Erin Entrada Kelly Goes All Nonfiction on Us! A Talk About AT LAST SHE STOOD

It isn’t enough to win a Newbery Award twice. That Erin Entrada Kelly, talented soul that she is, has gone over to the dark side.

That’s right.

She’s writing nonfiction.

She’s not the first Newbery Award winner to dance with the devil in this manner. Still, usually such winners go slow at first. They write a nonfiction picture book biography, perhaps, or something equally short. But Erin? Apparently go big or go home is her motto because her new book At Last She Stood: How Joey Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom (out right now) clocks in at a whopping 208 pages. It even has its own Teaching Guide, for crying out loud.

Here’s the description of the book (since I know you couldn’t help but be intrigued):

“Joey Guerrero, a native of the Philippines, was diagnosed with leprosy (Hansen’s disease) as World War II unfolded in Europe and Asia. Soon after the Japanese occupied the Philippines, Joey—believing she would die soon—joined the guerrilla movement to complete covert missions in support of the Allies. Because of her condition, she was rarely searched by Japanese soldiers, which allowed her to courier secret messages, including an invaluable minefield map that she taped to her back. She was eventually awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and admitted to the National Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, where she lived for nine years. When she was cured and released, she found it difficult to find work because of racial discrimination and her health history and was forced to pawn her Presidential Medal to make ends meet. Eventually, she shed her previous identity. When she died in 1996, her obituary identified her as a secretary from Manila. But Joey Guerrero was much more than that—she was a hero who changed the course of history.

Erin Entrada Kelly’s engaging nonfiction debut combines themes of the Philippines, World War II, the Asia-Pacific War, spy stories, Louisiana, immigration, disease and medicine, racism, perseverance, religious devotion, and hope. Illustrated with photographs, maps, and other illustrative material and featuring sidebars that clearly illuminate key moments in history, At Last She Stood is for readers and educators who love Candace Fleming, Deborah Heiligman, Christina Soontornvat, and Steve Sheinkin. Includes an author’s note, source notes, index, and other back matter.”

No. That won’t do. There is MUCH more to know about this. Fortunately, I know just the person to ask…

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Betsy Bird: Erin! It’s such a delight to get a chance to ask you some questions about AT LAST SHE STOOD today. This is such a change in genre for you. You’ve made a name in writing middle grade fiction (and congrats on your most recent Newbery win for THE FIRST STATE OF BEING, by the way). Nonfiction and informational texts seem to require an entirely different set of muscles, though. When did you first hear of Josefina Veluya/Joey Guerrero? And what inspired you to write about her?

Erin Entrada Kelly: It certainly requires a different set of muscles, but I was a journalist for many years, so it wasn’t atypical for me. I loved being a journalist; I often miss it. In a way, this was like a homecoming.

I discovered Joey through Pam Fessler’s book Carville’s Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice. After serving as a spy in the Philippines during World War II, Joey received treatment at a leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, which is near my hometown. All the pieces seemed to fit. I knew right away that I wanted to write about her.

BB: You had any number of different directions that you could have taken this book. Encapsulating a life is a monumentally difficult task. What sources did you call upon and how did you decide to tell Joey’s story the way in which you did?

Erin: Joey didn’t leave many mementos behind, so I had to rely on the memoirs of people who knew her, in addition to the many primary WWII materials available through the National Archives. I called on librarians to help, both in the U.S. and Philippines, searched newspapers, read hundreds of issues of The Star, which was Carville’s newspaper, and spent years piecing together any information I could. I ultimately decided to open the book with a scene of Joey playing make-believe—fittingly, she’s pretending to be Joan of Arc, who was her personal hero. Joey cited Joan as her hero many times, and said she liked to pretend she was Joan of Arc when she was a little girl. I loved that image, especially the parallels. I allowed the story to unfold from there.

BB: Well, and there had to have been elements to Joey’s life and story that you wanted to include but that simply didn’t fit the narrative. What was something about Joey that you would have loved to have included in the book but simply couldn’t?

Erin: There were two key pieces of information that I don’t mention in the book—the fact that Joey had a brother, whose name and fate is lost to us, and the fact that she remarried after her first husband. There wasn’t a place to organically weave this information into the narrative without providing more context, so I included it in the introduction and back matter.

BB: And how much about Joey did you know before you started your research? Was there anything about her that surprised you in the course of it?

Erin: All I knew was that she worked as a spy and had leprosy (now known as Hansen’s Disease). I wouldn’t say that anything surprised me, but I was continually astonished by her bravery and faith. This woman dug graves. She walked through gunfire. She prayed with dying soldiers. She couriered secret messages, walked on foot for dozens of miles through jungles and checkpoints, and championed for rights for people with Hansen’s Disease. Later in life, she earned a master’s degree and volunteered for the Peace Corps. She was truly remarkable.

BB: We are lucky to be living in an era where our memoirs and biographies no longer need to be about figures that are already well known. Tell me a bit about your own experiences with nonfiction. Do you enjoy reading it on your own? And what are some nonfiction texts you might recommend?

Erin: I love nonfiction and read it often. Some of my favorite nonfiction texts include Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri, The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin, The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang, and The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask. But that is by no means a complete list.

BB: Would you consider this a one-off in terms of delving into nonfiction, or would you be interested in writing other books of nonfiction, if the subject were of sufficient interest to you?

Erin: You’ll see more nonfiction from me.

BB: Finally, what are you working on next?

Erin: Your Turn, Marisol Rainey releases in August. I’m really looking forward to bringing another Marisol into the world. She’s my little alter-ego.

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I freakin’ love those Marisol Rainey books, so that is a good answer.

Loads of thanks to Erin for taking the time to answer all my questions today. Thanks too to Jenny Lu and the team at Harper Collins for helping to put this talk together. At Last She Stood: How Joey Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom is, as I mentioned, out right now so there’s no reason at all to have to wait. Get to reading!

Filed under: Interviews