Kate O’Donnell is a writer, editor and bookseller specialising in children’s and young adult literature. She has a BA in History and French from the University of Melbourne and studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT. Her first novel, Untidy Towns, was shortlisted for the Indie Book Award and the Readings Young Adult Book Prize in 2018. This One is Ours is her second novel.
Today, Kate O’Donnell is on the blog to answer our questions about her exciting new YA novel, This One Is Ours – read on!
Kate O’Donnell
Tell us about your book, This One Is Ours!
KOD: My latest YA novel is something of a romp through the streets of Paris, as sixteen-year-old Sofie travels to France for a high school exchange. She is searching for romance, cliché, and artistic inspiration, but when she gets there, she’s introduced to a side of the city she never expected and her mind is opened to current affairs, protest, how to be an engaged citizen, and ways that she can express these new feelings and thoughts through art.
What inspired you to write this book?
KOD: The initial inspiration came from my long-held interest in the cultural movement in Paris in 1968, the language of the time and the now-iconic posters made by the Atelier Populaire. But the book really took form as I watched the School Strike 4 Climate movement develop in Australia and around the world, and I wanted to try to capture what it might be like to be a teenager looking to the future in this wild and uncertain world.
This is a book about a young girl who discovers that she can use her voice for a greater good. Is this an experience you can personally relate to?
KOD: It really is. As a teenager I had so many feelings and opinions and it was always this intense struggle to find out how to phrase them, figure out who would hear them. To be honest, I’m still searching for a voice to use in the fight for the greater good. A voice to support people working together for a better world. So writing for teenagers gives me an opportunity to give a gentle shove to my readers, but also make amends with my past self.
Your protagonist is a young dreamer named Sofie. Please tell us your favourite thing about her!
KOD: What I love about Sofie is her determination to see beauty wherever she goes, but especially the way she allows herself to reconsider what exactly that beauty is and what it means.
Do you believe that art has the power to change the world?
KOD: Absolutely. In This One is Ours there’s a conversation about whether all art is political. I think it is, in big and small ways, and I believe that art is an unstoppable necessity for humans. Through good times and bad, art will be made. Frivolous, poignant, important, challenging, comforting art.
Do today’s young readers give you hope for the future?
KOD: They really do. Through my job as a bookseller I get the chance to meet and talk with so many young readers – from those exploring their first chapter books, to young adults with very specific preferences and expectations. They ask a lot of their books, and they’re not afraid of exploring the difficult issues.
What is your favourite inspirational literary quote?
KOD: Aside from the unconfirmed quote I borrowed from Jean-Paul Sartre for the title of this book, I find myself going back time and time again to Jack Kerouac’s thirty-point list called the Belief and Technique for Modern Prose. Its surreal bent brings me a lot of joy and inspiration. For example: Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind / Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea / Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better.
Who do you most admire in the writing world?
KOD: This is an impossible question! I love Joanne Horniman, whose young adult novels are atmospheric and earthy and true (and who also introduced me to Kerouac’s tips!) and who is always true to herself. American author A.S. King, whose work is stunning, and challenging to read, and who fiercely understands young people with all of their contradictions. I also look to Amie Kaufman, who demonstrates how an author can exist in the public sphere and remain generous and funny and grounded.
What do you hope readers discover in This One Is Ours?
KOD: I hope it’s some escapism and a pleasure-filled armchair trip to Paris – there’s art and museums, croissants and escargot in there. I also hope it’s a call to arms. For those who are already politically active, perhaps the book will be a boost of familiar energy. And for those just beginning to find their voice, like Sofie, I hope the book lets them know that activism takes many forms, that it’s okay to get things wrong, and that your voice is always important.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
KOD: Well, I’ve done exactly what I told myself I wouldn’t do when Untidy Towns was finished, which was publish a book without having another project well underway. But never mind! I am looking forward to spending November (NaNoWriMo!) exploring one or two of the ideas I’ve had percolating. I do know that I am going to write something completely joyful. I know I need it. There might be some readers out there who do, too.
Thanks Kate!
KOD: Thank you, Booktopia!
—This One Is Ours by Kate O’Donnell (University of Queensland Press) is out now.
This One Is Ours
Sofie is a dreamy young artist with her head in the clouds, but when she travels to Paris on exchange, she's awakened to the power of art in inspiring change in the world. Can she reconcile what art means for her?
Sixteen-year-old Sofie is a dreamer, an artist and a romantic. So when she goes on exchange to Paris, she is expecting magnificent adventures of the heart and mind. Yet France isn't what she imagined. It's cold and grey, and speaking another language is exhausting. Sofie's more homesick than lovesick...
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