Emily Habeck discusses her SMU roots and the genesis of the novel’s premise.
In hindsight, I think the character Lewis’ outward transformation into a great white shark was a metaphor for my inward transformation in that season of life. Inexplicably, I was experiencing this crisis of meaning and questioning everything I thought I knew for sure.
Funnily enough, the whole time I was writing, I never thought the “people becoming animals” aspect was strange as a story concept. I often think about how so many of the things we accept as facts of life are absolutely absurd. What’s that bizarre about including human-animal mutations in the spectrum of heartbreaking, wild things?But yes, people in publishing were intrigued, bewildered, puzzled and even shocked.
When I hear someone say that degrees in the arts and humanities are impractical or, worse, useless, it makes me prickle. Except for that one math class, I use every fiber of my education. Writing a novel is in many ways like making theater. As the author, it’s like being the playwright, dramaturge, director, designer and cast all at once. On one level, revision feels so much like workshopping a new play, imagining the characters on the stage of my mind.
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