Becoming the Butlers

Penny Jackson lives in New York City and has always written about teenagers who live in New York City! Her novel, Becoming the Butlers, won best novel of the year for young adults by The New York Public Library. Her new award-winning short story collection, L.A. Child, is about men, women and teenagers from London to Boston to Hiroshima to India who grapple with the unpredictability of their lives. These short stories have been published in The Pushcart Prize Anthology, The Edinburgh Review, StoryQuarterly, The Ontario Review, and other magazines. One of Penny’s favorite quotes is from Jay Gatsby, who tells Nick, ＂Can’t repeat the past? Why, of course you can.＂ All her writing about teenagers today is also about writing about herself as a teenager decades ago. Although there are Facebook and Twitter and who knows what else will appear next on the internet, teenagers now and in the future will always have the same fears, hopes, failures and dreams.