Q&A with Marcella Pixley

 

 

Marcella Pixley is the author of the new middle grade novel Neshama. Her other books include Trowbridge Road. Also an educator, she lives in Massachusetts.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Neshama, and how did you create your character Anna?

 

A: I have always believed in ghosts. My Grandma Anne died when I was a very little girl, and the night before her funeral I had a strange dream that she came to visit me. I had been crying all day. In the dream she was trying to comfort and assure me that she was okay but she had to leave. I asked her if I could come with her, but she told me it wasn’t my time.

 

Since then, I have had many other dreams where deceased loved ones have come to visit. Most of the time they give me messages and reassure me that they are okay. I have never been certain if these dreams are real or not, but just in case, I always pass on the message.

 

When I began writing Neshama, I imagined what it would like for a quiet, imaginative, 11-year-old girl like Anna to discover that she could write poetry with the spirits of her ancestors. What would they say to her about who they were and what they left behind? 

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Anna and Ruthie?

 

A: The dynamic between Anna and Ruthie changes over the course of the book.

 

At first, Ruthie’s ghost gives Anna a new, fierce, wild kind of bravery that she has never experienced before. While Anna is watchful and quiet, Ruthie is independent, unapologetic and completely fearless.

 

Ruthie’s spirit helps Anna connect deeply with her Jewish identity for the first time. She introduces Anna to ancient songs and prayers that make her spirit sing.

 

In return, Anna gives Ruthie the chance to experience the joys she has missed since passing away: chicken soup, Shabbos candles, a beating heart, a voice that can sing, feet that can dance, the ability to touch the ones she loved again.

 

But when Ruthie asks Anna to help her seek revenge, Anna needs to decide if being connected to a restless ghost is really what she wants. Anna needs to learn how to heal from generational trauma and also forge her own path. She needs to learn how to express her own shayna neshama, her own complex, brave and beautiful identity. 

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The word neshama means soul or spirit in Hebrew. In Judaism the neshama is the part of a human spirit that lasts forever. It is our divine spark. The word neshama can also be used as a term of endearment, like when Anna’s bubbe calls her a shayna neshama, a beautiful soul. 

 

Neshama felt like the right title for a ghost story in verse about a girl finding her own identity.  As Anna and her ancestors write poetry back and forth to each other, the reader is led to wonder what parts of our spirit linger when we leave this world.

 

Anna must learn to express her own identity that is different from her parents or Bubbe or even Ruthie. Over the course of the story, she will learn that forgiveness can heal old wounds and that the only way to be whole is to learn how to be brave enough to express all of who you are. We must never allow anyone else to define us. 

 

Q: Much of the novel is set in Gloucester, Massachusetts--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: I wrote the first draft of Neshama sitting on the dock at our house in Gloucester, watching the tides rise and fall with a journal in my lap. I imagined that there were ghosts stepping out from the shadows, emerging from the surface of the water.

 

Our old, wooden cabin in Gloucester has always been one of my favorite places on earth. At sunset, the light slants in from the old dusty windows, making shadows on the reddish wood. If you stand on the dock, you can watch the sun sink into the river.

 

I have always imagined I could feel the other souls who have stood on the ancient dock watching the same sun and the same river generations and generations before. High tide. Low tide. Infinite sunsets. I wanted to capture that timeless quality of a place that had not changed in centuries.

 

In this novel, the setting of Gloucester, Massachusetts is one of the most important souls of all.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am in the very first stages of a new novel right now. Like many of my books, this is also a story about a girl with a very unusual and troubling imagination.

 

I am not sure whether this book will eventually be considered magical realism or if I have finally allowed myself to embark upon my very first fantasy book.

 

I do know that this story is about magical beasts. There is a unicorn and a wolf and a ravenous creature called the Kress that is much too powerful for its own good.

 

The main character is an 11-year-old girl with a traumatic past who is slipping farther and farther away from reality and into the terrifying world of her nightmares. She will need to go on a dangerous journey to find her way back to reality.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I hope the novel Neshama gives permission for readers to imagine talking to the ghosts of their own ancestors.

 

Create your own ghost journal. Sit on a dock, or on a mountain, or in your bed, and start writing to the ones who came before you. Ask them their stories. Ask them what they would do if they had hands and heartbeats again.

 

If you are very lucky, and you listen very hard, maybe they will share their stories with you. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Marcella Pixley.