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Cynthia Weiner has had a long career writing and teaching fiction. Her short stories have been published in Ploughshares, The Sun, and Epiphany, and her story, "Boyfriends," was awarded a Pushcart Prize. She is also the assistant director of The Writers Studio in New York City. A Gorgeous Excitement, her first novel, was inspired by her upbringing on New York's Upper East Side in the 1980s, and particularly by the notorious "Preppy Murder" of 1986. Weiner now lives in New York's Hudson Valley.
Cynthia Weiner's website
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Q: Since A Gorgeous Excitement was inspired by your upbringing in 1980s Manhattan and your personal connection to the Preppy Murders, what was the most difficult, or important, aspect for you when writing fictionally about this topic?
It was painful to immerse myself in the memory of a young woman my age, exuberant and brimming with excitement about her future, unaware that it was the final summer of her life or that she'd be treated so shamefully and viciously after she died, as if she'd brought her murder on herself. I have nieces, and am close with friends' daughters, around that age. I wish I could say with any confidence that nearly four decades later, none of them will ever face that kind of danger or judgment for the sole offense of being young and female. It breaks my heart that I can't.
That said, I hope I effectively captured the exhilaration and sense of invincibility of being 18, with a new friend and a new crush. I know firsthand how it feels at that age to be intrigued by a dangerous, handsome guy and ignore the red flags, believing that I (and I alone) could see through the haze of anger and delinquency to his sweet, sad heart.
Looking back on that summer of 1986, my and my friends' innocence and recklessness, I have ...
William Boyle is the author of eight books set in the southern Brooklyn neighborhood where he was born and raised, including his debut, Gravesend; the story collection Death Don't Have No Mercy; The Lonely Witness, nominated ... (more)
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