Switching from Prose to Poetry: One Writer’s Journey, a guest post by author Jessica Vitalis

I’ve always had a complicated relationship with poetry. In sixth grade I wrote a poem about friendship that my homeroom teacher hung on the wall and then read years later at a high school commencement speech. This early success inspired me to explore my difficult home life through the use of free verse (non-rhyming poetry that doesn’t require adherence to any particular set of rules).

In college, poetry transformed from a form of personal expression to counting syllables, analyzing complicated rhyme schemes, and uncovering obscure meanings. (Looking at you, “Ode to a Grecian Urn.”) While these are worthwhile pursuits, they didn’t speak to me the same way free verse did, and I walked away with the sense that I must not be a “true” poet.

 If verse novels existed at the time, I wasn’t aware of them; indeed, it wasn’t until they exploded in the middle grade market relatively recently that I had the pleasure of reading one. In case the term is new to you, verse novels are full-length books written in short, usually non-rhyming free verse. They offer all of the benefits of books written in prose with several added perks. First, there is a tremendous amount of white space on the page, which can do wonders for reluctant readers who struggle to make it through a full novel. Second, they invite readers to participate more fully in the reading experience: one needs only to pick up The Crossover by Kwame Alexander or Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson to understood how fully immersive verse novels can be. In addition, they make use of alliteration, metaphorical language, internal rhymes, and all sorts of other poetical devices to fully captivate the reader.

Despite being mesmerized by the form, I didn’t believe I had the writing chops to pull one off. Perhaps even more importantly, I didn’t have an idea that lent itself to the kind of character driven, emotional exploration that verse novels typically require.

And then Covid happened. During lockdown, I began working on an anthology submission about first kisses. The only problem? I don’t actually remember my first kiss. Drawing inspiration from an early crush and imagining what might have happened had I actually possessed the self-confidence to talk to the boy in question, I wrote a short story—and no one was more surprised than me when it came out in verse!

When my editor expressed an interest in seeing the story as a novel, I was terrified. What business did I have writing a novel in verse after publishing three books written in prose? But the opportunity seemed too good to pass up, and I decided to give it a go. At first, I had trouble figuring out how to extend the short story into an entire book. I also grappled with what kind of image system might be appropriate for a middle grade novel about a poor girl crushing on a rich boy.

As I wrote, I started noticing certain themes appearing in the story over and over. My main character, Cayenne, seemed to spend a lot of time bird-watching. And she referred to the van she lived in with her mother and father as a “nest.” In addition, I started playing with the Titanic and all the parallels the ship’s socio-economic structure seemed to have with Cayenne’s story.

Over time, my short story about a first kiss turned into a verse novel not only about first crushes, birds, and the discovery of the Titanic, but about what it means to fit in––and whether that’s really something worth striving for. Unsinkable Cayenne comes out on October 29th with Greenwillow/HarperCollins, and whether you are contemplating trying your hand at verse, looking for a read-aloud with curriculum tie-ins for the next school year, or simply looking for a poignant, powerful story for your next read, I hope you’ll check it out. In the meantime, I’ll be working on my next novel––in verse.

About UNSINKABLE CAYENNE

When her unconventional parents finally agree to settle down in one place, twelve-year-old Cayenne’s dreams come true—but the reality of fitting in is much harder than she imagined. Acclaimed author Jessica Vitalis crafts an unforgettable historical novel-in-verse about belonging, family, and social class for fans of Lisa Fipps’s Starfish and Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home.

Cayenne and her family drift from place to place, living in their van. It hasn’t been a bad life—Cayenne and her mother birdwatch in every new location, they have a cozy setup in the van, and they sing and dance and bond over campfires most nights. But they’ve never belonged anywhere.

As Cayenne enters seventh grade, her parents decide to settle down in a small Montana town. Cayenne hopes that this means she will finally fit in and make some friends. But it turns out that staying in one place isn’t easy.

As her social studies class studies the Titanic tragedy (the wreckage has just been discovered and her teacher is obsessed), Cayenne sees more and more parallels between the social strata of the infamous ship and her own life. Will she ever squeeze her way into the popular girls’ clique, even though they live in fancy houses on the hill, and she lives in a tiny, rundown home with chickens in the front yard? Is it possible that the rich boy she likes actually likes her back? Can she find a way to make room for herself in this town? Does she really want to? Maybe being “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Unsinkable Cayenne is a character-driven novel-in-verse about family, friendship, first crushes, and fitting in. Set in the mid-1980s, this literary novel is for readers of Megan E. Freeman’s Alone and Erin Entrada Kelly’s We Dream of Space.

Meet Our Author

Bio: JESSICA VITALIS is an award-winning, Columbia MBA-wielding middle grade author with Greenwillow/HarperCollins. Her books have been translated into three languages, received multiple starred reviews, been designated as Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections, and appeared on “Best Book” lists for Kirkus and CCBC. Her latest novel, Coyote Queen, won the Reading the West Book Award and the Women Writing the West 2024 WILLA Literary Award in Children’s Fiction and Non-Fiction. It is also a High Plains Book Award and SCBWI Crystal Kite Book Award finalist. A historical novel in verse, Unsinkable Cayenne, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection arriving October 29th, 2024. Jessica has American and Canadian citizenship; she currently lives and writes in Ontario but speaks at schools, conferences, and festivals all over North America. Connect on Instagram at @jessicavauthor and check out her website at www.jessicavitalis.com

Links:Website www.jessicavitalis.com

IG and FB: @jessicavauthor

Filed under: Middle Grade, Middle Grade Fiction, Mind the Middle, Mind the Middle Project