Kelly Braffet Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Kelly Braffet is the author of Josie and Jack, Last Seen Leaving and Save Yourself. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University, where she received her MFA. Here she discusses the appeal of young protagonists, and why she returns to them in her writing again and again.

Kelly Braffet is the author of Josie and Jack, Last Seen Leaving and Save Yourself. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University, where she received her MFA. Here she discusses the appeal of young protagonists, and why she returns to them in her writing again and again.

I live in a college town, and I love it. The college keeps the town vibrant, and wards off some of the Ye Olde Village Cuteness that afflicts so many of our neighbors: There are hanging baskets of flowers up and down Main Street, but there's also a little graffiti. And those who live next door to an eight-person share two blocks from campus might be less charmed, but I love seeing the students around town. I love watching them flirt in the coffee shop. I love seeing awkward morning-after diner breakfasts, or couples holding hands in that sweet, shy way you never really recapture. Once I rounded a corner in the grocery store to find a girl in head-to-toe steampunk gear, as if she'd just parked her time traveling airship by the vegan sorbet. The young people, in short, are awesome.

And yet, I would not trade places with one of them for all the money ever printed. For everything that's new and shiny about being young, there ...