Hi. Are you doing a school report? I get a lot of emails asking for biographical information, interviews or insights on my books for projects. While I’m always really glad to hear from my readers, there are too many for me to write back! I am sorry.
Below, you’ll hopefully find everything you need. Updated in December, 2020.
If you need materials for a project, I recommend that you:
• read through the questions and answers on this page
• look at the material on the Teachers page
• glance at the About page (that’s also where you’ll find a photo)
• and click on the links below!
You might also want to read the blog (though I don’t keep it up regularly, it’s the go-to place for tour dates and major announcements), follow my Twitter feed, join the party on Instagram, or click on the other social media links, above.
xo E
P.S. All these questions were submitted by readers at one point or another. Thanks, you guys.
Frequently Asked Questions
About Emily
• Where were you born?
New York City, 1967.
• Where did you grow up and go to school?
I grew up in Cambridge, MA and Seattle, WA. I went to college at Vassar and graduate school at Columbia. I have a doctorate in English literature with a focus on 19th century British novel and the history of British book illustration.
• Where do you live?
In the New York City area.
• Can you come talk to my students, my group of librarians, my book club?
I would love to. Inquiries should go to Christine Labov at the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau: clabov @ penguinrandomhouse.com. During covid-19, I am not traveling, but when that changes, I'll post tour dates on my blog.
• What does E stand for? What’s your real name? And why do you go by E?
E. stands for Emily. My dad calls me E. and I always liked it.
• Are you married? Do you have kids? Tell me all about your family.
I’m sorry. I don’t share any information about my family.
• Do you have another job besides writing?
I am a full-time writer.
Here is a very very short video about my first boyfriend (7th grade).
• Who was your first crush and why?
A boy named Colin Cox in Kindergarten. He was dashing.
• Do you have a favorite food?
Guacamole.
• If you could be a writer and pursue another career of interest, what would it be?
Baker. I am a big maker of cakes, brownies and cookies — nothing French or complicated, just classic American-style baking. Go visit Baked for wonderful cookbooks of this nature.
• When did you first decide you wanted to be a writer?
At age 8. I wrote two or three novels that year. But later, I got side-tracked by the theater and thought I wanted to be an actress – and then after that, a literature professor. I began writing creatively in a serious way when I was 22, but wasn’t published until many years later
• What subject did you hate the most in high school?
Physics.
• I heard you have another name.
Yep.
About the Books
• With Whistle, how did you get the job of inventing a Gotham City superhero?
I had been talking with DC Comics about a number of possible projects, but nothing felt right. Finally, I went in for an in-person meeting, and my editor offered me a tour of the archives. It was an amazing hour, looking at all these characters, in all their different iterations. Wonder Woman. Superman. Batman. The Joker. Poison Ivy. The Riddler. Harley Quinn. I thought a lot about how much they mean to so many people, around the globe. It made me really want to be a part of that history. The editor then surprised me by inviting me to invent a superhero. I was floored.
• Why does Genuine Fraud go backward?
Oh, I like a challenge! I had the idea to tell a story backwards for a long time, but the question was, what kind of story would be more interesting backwards than forwards? I decided on the origin story of an antihero character — where you could go back in time to understand how a person might become a monster. I felt that going backward made that kind of story richer and more emotional.
• Is Genuine Fraud an homage to The Talented Mr. Ripley?
Absolutely, and the scene in the boat is a quotation of sorts, deliberately echoing a scene in Highsmith’s novel. But the book is also an homage to superhero comics (The Incredible Hulk, especially, because Hulk is a character whose power is inextricably linked to his rage, which makes it a shameful power). And to Victorian orphan stories (Great Expectations and Vanity Fair, especially).
• Ghosts? Or hallucinations?
I get this question a lot. Go re-read Chapter 22 and Chapter 29. The answer is there!
• In We Were Liars, were you thinking about the Kennedy family?
I didn’t research them or anything. But I was thinking about families like that.
• Did you grow up in a family like the Sinclairs?
No. But all families fight, and many of them fight over property and parental approval. Cadence is an heiress, a drug addict, an amnesiac and a migraine sufferer. I have never been any of those things, but I relate to her anguish over the loss of her first love.
• Will there be a sequel to We Were Liars?
MAYBE.
• Which Ruby book do I read first, The Boyfriend List or what?
The Boyfriend List
The Boy Book
The Treasure Map of Boys
Real Live Boyfriends
• Will there be another Ruby Oliver novel, after Real Live Boyfriends?
No, but here is a free short story about her!
• What are all your books in order of first US publication?
The Boyfriend List (2005)
Fly on the Wall (2006)
The Boy Book (2006)
Dramarama (2007)
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (2008)
How To Be Bad (2008)
The Treasure Map of Boys (2009)
Real Live Boyfriends (2010)
We Were Liars (2014)
Genuine Fraud (2017)
Again Again (2020)
Whistle (2021)
• Are there going to be films of any of your books?
We Were Liars is in development for limited series television. Genuine Fraud is under option for feature film to Jenni Konner and New Regency. So MAYBE.
