Interview of Zoe Gaetjens by Freya Bennett
We spoke with Zoe about writing humour alongside loss, capturing the realities of Australian teen life, and why it’s so important to show these messy, overlapping moments on the page.
Hi Zoe, congratulations on the release of your debut, how’re you feeling?
Thank you so much. I think absolutely excited to see the fulfilment of something that has taken so much time and energy from not only myself but also the team at Penguin. Additionally, nervous. I really hope that readers will enjoy this book!
Your novel balances humour with grief in such a natural way. How did you approach writing those heavier emotional threads without losing the lightness and warmth of Cleo’s voice?
When I started writing my goal was to write a warm and funny romance. I knew I wanted to write a story about someone finding new friends and first love and essentially their own sense of worth and self confidence at a life drawing class. However, as I began working, I realised that for my story to have any sort of emotional impact there needed to be something that was holding my protagonist Cleo back. I needed to find something that made each of these discoveries of particular importance to Cleo. My approach to writing this was to consider Cleo’s relationship with her sister Emmy as the why behind everything without being the everything. It was my hope that doing this would place focus on the hope and light in the story whilst still giving the emotional resonance the story needed.
The life-drawing class is such a unique setting for a teen story. What drew you to that space as the heart of the novel?
The setting was my starting place. I knew I was writing a romance and that I would set it at a life drawing course. I felt that this setting would give the book a point of difference whilst also providing wonderful “fish out of water” moments, opportunities for humour, and a clear way to chart growth. I was also able to draw on my own experience and memories as I attended a life drawing course when I was in year 11.
As an English teacher, you’re surrounded by teen readers every day. What do you feel is missing from the YA landscape right now?
If we know where to look and who to ask for help I’m not sure anything is missing in terms of available books. However, it would be wonderful to have more people out there with a knowledge of Australian YA and a desire to champion it. Sadly, the stats are showing that there is a decline in young people’s reading for enjoyment and part of that is they are not being exposed to books that they will love.
Cleo is navigating friendship, identity, and first love all at once, alongside grief. Why was it important to you to show these experiences overlapping, rather than as separate “coming-of-age” moments?
It seems to me that in our memories we hold different experiences separately. However, these moments were not lived in isolation. They are impacted by what happened the day, week, month maybe years before. They are impacted by the shape of our other friendships, our family relationships, how we view ourselves. I think in writing we do ourselves and our readers a disservice if we don’t recognise that our characters are experiencing many things all at once.
There’s something very distinctly Australian about this story. How important was it for you to capture that sense of place and voice, especially in a genre that’s often dominated by international settings?
I think Australian teens need to know that their own experiences are valuable. When we are surrounded by stories set in America, with proms and prep rallies and preparing to leave for college we start to understand these as defining moments and I think this over proliferation of the American teen experience can somewhat diminish our own significant milestones. I think there is something wonderful about reading and seeing an aspect of yourself or your life depicted in the literature or media you are consuming. The recognition of place and or self is vital and that’s why it felt essential to me to write something Australian. Additionally, there is that old adage that you should write what you know, so that’s what I did and I hope that there is a strong sense of authenticity in the book because of it.
Drawing Nudes While Making Other Plans is out now at all good bookstores.
