Zoe Trope is the pseudonym for a seventeen-year-old writer in Oregon. She is the author of Please Don’t Kill the Freshman (HarperTempest, 2003), a memoir of her high-school years. For her sixteenth birthday, she ate a gyro, went bowling, and read magazines with a friend. You can reach her via e-mail at [email protected] or read her blog at www.zoe-trope.com.
The inspiration for “Relent/Persist”: “You will never love anyone like you loved at sixteen. Nothing can ever compare.”
Ned Vizzini began his writing career in high school in the late nineties. He is the author of Teen Angst? Naaah (Free Spirit, 2000) and the forthcoming novel Be More Chill (Hyper-ion/Miramax Books, 2004). Teen Angst? Naaah . . . was honored by New York Is Book Country, BookSense, the American Library Association, and the New York Public Library. Ned maintains nedvizzini.com and does his best to keep up with the loving contingent of dorks and rejects who e-mail him through the site (you can, too). He lives in Park Slope, New York.
The inspiration for “Rutford Becomes a Man”: “When I was about sixteen, I had very elaborate conspiracy theories about how the Cool (with a capital C) people ran the world and made a concerted effort to baffle and shame the Uncool people. I told my dad about this, and he told me I needed to get to a shrink; furthermore, if I were in the Wild West, he said, he would just send me to the whorehouse and I’d turn out fine.
Joseph Weisberg’s 10th Grade (Random House, 2002) was named one of the Top Ten Novels of 2002 by Entertainment Weekly. It was also a New York Times Notable Book and won the Young Adult Library Association’s Alex Award for adult novels that appeal to teenage readers. Joseph’s work has also appeared in Slate, Glamour, and a Chinese magazine with an untranslatable name.
The inspiration for “Kissing Lessons”: “Sixteen was a big year for me because it was slightly less bad than all the years that came before it.”
Jacqueline Woodson is the author of a number of novels for children and young adults. She has received numerous awards, including a National Book Award, a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, and the Coretta Scott King Award. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and young daughter.
The inspiration for “Nebraska 99”: “When I was growing up in Brooklyn, sixteen was about becoming a real girl—and all that that implied. I knew at sixteen that I would never be this femmie girlie-girl that the world thought I should be. It was a year of struggle, compromise, and, eventually, a year where I came to accept who I was becoming.”
acknowledgments
Many thanks go out to:
My agent and dear friend, Joanna Pulcini, who has my deepest respect for helping me keep it together when everything was falling apart.
My editor, Kristin Kiser, for being so cool about my ever-changing book ideas. And her assistant, Ellen Rubinstein, for helping execute said ideas with marvelous, miraculous aplomb.
All the incredibly talented contributors, whose passionate responses to my proposal made this book what it is.
My peeps—especially Monica, Jeannie, and Erika—for reminding me of who I was and who I still am.
The Fitzmorris and McCafferty families, for their continued unconditional support.
Collin James, whose unparalleled exuberance made me reevaluate my career plans for the first year of motherhood so it included this book.
Christopher Joseph, for giving me love, encouragement, and— most important—sleep when I needed it most.
about the editor
Megan McCafferty is the author of Sloppy Firsts (Crown, 2001), an American Library Association Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, an ALA Popular Paperback, and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. Its sequel, Second Helpings (Three Rivers Press, 2003), was a Booklist Editors’ Pick for one of the best novels of 2003. A former magazine editor and writer, Megan lives with her husband and young son in New Jersey. She is currently writing the third Jessica Darling novel, to be published by Three Rivers Press in 2005.
The inspiration behind “Fifteen Going On . . .”: “I was devastated when I found out that my best friend was moving midway through my freshman year of high school, not long before my birthday. I stayed home with a vague, phlegmy illness throughout her last week in school. Even at the time, I was aware that my sickness was probably more psychosomatic than viral in nature. Like Jessica in the story, I just didn’t want to go through the motions of best friendship, knowing that she would soon be gone. So instead of savoring our last moments, I avoided them altogether. Unfortunately, this is how I handled most of my problems when I was in high school.”
Also by Megan McCafferty
Sloppy Firsts
Second Helpings
Copyright © 2004 by Megan McCafferty
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Three Rivers Press, New York, New York. Member of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
www.crownpublishing.com
THREE RIVERS PRESS and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sixteen: stories about that sweet and bitter birthday / edited by Megan
McCafferty.—1st ed.
1. Adolescence—Fiction. 2. Maturation (Psychology)—Fiction.
3. Short stories, American. 4. Birthdays—Fiction. 5. Teenagers—Fiction. I.
McCafferty, Megan.
PS648.A34S595 2004
813’.0108354—dc22 2003027919
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-42165-4
v3.0_r1
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