WESTFORD — Westford-based young adult author Marcella Pixley will speak on her latest book, Trowbridge Road, at the J.V. Fletcher Library this Thursday.
Her book was a Junior Library Gold Standard selection, longlisted for the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award, and named a best book by Shelf Awareness, Reading Group Choices and Mighty Girls. Her book was also nominated for a Golden Dome Award, an annual award selected by the votes of Vermont students.
Trowbridge Road
The book is set in the 1980s during the AIDS epidemic and follows June Bug Jordan as she and her family grapple with mental illness and the loss of her father.
“In one respect it’s about outsiders and how close-knit neighborhoods deal with folks who don’t conform with what society expects,” Pixley told WestfordCAT. “It’s also about how a seemingly safe and perfect neighborhood can be a place where very complicated families must keep secrets to fit in.”
Sharing her experience
Pixley says her inspiration comes from her experience.
“Like June Bug, I dealt with the insecurity of not knowing what would happen to my father,” she said.
She added, “all of my books have to do with mental health struggles in one way or another. It’s through my writing that I’ve been able to confront what I deal with and what I’ve dealt with.”
During the height of the pandemic and after the loss of her father in 2020, Pixley says she “made the decision” to share her experience with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
“I made a decision to start telling people that I have OCD and that I have a family who suffers from a variety of mental illnesses. It gave me strength and bravery to do what my character did. It was not my intention but it’s what happened,” she said.
Along with her writing, Pixley works as an eighth-grade Language Arts teacher at Carlisle Public Schools and leads the Drama Club for her students. She says her writing gives her “credibility” as a teacher.
“Teaching for me has melded very nicely with my writing and allows me to talk to the kids about revision and using their imagination,” she said.
She added, “since I write about young people it keeps me in touch with their needs.”
Pixley now sets her sights on her next book, a ghost story written in verse, planned for release in 2025. Her previous works include Freak, Without Tess and Ready To Fall.
The event will be held on Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m. at the J.V. Fletcher Library. The event is hosted by the Friends of the J.V. Fletcher Library.
