We had the pleasure of chatting with Ismée Williams and we talk all about her newest contemporary, This Train is Being Held. From the inspiration behind the story, the writing process of Isa & Alex, to the discussion about the representations included in this book, everything unravels in today’s interview!
Your newest contemporary, This Train is Being Held, is out now! Can you tell us about it and why everyone should include this book in their reading list?
I am so excited about this book! THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD is a modern retelling of West Side Story, if both lovers were Latinx. It’s a subway romance featuring Alex, a Dominican-American baseball prodigy from Washington Heights, and Isa, a blond Upper East Side private-school ballerina. Alex’s papi wants him to go pro. But Alex maybe wants to be a poet. Not that Papi would understand or ever allow it. Meanwhile, Isa would love to be a professional dancer but her Cuban-born mom thinks that’s an unacceptable career choice for a modern woman. Oh–and she doesn’t want her daughter dating Latinos. THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD is a true romance, filled with hidden poems on the subway and the lovers trying to carve out time for each other in their highly scheduled lives. But it’s not a light romance. Alex and Isa are forced to confront racism, the stigma of mental illness, the perils of urban gangs and the rigid expectations of highly controlling parents. I would say if you enjoy an urban star-crossed romance with meat, this would be a good pick for you.
In the author’s note, you shared a quick story about the inspiration behind This Train is Being Held. But can you tell us about which aspect of the book that you started with when you first wrote it?
I’ve been taking the subway for over twenty years, so I’ve had a lot of rides where I saw cool interactions between strangers. A balding man passing a packet of tissues to a young woman who got on with a mascara-streaked face and begins crying into her hands. A mom removing an apple, a juice box, and a box of animal crackers from her toddler’s stroller to give to a homeless vet. Three teens with nose rings and black leather jackets holding open the door for a grandma with a walker struggling on the stairs who’s shouting out to please hold the train because she’s late to her doctor’s appointment. When you see connections like this happen, it’s quite heart-warming. It makes you feel good about people in general and living in New York specifically. For THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD, I started with that idea, the connection between strangers. I wanted to put two very different young people together in the same subway car–a couple you wouldn’t expect to cross paths–and watch them fall for each other. I’m a sucker for romance, especially ill-fated romance, so then I had to create background stories and scenarios that tortured Alex and Isa and forced them apart: demanding schedules, demanding parents, mega misunderstandings, families detonating due to the stress of job loss and mental illness. That is never easy to do to your characters, because as an author, you often end up loving them. At least I do! But it’s necessary to create the tension that keeps the pages turning. The fun part was then sitting back and watching Alex and Isa fight to get back to each other.
Now, let’s talk about the characters! What particularly excited you the most when you were developing Isa & Alex?
I wanted this to be a story about expectations, multiple levels of expectations–from family, friends, strangers, even your own. I wanted to explore how these expectations weigh on the individual and shape thoughts and behavior, especially if the individual is a young person struggling to establish an identity. What do you do if you see yourself as a dancer but your parent tells you that’s not good enough? What do you do if you try to be a good person and help out strangers on the subway, but those strangers are afraid of you because of how you look? I also wanted to highlight how expectations can often be wrong. So I came up with a tender-hearted athlete who is a poet. A beautiful, privileged girl whose family is falling apart and taking her with them. But what also excited me about creating these characters was developing the romance, showing them connect despite and sometimes because of their differences.
And were there any struggles that you faced when you wrote the dynamic between the two of them?
I have to say that writing the scenes between Alex and Isa was the most enjoyable. Perhaps I gave that away already by admitting how much I love romance. My favorite scene might be the Halloween encounter. I thought of it about a nanosecond after coming up with the premise of strangers from opposite sides of the tracks meeting on the subway. I’m not going to give away any spoilers though! I really looked forward to building the attraction and the connection between Isa and Alex. Even showing them being nervous or upset at the other, doubting intentions, was fun. Writing the scenes where I had to pull them apart was tough. It definitely took an emotional toll on me! And I also struggled in editing because it turned out that I had written too many happy meet-on-the-subway scenes and had to cut some. It is always hard to ‘kill the babies’, as one editor described it.
