I tried a draft in first person from Travis and it was frankly boring. Travis, on the other hand, had to be coaxed to speak. I could not possibly write Velveeta in third person-she is so loud and insistent and bossy in my head, she wouldn’t allow it. Why is Velveeta given the intimacy of letters while Travis is kept at a greater distance? Velveeta’s secrets are revealed through letters to her deceased neighbor, Calvin, while Travis’ sections are written in third person. Way outside of that boundary.īoth Velveeta and Travis carry a lot of baggage, even at age 13. Velveeta is always looking for anything that steps outside the boundary of “that’s just the way it is”-and there was Travis. Travis interacted with Bradley in a way that nobody ever had. As for why she sat down with Travis, it’s like she said-because he gave Bradley his shoe back. One day she wasn’t there, in my head or on the page, and the next day she was. Velveeta showed up in maybe the third revision.

How did Velveeta enter the story? What makes her sit down next to Travis, her complete opposite?

You have said that Bluefish began with tight-lipped loner Travis. Pat Schmatz’s Bluefish, for which she won the 2010 PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship, is unsentimental and tough, and she tells the story with heart and immense respect for her characters. Things begin to change when McQueen, their English teacher, assigns books to the two teens and makes it clear that he sees some potential in them. Travis and Velveeta could not be more different, though they have one thing in common: They both have hardened secrets buried beneath their outer shells. Velveeta Wojciehowski is a sparkplug with a collection of brightly colored scarves, and one day, she plunks down next to Travis at lunch and decides to be his friend, offering him no choice in the matter. He uses his fists more than his mouth and is always looking to punch someone, including his grandpa. Travis Roberts is a quiet, angry 13-year-old who can’t read.

Bluefish by Pat Schmatz