Erin Crosby Eckstine: Writing a Book Is a Collaborative Process
In this interview, author Erin Crosby Eckstine discusses fulfilling her grandmother’s lifelong dream in writing her debut novel, Junie.
Erin Crosby Eckstine is an author of speculative historical fiction, personal essays, and anything else she’s in the mood for. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Eckstine grew up between the South and Los Angeles before moving to New York City to attend Barnard College. She earned a master’s in secondary English education from Stanford University and taught high school English for six years. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their cats. Follow her on Instagram.
In this interview, Erin discusses fulfilling her grandmother’s lifelong dream in writing her debut novel, Junie, how writing a book is a team effort, and more.
Name: Erin Crosby Eckstine
Literary agent: Danya Kukafka
Book title: Junie
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release date: February 4, 2025
Genre/category: General Fiction/Historical Fiction/Magical Realism
Elevator pitch: Set in antebellum Alabama, Junie is a coming-of-age tale of a 16-year-old enslaved girl who must make a pivotal choice after awakening her sister's spirit. Facing an increasingly unfamiliar world beyond her control, she asks herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?
What prompted you to write this book?
I adapted Junie from a family story my grandmother, Callie Crosby, told me. My ancestor Jane Cotton escaped slavery in Alabama before the Civil War, settling in a rural community where, to this day, many family members remain.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I got the idea for the book on a visit to my grandparents’ house in 2018. I wanted to write a multigenerational family novel, similar to Allende's House of the Spirits, about our town. I expected this project would die in my Google Drive, but I couldn’t resist coming back to Junie, the original ancestor in the story. I decided to fulfill my grandmother's lifelong dream of writing a book inspired by our ancestors. I took a writing class and joined a local writing group, but after about six months, I lost momentum, and all but gave up on drafting.
That all changed in March 2020. What started as a two-week stint teaching high school remotely from my Brooklyn apartment with my cat turned into almost two years of quarantine. A literary agent signed me after reading early chapters, and I wrote the novel in quarantine. Outside of my Zoom teaching, I dedicated all my free time to writing Junie’s story, completing the book before year's end.
It took around two years to edit the novel while juggling full-time, in-person teaching. Then, after finding a home at Ballantine, we spent an additional two years preparing for the big day!
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I now understand that writing a book is a collaborative process. Even if one name is on the cover, it takes a team to write a good book. My agent, Danya Kukafka, and editor, Wendy Wong, provided essential guidance throughout the creation of Junie; their insights were indispensable to the final product.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I struggled to fully develop Junie, my main character. While I found it straightforward to develop the non-POV characters in the course of writing this book, Junie’s characterization needed substantial revision. For me, the protagonist always presents the biggest challenge, as writing them is akin to self-characterization. I spent considerable time crafting an objective perspective on her and enabling readers to share her feelings.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
My goal was for Junie to be a realistic and complex character—someone battling awful things, but still fully human, experiencing hope, love, loss, and all the messiness that entails. Authors commonly limit portrayals of enslaved individuals to two simplistic and inaccurate tropes: the blissfully ignorant slave who conforms to a white-centric perspective, or the relentlessly miserable slave who lacks individual development. This story reflects my time thinking about the harsh realities of slavery. American slavery lasted for over a quarter-millennia; it weighed on me that enslaved people lived the full spectrum of the human experience, good and bad, under this horrific system. I wanted to show what slavery was like for one person, focusing on their mind, feelings, and soul.
This book also examines the damaging effects of oppressive systems, especially malignant caste systems, on all levels of society. Without revealing too much, the plantation holds more than one victim of prejudice and discrimination, and Junie is only one of them. Bellereine is meant to be a microcosm of the larger social structure, and I also wanted to delve into the profound challenges of liberation and revolution, even when they are necessities for growth.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
My dad raised me on sports metaphors, so I’m going to go with one of his classics: You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Every step of this process has required some level of risk; signing up for a writing class, joining a writing group, sending my pages to an agent, the list goes on. Embrace boldness; step outside your comfort zone—rejection is just part of the journey! You might sit on the next great American novel, but no one will know if you don’t share it!
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
