Earlier this year, we had the pleasure of reviewing Helene Dunbar’s seminal novel We Are Lost and Found, a quiet and powerful exploration of identity and youth during the early beginnings of the AIDS crisis in the 80s. Helene Dunbar was kind enough to sit down with us to answer some questions about her newest release, upcoming projects, and all the bookish things!
First things first, Helene: tell our readers a bit about yourself!
I’m from Michigan, and live in Nashville, but my heart is in New York where I lived for 20 years. Paste Magazine called me the “queen of heartbreaking prose,” which I kind of want tattooed on my arm.
You have quite the impressive bio working as a drama critic, marketing manager and journalist in your past. Have those jobs influenced the way you go about writing novels?
All of my books have a kind of journalistic, “ripped from the headlines” type of background. It isn’t to sensationalize those stories, they’re just the ones that resonate from me and make me ask “what if?”
My time in theater (I minored in it in college but hate being on stage) definitely taught me how to write dialogue and certainly theater plays a large part in WE ARE LOST AND FOUND and in making up James’s character.
I was so excited to read the afterwords in We Are Lost and Found from queer activists! It must have been quite the feat to write a novel set in the 80s, just at the beginning of the AIDS crisis. What did your writing and research process look like?
I’m thrilled you called out these afterwords. Ron Goldberg’s essay on life as young gay man in NYC in the 80’s gives me the chills whenever I read it and I think that Jeremiah Johnson and Jason Walker did an amazing job of capturing both the history and current state of HIV/AIDS prevention and medication initiatives.
Honestly, this was the easiest book I’ve ever written because I was only a year older than my characters in 1983. If I made a list of everything in the book that came from my own life, I’d take up all of your space, but even down to things like Dial-a-daze and the pro/con article that Becky wrote on the Guardian Angels for her school paper are real. I wrote that article for my high school paper! And while we didn’t have a fear room, a friend and I used to go into the language rooms in our school’s library and listen to records until we got kicked out. I could keep going….
When it came to the history of the AIDS crisis, I was committed to getting it 100% accurate. I remember most of the AIDS-related news of the time. I followed it closely and then worked for a state government writing grant funding proposals to the CDC in the early 90’s. So my main challenge was making sure that everything I referenced was specific to 1983 and then writing Michael’s story around those historical facts that were date-specific.
The vignette style worked well for me because I could draft a vignette while in line at the grocery store. But really, I’ve been writing this book in my head all along, I just didn’t know it. These characters were ones I’ve been carrying with me since high school because they’re all parts of me and my friends at the time.
Once I had a full draft (note that I don’t really draft; I’m constantly revising) I was happy with, I sent it to Ron Goldberg. He has a vast historical knowledge and was a leading member of ACT UP at the time. He was able to provide historical context that I might not have known or that I didn’t come across in my own research. He also suggested some levity which I added into the book and was a great sounding board to bound ideas off.
Your novel We Are Lost and Found has been compared to Perks of Being a Wallflower – have you read Perks and if so, do you think Charlie and Michael would get along well?
Ha! That was my publisher. I read PERKS a long time ago, but don’t remember it well enough to weigh in sorry.
For me (and a lot of our readers!), characters are what make or break a story – how did you create such authentic, relatable characters like Michael, James and Becky? Perhaps you have some tips for fellow writers?
These characters were easy because they’re all a part of me. And also part my friends in high school and college. I was an English/Theater kid, so there was no challenge there.
The secondary characters are a different story. Connor, Michael’s brother, changed a lot once Ron and I began talking and his relationship to Michael changed a lot. Originally Michael was much more judgmental about Connor’s lifestyle which is very social, very out and proud, but then I realized that was Michael was actually upset about was that his brother was busy all the time and no longer had time for him. He felt replaced and also he was worried about him. That change of perspective allowed me to give more nuance to their relationship.
Gabriel, Michael’s love interest, was also a challenge. There were historical issues I wanted to get into with him, but I decided that this book wasn’t the correct place to do it. So instead, I turned him into someone who was torn between doing everything he could to support his family, and someone who had learned, when his father was shot and killed, that life is short and you need to use the time you have to be the person you want to be. One reader told me that they were amazed at how much “grace” Gabriel has and I absolutely loved that because he’s really quite a complex character and when it comes down to it, he choose honesty over what’s easy and I’m glad he’s noticed for that.
