ALUMNI
Alumni Spotlight Coleen Murtagh Paratore, Class of 1980 B.A. in English, minor in communications Author of 12 middle grade/young adult books and three picture books; winner of numerous awards, including the New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing (2009) and several Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year.
In 2002, six years and 179 rejection letters after writing her first story, Coleen Murtagh Paratore landed a contract with Simon & Schuster for a picture book “How Prudence Proovit Proved the Truth about Fairy Tales,” launching what has become a prolific career. Paratore has published 15 books in her first seven years as an author, including her best-known debut novel “The Wedding Planner’s Daughter” (Scholastic) which sold half a million copies. The book launched a popular “tween series,” which is published around the world and is being made into an ABC Original Family Movie. Her collection also includes several series, such as the popular stories of Willa Havisham, the daughter of a famous wedding planner on Cape Cod, who takes on such projects as saving her town library and drawing attention to a lack of affordable housing. Lauded for their humor and appeal to both young readers and their parents, Paratore’s work often peppers real-life situations with fantasy. Writing from her homes in Troy, N.Y., and the Cape, Paratore visits schools across the country to help inspire young readers. Here, she speaks about her hometown, her Saint Rose education and how a mother of three boys first heard the voice of a “spunky little girl” that compelled her to write that first story:
THE BIOGRAPHY ON YOUR WEB SITE STARTS: “I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN TROY, NEW YORK, IN A TWO-STORY WHITE HOUSE WITH GREEN SHUTTERS, BUILT FROM THE HARD WORK, FIERCE PRIDE AND GREAT HOPES OF MY IRISH IMMIGRANT GRANDPARENTS.” YOU DISCUSS WEEKLY VISITS TO THE PUBLIC LIBRARY; THE TROY SCHOOLS, WHERE YOU DISCOVERED A LOVE OF WRITING AND YOUR RECENT DECISION TO RETURN. IS RIVERTON, THE SOMEWHAT RUNDOWN BUT HOPEFUL CITY IN SEVERAL OF YOUR BOOKS, ACTUALLY TROY, OR BASED ON IT? HOW DOES YOUR HOMETOWN FIGURE IN YOUR WRITING, WHICH IS OFTEN SET IN SMALL TOWNS? Riverton is indeed drawn from my love of, and great hopes for, my beloved city of Troy. The actual apartment building where Sunny lives is based on my memories of visiting the Taylor Apartments in Troy where my mother’s dear friends, Jay Murnane and Mary Theresa Streck, ran a wonderful afterschool arts program for resident children called “The Ark.” Next spring I have a new middle-grade novel coming out with Scholastic called “DREAMSLEEVES,” about a girl who believes if you have a dream you should write it on a label, stick it on your sleeve and wear it right out there in the world. The book is set in Troy, circa 1972, and mentions several real places, including Frear Park and the Menands Bridge. I cannot wait for this book to be out. It is my love letter to teachers. I’m beginning exploratory conversations with the Troy school district about going on a Troy tour, visiting
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SAINT ROSE
each school in the district to share the joys of reading and writing and “dreaming big.” When I was growing up in Troy, all I ever wanted to be was a teacher. When I do school visits, which I absolutely LOVE, I get to at last fulfill that dream. YOUR PROTAGONISTS ARE OFTEN CHILDREN WHO BECOME ENTANGLED IN THEIR PARENTS’ OCCUPATIONS, BE IT INNKEEPER, WEDDING PLANNER OR FUNERAL HOME DIRECTOR. WHAT DO YOU ENJOY ABOUT WRITING FROM THIS PERSPECTIVE? All of my books are “family based.” In that central dynamic triangle of mother-father-child is more powerfully rich material than I could ever imagine writing enough books about. It’s all right there. AFTER PAROCHIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL, YOU CAME TO SAINT ROSE, WHICH YOU HAVE DESCRIBED AS “FOUR GLORIOUS YEARS OF SOAKING IN ALL THE BEST BOOKS FROM SOME OF THE FINEST TEACHERS ON THE PLANET.” HOW DID YOUR SAINT ROSE EDUCATION SHAPE YOU AS A WRITER? The teachers, the teachers, the teachers, the teachers. I close my eyes and remember Sister Elizabeth Varley channeling Chaucer’s “the wif of bath,” and Dr. (S.R.) Swaminathan mesmerizing us with Shakespeare like he was on stage at the Globe Theater in London. (“Dr. Swaminathan”