• Can I write a screenplay? Be involved in any way?
I don’t have any say in the filmmaking process, but thank you for asking! As for expressions of interest from producers, I let my agents deal with everything so I can write books. Here’s a useful explanation of how film stuff works from an author’s perspective, from novelist Ally Carter.
• Where can I buy cool stuff related to your books? I am dying for a t-shirt full of neglected positives.
Thank you for asking! :) These items and more are available at the official E. Lockhart Zazzle shop. Also, We Were Liars merchandise is available from Litographs: full-text t-shirts for women and men in multiple colors, posters, scarves and bags.
• What gave you the idea for The Boyfriend List?
I was sorting through a box of old high school yearbooks (I had a perm), and school papers (I wrote the humor column) and the senior class poll (I administered it – and was voted worst driver) – and I thought, “where’s that little notebook where I wrote down every boy I ever kissed?” And boom – I had a book idea.
• Did the stuff that happens to Roo in The Boyfriend List really happen to you?
No. I made it up, based on my memories of how horrendous people sometimes are to each other in high school, how much fun and also how evil gossip can be — and how much first love can hurt. I never lived on a houseboat; my parents are nothing like that; I didn’t see a therapist as a teenager; I never became a roly poly or a famous slut.
• Will there be a sequel to The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks?
Sorry, but no.
• Do you get to have any input on book covers?
I speak up if I think something looks wrong, and sometimes the publisher consults me, but overall I have very little say. Most covers are initiated and designed by the publishing house.
WRITING AND PEDAGOGY
• Do you have any writing habits or rituals?
Morning. Coffee. Silence.
• I want to be a writer. Is there a place online where you talk about your writing methods?
Yes. I did a podcast for CTRL, ALT, DELETE with the lovely Emma Gannon where we go into that at length. Check it out here. And here are two older podcasts in which I’m interviewed about writing: Sara Zarr’s This Creative Life, and Cheryl Klein’s The Narrative Breakdown.
More for fun, here’s a comic essay about novel-writing, on the Hotkey Books blog.
• What do you do when you have writer’s block?
Often I jump ahead to a later scene in the book. I also go for walks or go to the gym. I find that continuous movement often gets my ideas flowing.
•You have a doctorate in literature, and spent your time in graduate school reading the classics. How did your time in graduate school affect you as a writer?
I read a tremendous number of books — and read widely outside my comfort zone. Challenging books, boring books, books I loved but would never have known about. A lot of 20th-century South African writers, for example. And 18th-century French novels. Doing all that reading gave me a fluidity with language and an understanding of narrative structure that I think has served me well.
I also had to write a lot of papers — and a book-length dissertation. Once I had done that, I knew I could write a book.
•Where in the canon of English literature would you locate your books?
Popular literature and entertainment often become canonized over time. Hitchcock films are now shown in cinema history class. Shakespeare plays are taught in school. Dickens novels, likewise. All of these were light entertainment in their day. So to my eye, the line between highbrow and lowbrow entertainment is always a potentially fluid one.
I’m thrilled to be part of a huge surge in literature for young adults. This category of fiction — YA — didn’t even exist until the 1950’s, and the recent boom of books only began in the early 2000’s. Teenagers have more to read now than they have ever had before — more books written about the teenage experience and with a teenage audience in mind. Now adults are reading these books, too. The YA novel is changing and developing before our eyes, and I think this time period will be an important one for later historians to look at.
• What’s your opinion on the new wave of schools swaying from the “canon” of books for English class?
With the caveat that I was trained to educate Ivy League college students, not to consider the issues involved in teaching high schoolers, not to consider literacy problems, not to teach to tests, etc. etc. — here’s my opinion.
I do believe in teaching the literary canon, but with caveats. I think one of the many benefits of education is that we come out of our educations with a shared culture and sense of history. If we’ve read the same books and authors as other people, it gives us common ground and a jumping-off point for serious discussion and deeper understanding.
That said, I think the literary canon is and should be an evolving thing. More books by women, more books from cultures other than Western, more books by Black, Indigenous and other people of color — these are beginning to be included, and should be included much, much more. And I also think the canon can be taught badly and taught too early. If you are a teacher with a room full of struggling 10th graders who struggle to read, force-feeding them Virginia Woolf is not going to provide them a better education than selecting a thoughtful, well-written and literary book that is FUN and not obscenely challenging. Such a book can engage them quickly and powerfully. I am sure many smart and excellent classroom discussions have been had over MT Anderson’s Feed, Jason Reynolds’s A Long Way Down, Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese or An Na's A Step from Heaven. Interspersing such books with canonical works seems like a wise strategy to me, as does creating curriculum around books that individual students select.
Also, even very high achieving students in today’s hyper-competitive environment are losing track of pleasure in reading. I think teachers educating those students should by all means teach the (expanded and expanding) canon, but they should also booktalk leisure reading possibilities for their classes. Just make the students aware of what’s out there that they might like. Give them a fun-read booklist. Or an extra credit assignment to read something purely for the love of it. Because too many of the high school students I know have lost the joy in books. Books are just assignments to slog through so they can write the papers so they can get through their classes.
