Who am I?

I’m Brittany Cavallaro, the New York Times bestselling author of the Charlotte Holmes novels (beginning with A Study in Charlotte) out with HarperCollins. I wrote the young adult thriller Hello Girls with Emily Henry, which was hailed by Entertainment Weekly as a top ten young adult novel of the year, and the young adult romance-dialogue-novel in verse Sunrise Nights with Jeff Zentner, which received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. My books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have been adapted for film and TV.

I’m also a poet with two collections of poems, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and work published in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Yale Review, and elsewhere.

What’s my newsletter about?

In my day to day life, I’m a creative writing instructor at Interlochen, where I teach poetry and novel writing and direct the Novel Writing Intensive for teens. I’m also a professional editor and manuscript consultant that’s worked on #1 New York Times bestselling novels.

After fifteen years in the classroom, I’m writing up my lectures and lessons as essays. I think a lot about actionable, utilitarian advice that has an immediate effect on my students’ work. You’ll find that here.

You’ll also get updates about my new projects and publications, thoughts on the literary landscape, and the occasional personal essay. Sometimes I’ll sneak a photo of my golden retriever in there too.

What’s with your newsletter’s title?

We think so much about writing for an audience, writing as a way to connect, and it is all that. But ultimately the only part of your art that you can control is the relationship between you and the page. It’s private and it’s personal and it’s my favorite part of the process.

Also I thought it was funny to call a newsletter MY PRIVATE LIFE.