Author Interview: Audrey Barbakoff

 I am delighted to welcome author Audrey Barbakoff to gilagreenwrites. We're thrilled to have you here and to showcase your unique voice and writing journey. Our community is all about celebrating creativity and sharing insights, and we're excited to introduce our readers to your work. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to learning more about your experiences and contributions to the literary world! Welcome, Audrey!

GG: Could you tell us about your writing process? How did you begin? How did you decide on characters?

AB: I tend to start with a single scene in mind, usually somewhere in the middle of the story. But I don't set it down on paper right away. I spend a long time mulling over in my head how to write my way into, and back out of, that moment. Once I have the structure of the story in mind, I sit down and write out most of the first draft fairly quickly. Then the real work starts! I love to revise. This phase tends to go on for a while, because I believe strongly in taking breaks between revisions, letting problems or questions sort themselves out in the back of my mind while I'm doing other things. In fact, one of the hardest things for me is knowing when to stop fiddling.

For THE SCHLEMIEL KIDS SAVE THE MOON, the characters were the inspiration for the rest of the story. When I was reading a Chelm folktale for my own children, I started wondering where all the kids in Chelm were. And of course, they couldn't be as befuddled as the adults are traditionally depicted – kids know they're smart! So I started wondering what life would be like for two very clever siblings living in this town of fools. I realized that seeing the story through their eyes could reveal a whole new layer, sort of like Wicked does for The Wizard of Oz.

GG: Are there any characters or plot points that were originally in the book that were deleted or significantly altered?

AB: Originally, I set the story in the Chelm we're used to seeing in the original stories, an old-world Eastern European shtetl. It just hadn't occurred to me yet to think about the setting. I was focusing on the main twist, the addition of two clever kids who are working behind the scenes to make things work out for everyone. But the purpose of centering this story on the Schlemiel siblings was for today's kids to be able to see themselves in the story. I realized that could happen much more easily if the story took place in a modern Chelm that looks like their real world – diverse, urbanizing, tech-filled.

GG: What would you say to someone who wants to publish a Jewish kidlit book now given the current climate?

AB: Do it! Write the story you need to tell, the one you want to read. Don't silence yourself or dilute your voice out of fear. We need your story now more than ever.

GG: What are you most proud of regarding this book?

AB: That it makes kids laugh! All kids need Jewish joy, especially now. Jewish kids need stories that just let them just be silly and have fun, so they see their identity as something to enjoy. And non-Jewish kids need to see us beyond the stereotypes and political messages they're getting right now. When they laugh along with your stories, they start to see that we're human too. Humor can be a really powerful route to empathy.

GG: What role does Judaism play in your writing?

AB: THE SCHLEMIEL KIDS SAVE THE MOON, like a lot of my writing, is explicitly Jewish in that it has Jewish characters and draws on a traditional Jewish story. It's also chock-full of Yiddish (which I grew up hearing from my grandparents), with a glossary in the back. But even when I'm not writing overtly Jewish content, I see my Judaism as absolutely central to everything I create. My sense of humor was shaped by Jewish humor traditions. My values are Jewish values. My lens on life is inherently Jewish, so how could my writing be anything but?

GG: What role does race play in your book?

AB: The Schlemiel siblings, Sam and Sarah, come from an interracial family. This isn't unusual or remarkable in their town, where the neighbors come from a wide variety of backgrounds. This was very important to me. Outside of the Jewish community, there's so much ignorance – maybe, at times, intentional – about the real diversity of the Jewish community. People want to put us into a box that's convenient for their own purposes. And within the American Jewish community, there still aren't enough opportunities for Jews of color to see themselves and their families represented. I've had several readers reach out to me and tell me how much it means to see a book about a family that looks like theirs. (Enormous gratitude to the brilliant illustrator Rotem Teplow for bringing them to life!) If my Chelm is supposed to be a modern-day microcosm of the Jewish world, then it's only honest if it's as diverse as we really are.

GG: Has the current climate stopped you from doing any sort of marketing that you may have done in the past?

AB: Stopped me? No. Stopped other people? Maybe. When my pitches for articles or events are met with a generic "thanks, but no thanks" or silence, I can't help but wonder if the book's obvious Jewishness played a role. But you know what? That's their loss. It's not in my control. But if I chose not to put myself or my story out there because I was worried about rejection, then that would be my fault. I won't censor myself before others do.

GG: Anything you wish to add?

AB: For everyone reading this - keep writing, reading, and promoting all the Jewish joy!