The Black List recently announced the seven winners of its inaugural Unpublished Novel Award, introducing the world to seven writers across various genres from children’s and young adult fiction to adult crime, horror, and literary fiction.
Debutiful recently chatted with all seven winners and is excited to introduce the world to each writer, discover why and how they write, and learn more about the book that won them the award.
Meet Terah Tsuyako Summers, winner of the Children’s and Young Adult award for her manuscript, More Than Quiet. Summers is a coordinator for a Hawai‘i-based mental health advocacy organization who started writing to articulate how she felt struggling with mental health. She says reading and writing “became my lifeline.”
We asked Summers to give readers a brief insight into his writing life and her Unpublished Novel Award-winning manuscript, More Than Quiet.
Can you introduce readers to who you are as a writer and what interests and informs your writing?
My name is Terah Tsuyako Summers and I am a biracial, Japanese American writer from Hawaiʻi. Though my interests as a writer are varied, I have a particular interest in mental health storytelling, especially from the perspective of Asian American youth. This interest stems from both my lived experience and from my background growing up in a multicultural household. Growing up, mental illness was considered taboo, and outward expressions of emotion were rarely encouraged. So, when I began struggling with my own mental health as a child, I found it difficult to articulate what I was going through. Reading and writing became my lifeline, my way of breaking the silence. Yet I rarely saw myself reflected in the books I read. Stories about biracial Asian American girls, especially those grappling with mental health, were nearly nonexistent. My currently unpublished novel, MORE THAN QUIET, was born out of my desire to explore the experience of an Asian American girl struggling with her mental health in a realistic, nuanced, and compassionate way. My hope is that the book can be a meaningful resource for teens as well as parents and family members with loved ones with mental illness.
The announcement over at Lit Hub gave a quick preview of what your book is, but I always like to ask the writer what their book is really about. So, what’s your book?
MORE THAN QUIET is a YA contemporary novel with fantasy elements that follows fifteen-year-old Emi Hamada, a girl struggling with anxiety, depression, and disordered eating. At school Emi is quiet and invisible. At home she insists she’s fine while her younger sister’s failing heart consumes her parents’ attention. Afraid of being a burden, Emi hides her internal struggles by escaping into her fantasy novel where her alter ego, Etsuko, battles a curse called the Whispers—mysterious voices manifesting as fear and self-doubt.
However, things finally start to shift when Emi joins a school writing club. For the first time she begins forming real friendships, including a budding relationship with a kind songwriter named Nolan. As Emi opens up, so does Etsuko, who finds companions who travel with her through magical island realms to break the curse. But when Emi’s lies begin to collapse and her sister’s health worsens, she must decide: keep hiding, or learn that asking for help doesn’t make her a burden, it makes her brave.
How did this story come to be? What were the highs and lows (so far) of writing it?
The initial idea for this story came to me during college, but it wasn’t for a decade or so that the story’s true form took shape. Ironically, I was inspired to finally sit down and write the story after experiencing a particularly bad period with my mental health. Suddenly, the idea of the two dual narratives came alive, and the story finally fit together like the puzzle I had been trying to solve for some time. To my surprise the writing came easily and organically. It was a surreal and cathartic process. It felt as if my character had become an extension of myself, and the process of writing this novel served as a crucial part of my recovery and healing journey.
What has this Award opened for you? Where are you in your journey now?
Where to start? This award has given me so much more than I could have asked for! It was through the Unpublished Novel Award and a second award, the Spotify x JED Impact Award, an initiative co-sponsored by The Black List, Spotify, and The Jed Foundation (JED), that led me to my now literary agent, Jas Perry, at Looking Glass Literary & Media. Of course, I had hoped to find an agent, but I had very low expectations given that this was my first novel and that my writing is more introspective by nature. Not to mention the query trenches are so brutal! But the exposure of this award made finding my literary agent a true reality and I am so grateful. It’s a dream come true!
What does your writing routine and space look like?
I try to wake up on weekdays at 4:30 a.m. and write until around 6 a.m. It’s admittedly a little exhausting, but my mind is fresher in the morning versus the evening. Plus, I love the quiet, uninterrupted time the early morning provides. A big part of my morning routine is also running on the beach, swimming and meditating before work. I do a lot of brainstorming, plotting, and daydreaming during my exercise. On weekends, I usually go to my local coffee shop in Paia, Maui (shout out to The Story!) and write for one to two hours. I must thank my husband for allowing me the time and space to write as well as reading countless drafts.
Aside from the coffee shop, I would love to say I write in a garden or in an apartment overlooking the ocean, but the truth is my writing spaces are un-aesthetic and varied. I write pretty much anywhere where I have my laptop and some free time, including planes!
What can we expect from you in the future?
Hopefully, cross fingers, I will have a book deal to share in the future. My agent and I are preparing to go on submission, so editors keep an eye out! But, as with querying, I am keeping my expectations in check since I know how competitive the market is. However, I truly believe that my story is an important one, and I hope someday it lands in a young person’s lap and that it helps them find hope, self-acceptance, and healing.
In terms of my future projects, I have another novel in the works that I hope to finish drafting this summer. We’ll see how it goes, but I am happy with its progress so stay tuned!