On Nov. 16, the National English Honor Society (NEHS) hosted Janelle Milanes, a young-adults novelist, where she spoke to students about her background, answered questions about being an author, and engaged them in a writing activity.
“I thought she was extremely engaging and what I thought would be just another author talking about her book turned out to be a walk-through of the publishing process,” said sophomore Jordan Schmidt. “I enjoyed hearing her talk about how she writes her books.”
At first she gave a presentation where she mentioned her background, and discussed her latest novel, “Analee, in Real Life.” Afterwards, the floor opened up to questions.
“I asked her who thinks of her titles and she said that she’s horrible with titles and her editor usually gives her good suggestions,” said senior Leah Boyd.
Then she gave the students a writing prompt about a high school stereotype sitting in a cafeteria. Milanes based this prompt on the stories that she typically writes, which are about her experiences as a teenager in high school. Her own experience as a Latina influenced the type of protagonist that she writes — a Cuban-American girl.
“She said that she makes her protagonists Cuban-American because she grew up always reading about the white girl tropes and wanted to put some of her in it without making it too stereotypical or political,” said Boyd.
Milanes also spent time discussing the creative process and how to get published.
“I hope that students learned to not give up and that rejection is part of becoming a writer,” said English teacher Paige Vignola.