And that is sad.
READING
• I’m in a transition. Right now, there are moments when teen books are wonderful, but moments when I feel I’m outgrowing some of the aspects of teen literature I used to like. What type of books would you recommend that aren’t too adult-oriented (like too much sex or raunchy scenes) but aren’t too predictably coming-of-age?
If you like comic and realistic teen literature but want to move beyond it without delving completely into adult territory, here are some books I’ve loved that fit the bill. All of them are FUN CITY, but in different ways.
John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany
Ruth Ozeki, My Year of Meats
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
Gabrielle Zevin, Young Jane Young
Michael Chabon, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Adriana Trigiani, Lucia Lucia
Christopher Moore, A Dirty Job
Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen
Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Also: Do you know about the Alex Awards? They're given each year to best adult fiction for young adult readers. The Alex list is great place to find books.
• What did you read as a teenager?
Everything – until I started having boyfriends. I remember reading Go Ask Alice (diary of a drug-addicted teen), A Spell for Chameleon (comic fantasy by Piers Anthony) and Little Women (the classic, by Louisa May Alcott), all the same year.
After boys came on the scene, I went through a reading hiatus that lasted until summer after high school, when I discovered Charlotte Brontë.
• Who are your favorite authors, YA or otherwise?
Jaclyn Moriarty is probably my favorite. She wrote The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, The Year of Secret Assignments, The Ghosts of Ashbury High and A Corner of White, Gravity is the Thing – go read these books, now!
Have a look at this essay I wrote for Booklist that includes some exciting books. #50yearsofYA
Rock the Vote
INTERVIEWS (in chronological order)
In March 2005 I did a dialogue with novelist Megan Crane on the Beatrice weblog. We discuss our very similar educations, and the paths we took from academia to writing fiction.
In November, 2005, I did two interviews with Cynthia Leitich Smith for her children’s literature weblog. Here’s the one about The Boyfriend List, and here’s the one about Fly on the Wall. Then in 2007 she interviewed me about Dramarama.
Lauren Myracle, Sarah Mlynowski and I did a Los Angeles Times interview for How to Be Bad.
In May, 2008, an interview at the YAYAYAs about Disreputable History, Fly on the Wall, How to Be Bad, and more.
An interview on BookBrowse about Disreputable History.
A 2009 interview with writer Tabitha Olson about Disreputable History.
In 2011, I wrote this guest-blog post for novelist Cynthia Leitich Smith, about cats and how I come up with stories.
Also in 2011, I wrote a blog post for Bookworm Readers about how I write my chapter titles in the Ruby Oliver novels.
Here are links to all the spots in my blog tour for Real Live Boyfriends, 2011.
Not an interview, but useful if you're doing academic work on Disreputable History: YA Subscription’s video analysis of the book, with Kristin Cashore. It’s stunning and long, but there’s comprehensive written summary.
In 2013 I did an hour-long audio interview on writing techniques for Cheryl Klein’s podcast, The Narrative Breakdown.
2014 YALSA Hub interview, pretty in-depth.
2014 essay for the Los Angeles Times about leaving academia for young adult literature.
2014 interview with YA Interrobang about We Were Liars.
Parade magazine interview with Sona Charaipotra about We Were Liars, from 2014.
Podcast interview with novelist Sarah Zarr about the writing life, 2015.
In the 2015 School Library Journal Battle of the Books, author Kelly Barnhill had to choose a winner between We Were Liars and West of the Moon. West of the Moon won, but then Liars came back into the competition as an Undead entry, and went on to the final round, competing against El Deafo and Port Chicago 50, and was judged by Newbery-winning novelist Claire Vanderpool.
"Wouldn't you like to know... E. Lockhart?" Click here for Voya Magazine's extensive interview, 2017.
Do you like stories about women labeled "difficult"? Yeah, me too. Here are a few I recommend.
I unravel lies and deception in Genuine Fraud for iHeartRadio in this podcast interview from 2017.
The boozy and charming literary podcast, So Many Damn Books, chatted with me in 2017 about Genuine Fraud — then we analyzed John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down. Plus they made me a signature cocktail, the “Also Known As.” Listen here.
Here’s an interview on United by Pop about Again Again, 2020.
JUST FOR FUN Q&As (also in chronological order)
Laurie Stolarz, author of the Blue is for Nightmares series, had me confess all my guilty pleasures. Though none of them do I feel guilty about.
Shanna Swendson, author of Enchanted Inc., asked me a string of fun questions and then confessed where SHE wanted to be a fly on the wall.
Laura Bowers, who wrote Beauty Shop for Rent, quizzed me on my beauty routines and writing processes.
In April, 2007, Little Willow interviewed me for Dramarama — all about musical theater and the future of the Ruby Oliver books.
Are you GENUINE? Or are you a FRAUD? Take the quiz here.
I gave beauty vlogger Zoella exclusive outtakes from We Were Liars.