Isa & Alex’s first encounter was simple, yet also told us a lot about them. And of course, their connection over shared music was adorable! What was the process behind writing this particular scene?
THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD is told from alternating points of view. The first chapter is from Isa’s perspective. From the beginning I knew that Isa was going to meet Alex because he was going to hold the door open for her on the subway. I also knew that Alex was going to protect her in some way and how that was going to play out. But another task for that chapter was to show who Isa was and make her sympathetic. That was more challenging for me because it had to come from Isa’s thoughts–exposition instead of action happening on the page. I rewrote that part–where Isa’s remembering her morning and how she got out of her apartment (and thereby introduces her mother and brother to the readers) so many times! But the part where Alex and Isa were together? Where she’s peeking at him and noticing how courteous he is and thinking he’s cute and he offers her his earbuds to listen to music? That was so much easier!
We understand that aside from the romance, this book is also family-focused and heavily featured Latinx representation. Is there any challenge that you went through when you were writing these issues?
Going back to the theme of expectations, I wanted to explore stereotypes that exist even within a single group of people, in this case the Latinx population. They both speak Spanish, but Alex is brown and Isa is white. This is one source of tension in their relationship. I’ve known plenty of boys and men who are like Alex, including an old flame in college. But being white-passing, I identify more with Isa. I wanted to be sure that I was not misrepresenting Alex’s point of view, so I asked for help. We found two young men–one of whom could be Alex in ten years since he looks just like him and grew up in Washington Heights, and the other a YA writer himself–to read a draft and offer suggestions and comments. I’m sure there are individuals out there who would identify with Alex but might not agree with how Alex the character felt or acted, but that is the beauty of being an individual. We don’t always agree or act the same way. Depending on what happened to you this morning or who you are with, you yourself might make different choices or feel differently about an event. I was more interested in uncovering any unconscious bias of my own that might lead to misrepresentation and propagation of hurtful stereotypes. I did the same for the mental illness component of the story. Even though I have close friends as well as family with bipolar disorder, I spoke with psychiatrists and psychologists before and while writing THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD. We also asked an independent mental health expert to read a draft prior to publication. I wouldn’t call these challenges, per se, but they were extra steps that every responsible author would take to try to safeguard against inaccuracies that might lead to harm.
We’re incredibly excited for this book, as it’s in our list for most anticipated 2020 releases. For you, what’s your most anticipated titles for this year?
Oh my goodness, there are so many! Elizabeth Acevedo’s CLAP WHEN YOU LAND is high on my list. I will read anything that Liz writes–and listen to anything she narrates. If you haven’t heard her audiobooks yet, you MUST. Sarah J. Maas’s HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD, which is her first adult book, comes out this spring. I devoured all her YA books so I’m really looking forward to how she takes the leap to an adult-only audience. I’m also excited for Mayra Cuevas’s debut SALTY, BITTER, SWEET, a Latinx rom-com set in France. I had the honor of being asked to read an early draft, and this one is great, folks! I.W. Gregorio’s next YA contemporary is also set to take the world by storm: THIS IS MY BRAIN ON LOVE. This romance deals with issues of racism and mental illness, just like THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD–and I.W. Gregorio is a physician author like me! And speaking of physician authors–Kimmery Martin’s next adult novel, THE ANTIDOTE FOR EVERYTHING, comes out in March and I’ve already preordered it! I’m not sure how much writing I’m going to get done these next few months since I will be reading non-stop!
Lastly, what’s next for you?
I have a couple of projects I’m working on but nothing at the stage where I can share yet. (I’m superstitious about jinxing myself!) And, of course, I have about three other ideas for cooking. Stay tuned!
