Meet Hannah Goldstein author of Dream Girls
In our debut spotlight series, we introduce you to your next favourite authors. This month, meet Hannah Goldstein!
About Hannah
A&U: What was your favourite book or author growing up?
HG: As a child I adored Libby Gleeson’s Skating on Sand because it’s about a girl called Hannah who’s obsessed with roller-skating. I can’t tell you how seen I felt by that book. I really thought Libby Gleeson was writing about me.
When I got older, I loved my high school English classes. Two memorable experiences were discovering Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. I was amazed by how wild literature could be.
A&U: What did you want to be when you were a child?
HG: I wanted to be a teacher when I was young. I loved studying English, history and drama, and had wonderful teachers who I really admired. At some point, I also had a vague dream about becoming an actor, which is strange because I was so shy. I remember watching the ‘Behind the Scenes’ section of my Lord of the Rings DVD and thinking that it would be cool to be an elf like Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving.
A&U: What is your Roman Empire? (A thing you think about far too often)
HG: I love it when people have extremely niche hobbies. For a while, I couldn’t stop thinking about mermaiding. There’s this amazing global mermaiding community. They’re incredible swimmers who have gorgeous silicone tails and they go out into the ocean like real-life mermaids. At the moment, I’m obsessed with hobby horsing. I would never have the core strength to participate in either of these hobbies, but I’m so fascinated by them. The internet serves me all the mermaiding and hobby horsing content in the world, and I can watch it for hours. I want to know how people discover these passions, what their training is like, how the competitions work. I think about it all the time.
A&U: If you could travel anywhere in the world instantly, where would you go?
HG: That’s a hard question because I have good friends in New Zealand and the UK who I would love to see. My partner also has family in Mumbai, Toronto and El Paso, and it would be wonderful to visit them, too. But I’ve also never been to Italy, so that’s on the list. I love Italian writers like Natalia Ginzburg and Elena Ferrante.
A&U: What are you reading right now or looking forward to reading this year?
HG: At the moment, I’m reading Josh Silver’s Fruit Fly and listening to the audiobook of Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind. They’re both so good! I’m devouring them! I’m also really excited to read Emily St John Mandel’s Exit Party.
About Writing
A&U: Tell us about your writing journey; did you always want to be an author?
HG: From a young age, I kept journals. Whenever something significant happened in my life, my instinct was to write it down as a way of making sense of it. In terms of fiction, I’ve written short stories and attempted novels, but for a long time I did this sporadically and in secret because I felt a bit embarrassed about my efforts. A few years ago, a friend invited me to join her writing group. This changed my life because suddenly writing became a shared activity. I learned so much from the other writers in the group, both in terms of craft and in making more space for writing in my life. It also showed me that writing, like all crafts, is something you can get better at with practice. I was encouraged to take classes and work on my writing in a more consistent way.
A&U: Tell us about your writing process. Are you a plotter, pantser – something in between?
HG: I think I probably fall somewhere in between a planner and a pantser. Before I start writing, I generally like to know where the characters are at the beginning, where they will end up, and a few things that will happen along the way. Once I have that, I start writing and enjoy the freedom of where a sentence might take me. It sounds strange, but often I sit down to write and twenty minutes later find that something unexpected has happened. I love that feeling.
A&U: Did you have a writing playlist for your book, and if so, what was on it?
HG: In the novel, Helena and Ruthie fall in love with Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet so ‘Lovefool’ by the Cardigans and Kym Mazelle’s cover of ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ were definitely on my mind. Dream Girls also has allusions to Shakespeare and Emily Brontë so I was pretty excited when Taylor Swift’s ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ and Charli xcx’s Wuthering Heights album came out.
A&U: Do you have any special quirks when you write? (A certain mug you must use, a candle you have to light etc.)
HG: I like to write in my journal before getting to work on whatever novel or story I’m writing. It doesn’t always happen as I’m often short for time, but I do notice that the writing feels better if I’ve started with my journal. I think it helps me get into the right frame of mind.
A&U: If you could give some words of wisdom to yourself from when you first started writing this book, what would it be?
HG: Trust your obsessions! When I started writing this novel, I really wanted to enjoy the process, so I followed my interests. If I felt something deeply – if it made me laugh or cringe or interrogate an idea I’d been mulling over, then it ended up in the book. This approach can sometimes feel exposing, but I’m proud of the work and how much fun I had with it. It feels very close to my heart.
About the book
A&U: Where did the initial spark of inspiration for Dream Girls come from?
HG: I knew I wanted to write a novel about a friendship between two women that begins in adolescence and develops into early adulthood, because it’s a time when friendships can be intense but also come under pressure as people are figuring out who they are. Then, by chance, I saw a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the characters of Helena and Hermia captured my attention. Even though the play was written in the late 1500s, there was something about those two young women trying to navigate a chaotic and frightening world that resonated with me. Also, when Titania says, ‘Methought I was enamoured of an ass,’ I thought – yes, we’ve all been there.
A&U: Share a little bit about your journey to publication. Were you querying for a while? Or did it all happen very fast?
HG: Last year, I did a course at the Faber Writing Academy, which was where I wrote the bulk of Dream Girls. I met my wonderful agent, Rebecca Slater, when she attended our class as a guest presenter. It was such an exciting day when I signed with her! After that, we submitted the manuscript to various publishers and were lucky enough to receive some offers. I was completely blown away when I came into the Allen & Unwin office and the whole team was so enthusiastic about the book! As a writer, I’ve certainly had my share of rejections over the years, so it meant so much to me to sign with Allen & Unwin. Even now, it feels surreal.
A&U: Is there anything about the publishing process that has really surprised you?
HG: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the editing process. It was such a satisfying experience to see the book become tighter and sharper after each round of edits. I’m so grateful that I got to work with such brilliant publishers, editors and proofreaders. They taught me so much about craft, and I’m excited to take that knowledge into my next project.
A&U: Is there a part of the book that made you cry, laugh, or scream while writing it?
HG: Helena was so much fun to write because she’s so extreme and dramatic, she really gives herself over to her fantasies, which gets her into all kinds of trouble. I loved writing the chapter where Helena and Ruthie become friends while working on a completely unhinged presentation on Wuthering Heights for their Year 9 English class. The only thing more intoxicating than discovering a novel you love, is finding a kindred spirit who loves it, too. Writing that chapter took me back to the intensity of my teenage friendships and love for books.
I also loved writing the chapters at Phoebe’s wedding when Helena and Ruthie get into an epic fight out in the forest. By this point, they’ve known each other for so long, that the fight encompasses everything from the pettiest of grievances to the gravest of betrayals. It’s the kind of fight you can only have with someone who knows you better than you know yourself. Writing those chapters made me laugh and cry - it really was an intense experience!
A&U: What is one thing you would like people to take away from reading your book?
HG: When I was writing this novel, I was thinking about friendships and how deep they can run. The relationship between Helena and Ruthie in Dream Girls contains so much – there’s love and joy and shared dreams but also betrayal and resentment. The characters grow and change, and ultimately, shape each other in the most profound ways. I hope the novel encourages people to celebrate and cherish their own friendships.
Dream Girls will be available from November 3 at your book retailer of choice.
Dream Girls
by Hannah Goldstein
A love-drunk Shakespeare enthusiast and a disillusioned Instagram baker try to kill each other at a wedding. They're supposed to be best friends so how did they end up here?
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