Videos for Jessica Westhead

Students from 3a interview each other (and their teacher) about their thoughts on Jessica Westhead's stories, and the experience of  'meeting' the author.

Emilie, Emilie, Clara and Maria



Marie, Line, Anita and Josephine


Patrick, Jacob and Jesper

Jessica Westhead answers student questions

Here are two videos of Jessica Westhead answering the questions from the blog post of November 3rd.

Dear Jessica Westhead

We have read some of your short stories and if you don’t mind we would like to ask you some questions

1.       What do you like about writing?

2.       Why did you start to write in the first place?

3.       What is your intention with the book “And Also Sharks” and who is your target audience?

4.       How do you get inspiration for your short stories and the main characters?  Have you observed someone for inspiration?

5.       Why have you chosen this style of writing? Are there any specific reasons for that?

6.       Why have you chosen to focus on people with a lack of social competences and low self-esteem? Do you think it’s an overlooked problem?

7.       In your story “The Only One” you write about the relationship between Fofi and Gloria. Fofi seems to be submissive towards Gloria. Why and where did you get the idea to describe such a relationship?

8.       Who is your favorite author?

9.       What kind of stories did you read when you were 18-20 years old?

10.   How long did it take you to write “And also sharks”?

11.   What is your next project as an author?

12.   What inspired you to become a writer?

13.   Do any of your stories come from personal experiences?

Chapter Zero

Fofi had trouble falling asleep. This was because she was deeply aggravated by her husband. He had been away on a business trip for quite some time and didn’t even care to call Fofi and tell her that he was back in town. Instead he suddenly came crashing through the front door smelling like the worst drunk one could imagine. Fofi had been watching television but this was definitely out of the question now that her husband was so noisy that she couldn’t even make out what the news reporter said. This of course ended in a big fight between Fofi and her husband. Fofi’s husband raised his hand against her and Fofi called the police. Afterwards she had trouble falling asleep

The only one - chapter zero

Douglas didn’t see Fofi until the stab in the over back reached his mind and turned around. He saw into the eyes of a cold-hearted woman. Fofi saw the look and just thought about wild animals and squirrels jumping all around her. Douglas snuffled and with his last words he said “aren’t you supposed to be my best friend”? Fofi watched at her crinkled toes and wondered about giving Gloria the same treatment. After she washed the knife, she drove home. She had no reason to see Gloria ever again.

Summary of a class discussion.

Today we’ve talked about the short story “The Only One”. We’ve also discussed the writing style of Jessica Westhead. We’ve tried to pin-point her style by finding some of the things that WE think is the essentials.

For example, direct speech, almost like a manuscript, tip-of-iceberg-technique, realism, simple comparisons and also a simple language. You don’t need an advanced vocabulary to read her stories. It was very interesting to read this story, even though it is in the same genre and the themes are the same as in the other stories.

Response

Why does Gerald suddenly feel anger towards Sean in the end?
Because I think that Gerald are jealous because he feels attracted to him. It makes him mad when he sees Nedra in bed with Sean who is being nice to Gerald. It really makes him mad Sean not seeming that talented and nice that Gerald thinks he is. Sean is manipulating.

What does the kitten symbolize?

The kitten is a symbol of the life the cast and crewmembers live. Gerald says in the end “The play is our world”. It was in connection with the situation were the members are seeing a TV program with wild animals going crazy at each other.