Julie Gerstenblatt discusses the first pages of her debut novel, Daughters of Nantucket, how her agent encouraged her omniscient-voiced prologue, her use of repetition to prepare the reader for the “great fire” which becomes the ticking clock of the book, the pleasures of dramatic irony, and how authors might best represent points of view that are unlike their own in terms of race, sexuality, class, and time period.
Gerstenblatt’s first pages can be found here.
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Julie Gerstenblatt holds a doctorate in education in Curriculum and Instruction from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her essays have appeared in The Huffington Post, Grown&Flown, and Cognoscenti, among others. When not writing, Julie is a college essay coach, as well as a producer and on-air host for A Mighty Blaze. A native New Yorker, Julie now lives in coastal Rhode Island with her family and one very smart poodle. Daughters of Nantucket is her first novel.
Passages: Julie Gerstenblatt on Daughters of Nantucket