Today, I welcome Emily Winslow, an American living in Cambridge, England. Her first novel, THE WHOLE WORLD, came out from Delacorte Press/Random House in
2010. Its sequel, THE START OF EVERYTHING, will be released in 2013.
THE WHOLE WORLD was a Parade magazine “top summer pick” and The Richmond Times-Dispatch said, “Winslow’s novel is so self-assured, so well-constructed and so chilling that the reader is left in awe by the young author’s accomplished debut…’The Whole World’ shines as a potent look at the self-absorption and angst of youth and the regrets and doubts of middle age.” Emily’s website is www.emilywinslow.com and her blog can be found at emilywinslow.wordpress.com.
Q. Tell us about your book and what inspired you to write it.
THE WHOLE WORLD is set in Cambridge, England, and I started writing it when I first moved here. Cambridge is so different from anyplace else I’ve ever lived that I felt driven to try to describe it. The university is 800 years old, and intertwined with the city. I found myself having to make sense of it in order to make a home here.
The story begins with an American narrator who is new to the city, like I was, but switches to more local narrators later, five in all. Two American students fall for the same charming “golden boy” graduate student, who then disappears…
Q. Did you need to do any special research for the book? If so, what’s
one of the most interesting facts you discovered?
The University works according to “the college system,” which sorts every student into both a department (for their subject) and a college. Your college (and there are more than 30 of them!) is where you live and eat and, to an extent, socialize, but it’s more than
that. The department gives you your lectures and exams, which you share with ALL the students in that subject from ALL the colleges. But, WITHIN your college is where you get your one-on-one and small group instruction, in “supervisions.”
Most of the colleges are architecturally exquisite, and are part of the city, not apart on a campus. I have no connection with the University except through family and friends, but I interact with it physically almost daily.
Q. Many people are content to just be readers. How did you become a writer?
I trained to be an actor, a job which is dependent on being cast by others, and then on being directed by others. I love that as a writer I can work whenever I want!
Q. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Watch TV. I love crime dramas.
Q. What are you reading right now?
Amanda Kyle Williams’ upcoming THE STRANGER YOU SEEK. One of the perks of being a writer is getting to read other writers’ advance copies!
Q. If you were stranded on that proverbial deserted island, what five
books would you want to have with you?
Blank books and a pen.
Q. What’s your favorite movie?
So many:
Little Miss Sunshine
Shutter Island
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Fugitive, Jaws, Jurassic Park, The Others, Life is Beautiful…
Q. What’s your favorite food?
Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread.
Q. Cats or dogs?
Cats! 
Q. Name one thing that people would be surprised to learn about you.
I have one son with an American accent, and another with a British accent. Yes, we all live together.
