ALEX FLINN

BIOGRAPHY I BOOKS I PRESENTATIONS I BOOK ORDERING

Alex Flinn grew up in Syosset, New York and

Miami, Florida. When she was five years old, her

mother suggested that she should be an author.

"I guess I must have nodded or something because,

from that point on, every poem I ever wrote in school

was submitted to Highlights or Cricket magazine.

I was collecting rejection slips at age seven!"

Despite the conviction that she would someday write and publish a novel, Alex tried several other things first. High school was spent in Miami 's various "gifted and talented" performing arts programs. She studied opera in college (Alex was a coloratura -- the really loud, high-pitched sopranos) and then went to law school.

It was the latter experience which probably helped with her first novel. Breathing Underwater deals with the serious and all-too-common problem of dating violence. Alex based the book on her experiences interning with the State Attorney's Office and volunteering with battered women.  Alex started writing an early draft of Breathing Underwater in college. But it was when she had her first daughter that she started writing it in earnest. "I was self-taught. I went to the library and took out books on writing. Then, I read a lot of young-adult novels by writers I admired, particularly Richard Peck. Reading his books is like listening to Mozart -- you learn the right way to write a novel. Then, you fill in your own style." She eventually met Richard Peck in person at a Key West Literary Seminar workshop.  She was also helped along the way by friend and fellow YA author, Joyce Sweeney. 

Alex writes her first drafts longhand. Initially, she did this because she didn't own a typewriter. Then, she borrowed a memory typewriter and finally purchased a computer three years after she began writing. A year later, her first novel, Breathing Underwater, was finished and was soon accepted for publication.

Alex writes for young adults because she never quite got over being one. "In my mind, I am still 13-years-old, running laps on the athletic field, wearing this really baggy white gymsuit. I'm continually amazed at the idea that I have a checking account and a mortgage." So she tries to write books that gymsuit girl might enjoy. "It's a way of going back to being thirteen . . . knowing what I know now."

Breathing Underwater has been well-received, and received, among other honors, a Top-10 Best Book for Young Adults and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Alex's second novel, Breaking Point, deals with school violence and peer pressure. Published in 2002, it was a little painful to write, because she had to revisit her own experiences, being a nerd in school and struggling to fit in. "The whole time I was writing it, I felt like I was back at that school I hated. But now, there is an increased awareness of kids who don't fit in. And, unfortunately, there have been kids who have allowed these feelings of isolation -- which are, in the end, temporary -- to cause them to commit acts with permanent effects."

Her third book, titled Nothing to Lose, is about a teen who runs off to join a traveling carnival after his mother is charged with the murder of her abusive husband.  Nothing to Lose is a 2005 Best Book for Young Adults (ALA) and a 2005 Quick Picks for Young Adult Readers (ALA). A fourth book, dealing with a hate crime against an HIV-positive student, and written in three viewpoints (the victim's, the accused perpetrator's, and a witness's), is forthcoming. 

Alex lives in a Miami suburb, with her husband, Gene, and her daughters, Katie and Meredith.