As for tips…my main characters are basically me. I have a hard time being in a character’s head and making them someone I can’t relate to. So draw upon every feeling and every experience you have. Be like a “method actor” and live those parts and think about how situations make you feel when you’re coming from the place your character comes from – that’s really the trick, asking yourself, “What has this character been through and how does that influence their responses to this set of circumstances?”
Fear plays a huge role in We Are Lost and Found – how do you deal with things that you fear?
I’m a wuss. I’m a living representation of those memes where someone burns their house down because there’s a spider in it.
I am trying to be better in terms of actually doing things that frighten me: long drives, those aerial climbing things where you have to cross thin wires while suspended in the trees, talking to people I’m intimidated by, etc…
Michael sets a list of goals he wants to achieve at the outset of the novel – if you had to pen a list like that right now, what would be on yours to accomplish in one year’s time? (of course, keeping in mind that goals can change 😉 )
Wow. That’s a great question and also a little scary.
- Finish my 2021 book (Prelude’s sequel).
- Announce the big secret news that I’m sitting on that I can’t announce yet.
- Figure out common core math so that I can help my daughter through 4th
- Strengthen a number of relationships in my personal life.
- Find a way to arrange my schedule of child/day job/life to include at least some form of exercise.
I found this question in your discussion guide of We Are Lost and Found and I would love to know your answer! Do you believe that the lives of teens then were easier or more difficult compared to today?
This is so complex, but there are two main differences I always think about:
(1) Teens today have the internet and social media. My grades definitely would have been better had I been able to type out reports and papers without the typos I got marked down from on and it would have been amazing to have the answers to everything at your fingertips. (Also, email. If you knew how many hours I spent at home waiting for the mailman…) But social media has put a lot of pressure on teens that we didn’t have, so this is a plus/minus.
(2) We had a lot more freedom as teens and even as younger kids. I remember taking my bike and telling my parents I’d be home for dinner and just….going. I could never let my daughter do that and I think it’s horrible that safety concerns are determining how resilient kids are going to be as adults. I’m not sure that teens are allowed to make mistakes and then fix the issues as much as we were and fail and that’s a valuable skill set.
What do you hope readers take away from your books?
For WE ARE LOST AND FOUND, I want them to realize that while 16 year olds weren’t the demographic literally affected by HIV/AIDS in 1983, we were changed by what would come, the government’s inaction, and the vast loss of a generation.
But I also want them to feel hopeful when they finish the book. People didn’t stop falling in love. They didn’t give in. They fought. They still do. That’s why the afterwards are so important to me. I need teens to know that yes, science has come very far and changed so many lives, but this disease is still devastating some, mostly marginalized, communities and there is still a fight to join.
Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming project, Prelude for Lost Souls?
Sure!
Prelude is set in a gated community where everyone talks to the dead and, in the summer, tourists come and pay to get in, hoping to speak to someone who has passed. It’s the story of two best friends, Dec and Russ. Dec comes from a long line of mediums, but wants nothing to do with it anymore, and has to leave town before he gets drafted into The Guild, which is the sinister town leadership. Russ is talented, but feels like joining The Guild is his only hope for a future and he’ll do anything to get noticed, including embracing some dark and potentially life-threatening forces, and an enigmatic and manipulative ghost.
Then the train of Annie Krylova, the piano prodigy whose music has been Dec’s main source of solace, breaks down outside of town, and it sets off an unexpected chain of events. In St. Hilaire, there are no such things as coincidences and both boys know their lives will never be the same.
Lastly, do you have any recommendations for our readers – books or movies or tv shows?
I don’t have a ton of time to watch anything, but This Is Us is just so brilliant that I make a point of finding time. Ken Olin is one of the producers and he starred in 30Something which was also so meticulously written, that I’m in awe.
I’m currently rereading CARRY ON by Rainbow Rowell so that I can go straight to WAYWARD SON even though I hate road trip novels. And I have a ton of biographies on my TBR list: Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young, and one about the Kennedy Family.
The one recommendation I will make though is Rebecca Makkai’s THE GREAT BELIEVERS. It’s about the AIDS crisis in Chicago in 1985, which is a much more intense period in the disease’s history, than 1983 was,. I was living there when part of the book takes place and was active in the theatre community and this book just nails it and is so beautifully written. It deserves all the awards it’s won.
