Raelke Grimmer's debut YA novel, White Noise, is bringing a fresh new perspective to female autism and friendship set in tropical Darwin, NT. Read all about Raelke's inspiration for her characters and her best advice for emerging writers in this interview with UWAP intern Samantha Hearn.
Raelke Grimmer grew up writing in the hills and foothills of Kaurna Country in South Australia and has lived in Darwin on Larrakia Country since 2016. She writes YA, poetry and creative nonfiction. Raelke’s work has been published in Westerly, Kill Your Darlings, Griffith Review and Meniscus, and she was shortlisted in the Poetry Award in the 2023 Northern Territory Literary Awards. She is a founding editor of Northern Territory literary journal Borderlands, a publication showcasing the very best of Northern Territory and First Nations storytelling. In 2023, Raelke was a participant in Creative Australia’s Digital Fellowship Program and is a 2024 recipient of an online ArtsNT Varuna Fellowship. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Flinders University and is a Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at Charles Darwin University. White Noise is her first novel. Check out Raelke's website: raelkegrimmer.com
White Noise is your debut novel, how are you feeling about it being published?
Mostly excited! It feels very surreal, but I’m so happy that this story found a home with UWA Publishing, who are such champions of stories set in regional locations, and I’m excited that readers will get to read Emma’s story.
What inspired you to write a YA novel with an autistic female protagonist?
I didn't set out to write a novel with an autistic female protagonist per se. What kept pulling me back to this story was the exploration of grief and the relationship between Emma and her father. I had this image of the two of them running East Point Reserve together and that's where it all started. What did grief look like for these characters three years after the fact? But as I was working on the first draft, I was going through the process of being diagnosed with autism myself, and one day when I sat down to write, I just thought, Emma's autistic. I recognised in the way I was writing her, that she was autistic, and I also saw that this intersected in interesting ways with how she experiences and processes her grief in the book and I wanted to explore that. So it all unfolded very organically as I wrote.
There's an array of characters in White Noise – how do you build/create your characters? Do you have a process?
I have a very chaotic writing process, and when it comes to creating characters, they tend to evolve as I write. I sit down and write without much of an idea of where things are going, usually with a blurry idea of a protagonist in mind, and then do a lot of re-drafting to mould the story into shape, which in turn shapes my characters. In this re-drafting process, I often find characters will surprise me by what they end up doing or saying. It is these moments I love because it not only helps me develop the characters but often re-directs the plot in ways I didn't anticipate. Emma constantly did this while I wrote White Noise. Of all the characters, James and Summer were the two who were the clearest in my mind from the very beginning.
The novel is set in the Northern Territory. How did you decide where the novel would be set?
I moved to Darwin eight years ago from Adelaide, but it was a place my father loved so I also spent a lot of time in Darwin when I was growing up. I’ve always loved Darwin and I love living here. From the very beginning, the first image that came to me of this story was of Emma and James running at East Point Reserve together. Darwin, and Darwin’s climate, are definitely characters in the book too. It is such an extreme climate to live in that you’re constantly aware of what the weather is doing and how it shapes your day-to-day life.
What were some of the challenges in writing White Noise? And how did you overcome them?
It took me awhile to get Emma's voice right. In the early drafts, I knew something was off but couldn't quite pick what, so I put the manuscript aside for a few months. In those months, I'd go for long walks in the evenings at East Point Reserve. On my walks, Emma was constantly in my head, telling me I'd written her wrong, that she wouldn't do this or that and I needed to go and rewrite her. Eventually, I told her she was right and started rewriting the manuscript from the beginning. I often find I “walk” my way through writing challenges. My mind wanders and works through solutions while I walk.
Which writers have influenced you throughout your career?
Probably too many to name! But young adult writers who I would read over and over again when I was a teenager (and well beyond!) include Melina Marchetta, Jaclyn Moriarty, Randa Abdel-Fatteh, Gayle Forman, Laurie Halsie Anderson, Julia Lawrinson, Markus Zusak, Margaret Clark. I particularly love the sparseness of how Gayle Forman and Laurie Halsie Anderson write prose, and the way Melina Marchetta and Julia Lawrinson craft their dialogue. I also love writers who play with form or language in surprising ways. Dorothy Porter, Elizabeth Acevedo, Paul Auster, José Saramago, Franz Kafka.
What's your best piece of advice for emerging authors?
Keep writing until you find the stories only you can tell, and find another creative outlet apart from writing that you can turn to at times when the writing gets stuck. Over the past few years analogue photography has become my creative outlet outside of writing and it has reinvigorated my writing in ways I never thought possible.
What do you hope readers will take away from this novel?
I hope they gain a deeper appreciation for just how differently each individual experiences grief and how differently each individual experiences autism but most of all, I hope readers see Emma as a teenager, living her life in Darwin, beyond her autism and grief. I also hope they fall in love with Darwin!
White Noise is out on 1 September 2024 from UWA publishing.
Samantha Hearn is a Curtin University student who is in her final semester of postgraduate studies, completing an MA of Arts, majoring in Professional Writing and Publishing. She has a love for reading, writing and literature (specifically in the fiction genres) and has a passion to work within the publishing industry.
Samantha Hearn | LinkedIn