Q&A with poet Sarah Crossan

This month we have celebrated verse novels as part of our National Year of Reading programme so who better to highlight and ask some questions than Sarah Crossan. Sarah has written several novels in verse and has very kindly answered questions about both the genre and her brand new thriller in verse Gone for Good.

Sarah Crossan answers our Questions about her new novel in verse Gone for Good

Verse novels are only becoming more popular, what drew you to it initially and what do you love about writing in verse?

Many years ago I lived in New Jersey and was teaching Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust, which was the first young person’s verse novel I had ever encountered. I couldn’t believe that my sixth graders wanted to read it. I realised this is how we keep young people engaged in the poetry — by making it about them and giving it a relevant narrative. I love the speed at which you can read a verse novel, and as a writer I can focus on the emotional nucleus of the book and skip all the boring bits when I write. (Sadly they are not as speedy to write as they are to read!)

How did you find it negotiating conveying the discovery and investigation of a crime in verse?

Oh yes, this was a real challenge, which is why it’s taken me so long to finish a thriller. I simply wrote a very long verse novel and then cut, cut, cut. There was no other way to do it because I have to convey a lot of important information.

The setting was intense! How did you learn about places like Silver Lake and why did you want this to be the setting?

I know the Adirondacks quite well having walked there many times. I love the wildness of it, but it also frightened me, imagining getting lost and being alone. It’s the sort of place you can imagine an axe murderer prowling!

**There were so many twists and secrets [in Gone for Good], how do you manage keeping track of them all?**

I drew maps, had index cards with plot points, and ultimately made loads of mistakes and had to rewrite again and again.

What would you say to students writing in verse who aren’t sure how or where to begin?

Just begin. Free verse mimics speech so it doesn’t have to follow any poetic convention. I often find that young people who speak in non-standard English make the best poets.

Many thanks to Sarah for answering our questions. You can see a selection of her most popular verse novels below along with the brand new Gone for Good.