Culture
OU Alumna to Publish Young Adult Novel
< < Back toAlison Stine dreamed the story on a train ride a long time ago.
At the Harper Voyager offices in England, the publishers must have been doing a little dreaming, too. Wondering what would happen if they bypassed all the agents hawking this author and that one—and went on a talent search across three continents to discover some new authors.
In their search for new voices in the science fiction and fantasy genre, they found Ohio University Ph.D. graduate Stine.
Her voice developed early.
“I’m excited, scared, and still a little stunned to announce my first novel for young adults, Supervision, will be published by Harper Voyager UK, an imprint of Harper Collins, in summer 2015,” Stine announced Aug. 25 on her Facebook page.
“I started ‘writing’ when I was a little younger than my preschool-aged son is now, when my mom began to transcribe all the stories I would tell her. I submitted my first story to The Atlantic Monthly when I was 9 years old. (They rejected it.) I submitted my first novel to an agent a decade ago. (They rejected it, too.) Supervision is my fourth try at writing a novel. Thanks for being there through most of them,” she wrote. “I dreamed the story of Supervision on a train ride a long time ago, and I look forward to sharing it with you—and your children.”
Harper Voyager UK reports that the 15 full-length novels they signed from mostly unagented writers “were chosen from more than 5,000 entries submitted back in October 2012, when the imprint, Harper Collins’ sci-fi and fantasy list, put out its call. Now the 15 titles will be released digitally, beginning this winter and continuing throughout 2015. The imprint also has plans to follow the e-book releases with short-run paperback editions.”
Stine earned a Ph.D. in English in 2013 from the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University. She is the author of three books of poetry: Wait (University of Wisconsin Press, 2011), Ohio Violence (University of North Texas Press, 2009), and Lot of My Sister (The Kent State University Press, 2001).
Her work has appeared in more than 90 publications including The Nation, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, Tin House and Poetry.
Follow Alison Stine on Facebook and Twitter.
This article originally appeared on the Ohio University College of Arts & Sciences Forum.