Author and MVHS alum ‘03 Kelly Loy Gilbert shares her approach to writing – El Estoque

As author and MVHS alum ‘03 Kelly Loy Gilbert researches for her next book, she recalls a story from one of her great aunts about growing up in Chinatown. Her great aunt used to follow the ice vendor around her neighborhood as he chipped off ice for his customers just so she could pick up the ice shards that accidentally fell to the ground in the process. This is just the kind of moment Gilbert seeks to capture as she plans her latest book, a multigenerational story of Chinese Americans that spans from the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad through the present day. 

Gilbert recalls that when she was an aspiring writer at MVHS, the school culture was extremely STEM-focused. However, despite constant questions from family members about the practicality of a career as an author, she felt supported in her passion for writing fiction. Her freshman literature teacher, Barbara Edgeworth, especially impacted her, taking the time to give feedback on fiction pieces she wrote outside of school. As an adult, she channeled her experiences into writing young adult novels, including “When We Were Infinite,” “Conviction” and “Picture Us in the Light,” the last of which is set in Cupertino. With each novel, she grapples with how to craft stories that will continue to connect with readers despite changes in technology and social attitudes. 

“Writing something that will still speak to where people are going to be five years from now is really challenging,” Gilbert said. “That has always been something that I feel like I spend a lot of mental energy ruminating about. A big part of it is focusing on the characters so much that they feel true — so even if their circumstances don’t map perfectly to the future, at least they feel authentic and their reactions feel authentic.”

English teacher Sara Borelli believes Gilbert has achieved a form of this timelessness in “Picture Us in the Light.” Several years ago, Borelli and English teacher Jireh Tanabe piloted Gilbert’s book “Picture Us in the Light” — which follows an Asian American teenager as he navigates academic pressures, friendship, queerness and immigrant family dynamics — for freshman Literature and Writing. The book was part of a unit introducing students to narrative storytelling and diverse experiences. Borelli found it a valuable addition to the curriculum, both stylistically and for its plot. 

“Her writing just seemed uninhibited, but also it was good storytelling,” Borelli said. “I could relate to a lot of what the kids were going through in regards to what was happening here at Monta Vista. It was a good book for what we were using it for: storytelling and connecting to community, people of color and people that look like you and act like you and talk like you.” 

According to Borelli, relatability was a major part of the English department’s goal for the book and the unit overall. Through both the books and interviews with other people of color, they hoped to encourage students to think critically about the literature, both how they personally connected to it and how the experiences of people of color differ across places and eras. She believes that especially for freshmen, the book struck the appropriate balance of accessibility and relatability. 

Junior Ruchika Varanasi feels that the characters in “Picture Us in the Light,” although dramatized, were relatable to her, particularly in terms of the academic pressures they face. She points out that as a child, she didn’t read many books with Asian main characters, since they lacked the publicity of the majority of books with white main characters. After she read “Picture Us in the Light” in middle school, however, she began actively seeking out books with Asian characters to diversify her perspective. 

“It changed my perspective on the type of literature I want to read, and while it was a more mature book, I remember it did teach me a lot about how society works,” Varanasi said. “When I’m at the library, I always go and look for books about Asian people or by Asian authors, but there’s still not as much representation as I would like. Most of the books are about white people. More representation is needed in that sense — instead of me having to deliberately go look, it should just be there.”

As an Asian American herself, Gilbert believes this lack of representation comes partly from which books publishers choose to accept. She recalls the process of trying to publish the first book she wrote, “When We Were Infinite,” a novel from the perspective of a biracial girl reflecting on her senior year of high school. For years, publishers told her it was “too quiet” and they “didn’t know who it was for.” She ended up having to put the project on hold and eventually published it as her third book in 2021. 

“That was part of why, for my first book, I was like, ‘Fine, I’m going to write from the perspective of a white guy,’” Gilbert said. “And that one sold right away. I definitely write from various perspectives, and how the market looks is what breaks through.”

That first book was “Conviction,” which follows a teenage white boy, Braden, who pitches for his school’s baseball team and has to navigate his father facing accusations of murder — narratively a far cry from “When We Were Infinite” or “Picture Us in the Light.” But beyond finding the right balance of marketability, she says, one of the challenges of getting published is the sheer amount of rejection. She recalls that from cold calling to emailing, finding a literary agent can be a brutal process, and as a young author, it was difficult to maintain faith that she would find an agent and publisher that clicked.

“There were a lot of times when I was like, ‘Is this ever gonna happen? It’s not gonna ever happen,’” Gilbert said. “So I think if I could go back to that stage and be like, ‘It is gonna happen, it’s gonna be OK,’ I think that would have saved me a lot of angst.”

Even after this first hurdle, she says, turning a spark of an idea — like the ice chips in Chinatown — into a book takes perseverance. Her process includes research like reading old documents and interviewing various people, as well as plenty of iteration on her own ideas.

“A lot of writing is about discovery and surprise for me,” Gilbert said. “I have a lot of friends and colleagues who will have an idea, outline it really carefully, and once they sit down to write, it really follows the outline. I’ve never been able to do that. I’ll chase an idea wherever it goes, and it’ll be this really circuitous path, and it’ll go over the place, and eventually I’ll settle on what it actually wants to be.”

In Varanasi’s opinion, this process pays off in the form of a novel that explores multiple topics in mature and complex ways. With “Picture Us in the Light,” she recommends readers go in with context on the history of immigration in the U.S., particularly Asian American-specific events like the Chinese Exclusion Act. She says that while the book made her curious about what it means to be an undocumented immigrant, she hopes to reread it with the context she has learned over the course of high school. 

“By the time you get to junior or sophomore year, you know more of what’s going on in the world,” Varanasi said. “I feel like it’s important to have some background, some history, before reading it. I’m shocked that some people don’t know what a green card is. Knowing about that and knowing basic parts of history, you can see where the characters are coming from.” 

Borelli enjoys seeing students engage with literature in this manner — in fact, she structures her classes to encourage active discussion and show her appreciation of the literary techniques in order to foster this recognition in students. She hopes that students will connect deeply with the texts and come to love them through analysis. In terms of “Picture Us in the Light,” Gilbert often hears from MVHS students and people who were closeted growing up, something she says is particularly moving because it’s important to her to craft stories that are not just relatable, but explore complex identities. 

“Now that I have a lot more access to other perspectives and opinions and lived experiences, I think that’s something I’ve always really wanted to explore through stories,” Gilbert said. “That sense of seeking connection is still true. Getting characters into places where they’re really deeply connecting with another person, and the reader gets to see that happen, is something I always strive for.”