the survivor’s guilt and being 6 years old and losing your best friend or your mom, it deals with the nastiness that goes with school shootings.
Q: Most important pieces of advice you could impart to a budding writer?
A: Read a lot! One of the reasons I didn’t write until I was 35 was because I wasn’t a voracious reader, particularly when I was in high school dealing with ADHD. It was really hard for me to concentrate. I could not have written if I haven’t read. Read a lot of what it is you want to write, because there are rules to fantasy and rules to realistic fiction. Those rules come from the people who write. And if you read a lot of what the genre that you want to write, you will see very quickly what’s good writing and what isn’t. I also would say get a very decent vocabulary and having precise language. Pay a lot of attention to poetry because it requires real word precision. But the biggest thing is, write everyday if you can. Write anything that makes you mad or happy. Also, don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it. When I started writing, I was scared that nobody is going to publish my books. But I wanted it to happen, and I was willing to find out how to get it done. My books were way simpler, because I haven’t give myself the skill. The things that you are really good at, you throw those things into writing, and you will become a better writer.
Qinyi Ma and Caroline Yang
