Stephanie Kuehnert photographed at Scoville Park (a prominent location in Ballads of Suburbia) by Chad McGavock (B.F.A. '09).
By Heather Lalley
Crtics lavished praise last summer on Stephanie Kuehnert’s punk-rock-infused first novel, I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone. A good thing, to be sure. Unless, of course, you’re Kuehnert and you’re about to send your second young-adult novel out into the world.
“That makes me nervous,” says Kuehnert, 30, who earned a B.A. in fiction writing from Columbia in 2003 and an M.F.A. three years later. “I have real perfectionist tendencies … You don’t want the sophomore slump.”
Kuehnert, who lives in Forest Park, Illinois, wrote an early draft of her latest book, Ballads of Suburbia, even before beginning Joey Ramone. But, she says, “the first draft was just bad. It was in need of better structure. It was too much my own experiences. If I’m going to write a memoir, I’m going to call it a memoir.”
A breakthrough came about five years ago, though, in a Columbia class taught by Joe Meno. Meno played some Johnny Cash songs to illustrate the ballad as a storytelling form. “It resonated with me so deeply,” Kuehnert says. “I wrote it down and let
it germinate.”
The result, Ballads of Suburbia, is close to her heart. It takes place in suburban Oak Park, Illinois, where she grew up. The book’s protagonist, hard-partying Kara, wrestles with self-injury—something the author struggled with in her teens and early twenties. “I lived it and I had to relive it to write the book,” she says. “I had to go to dark places … I just felt so close to these characters. I wanted to do them justice. The story worked so well in my head, and I wanted it to do the same on paper.”
It’s a busy time for Kuehnert. Ballads came out in July. She tends bar three nights a week at the Beacon Pub in Forest Park. (“There’s a bartender book in me,” she says.) She’s getting married this fall. She’s working on two new novels. And she’s in early talks with a producer (a fellow Columbia graduate) to develop I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone for film.
She credits her time at Columbia for much of her success. She met her agent at the college’s annual Story Week festival, and at Columbia she learned the discipline necessary to sit down and write each day. “I would not be a published author without going to Columbia,” she says.
Ballads of Suburbia is published by MTV Books. Learn more about Kuehnert’s work at stephaniekuehnert.com.
Comments (3)
I used to watch you write on the train on the way to school in the mornings. I was impressed with the way you would put down your pen to reflect on what you would jot down next....you never knew that I was watching. My son is now in the Fiction writing Department, I hope he can concentrate and reflect as you did....Keep up the good work.
To the comment below I'm sure you had good intentions but it did come off a tad creepy. Back on subject it sounds like a good read.
Wow. I was struggling recently with whether or not I should apply to Columbia. Just the other day I visited Chicago and on a trip to Myopic Books I picked up "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone" and I haven't yet put it down.
When I saw you here on the site, I took it as a sign. I'm putting in my application.
Thank you for being my inspiration.