NH-S STUDENTS CAPTIVATED BY TWO NEW AUTHORS

Authors Matt Quick and Alicia Bessette with NH-S English teacher, Drew Giorgi

On October 14, New Hope-Solebury High School students were intrigued by two new, popular authors who happen to be husband and wife. Matt Quick and Alicia Bessette visited with the English students of Drew Giorgi and with the Creative Writing students of Melanie Pittner. In tag-team style, the two took turns in telling the students the story of how they met, their dreams of becoming writers, and how they went about making those dreams come true. They stressed to the students that they wouldn’t have seen their books published if they hadn’t taken huge risks in their life and if they weren’t persistent in sending manuscripts to publishers. Newly married and in their twenties, Quick and Bessette had both quit their jobs, traveled to Africa and upon their return to the states, moved in with Bessette’s parents so that they could begin to pursue their dreams of becoming authors. “My father said I was an idiot and a lot of our friends thought we were making a big mistake,” said Quick. He went on to say that hundreds of his manuscripts were originally turned down by publishers.

Today, both Quick and Bessette are realizing that their dreams are becoming reality. Quick’s novel, Silver Linings Playbook has earned numerous positive reviews and has been signed to be made into a movie. His young adult novel, Sorta Like a Rock Star, was equally embraced and has been nominated by the American Library Association for Best Fiction for Young Adults. Bessette’s new novel, Simply from Scratch is also receiving rave reviews and was read by Drew Giorgi’s English students.

This is the third visit by Quick to New Hope-Solebury and Bessette’s first.
“The students are thrilled with Matt’s and Alicia’s visit to our school,” remarked Giorgi who arranged for the visit. “Not only do they enjoy their books but they are genuinely inspired by their stories of becoming writers.”