Critically-acclaimed author for adults and young adults
By Emily Franklin
(this appeared in The Cincinnati Review)
Assistant Editor Chelsea Whitton: Franklin’s “Epigenetic Inheritance” explores the stakes and fallout of inherited trauma, how we retain its traces in our cells and pass it down. I love the way the poet uses stanza breaks to linger in the poem’s major assertions, and the way her imagery evokes the delicacy of life and the weight of the burdens we carry.
By Emily Franklin
(this appeared in The Times)
SOMEWHERE between two and three in the morning, hours before the police show up, Miller sits out in the field on a metal folding chair. Luna had offered a cushion but he’d turned her down and here he is with a cold ass and nearly drained coffee seasoned with Nubit, the liquor Luna makes from the pecans nobody wants to buy.
By Emily Franklin
(this appeared in Motherwell)
The almost-18-year-old removes a handmade sign from his bedroom wall.
“Should I keep it?” I look at the space where the sign has hung for the past three years, his last name and #13 in painted letters. Next to that space are other blanks—the Catalan independence flag space from his summer in Spain, the schooner sketch from his deckhand job.
“Take it with you or chuck it—or keep it here,” I say. “Those are the choices.” He slumps down on his bed, unsure.
“What about the soccer shirt?” He carefully unpins it, then apologizes for the holes left in the wall. “Look—it’s like I made constellations in the plaster.”
By Emily Franklin
(this appeared in the New Ohio Review)
There isn’t one. But here is a pot of jam,
apricots plumped with booze, lemon rind, sugar—
the stuff of August evenings,
of dirt roads trimmed both sides
with heavy woods that narrow and finally
funnel to the ocean.
Just out of grad school, Laney is ready to embark on a new phase of her life. Leaving California to head back east, she’s got 3000 miles to reflect on her past before moving ahead to the future. With a box of mix tapes at the ready, she envisions a trip spent reminiscing about first crushes, high school, family issues, and college loves and losses—her most precious memories. What she didn’t envision was her mother in the seat beside her—which is exactly what happens when her mom invites herself along for the ride. Soon she’s giving her mother a crash course in retro hits from her formative years, and a history of her life that her mom never knew about. As they roll through American landscape, Laney and her mother discover their lives are more than one-hit wonders.
“Liner Notes tells the story of two simultaneous journeys—a cross country road trip and a musical voyage down memory lane—that both end up in the same happy place. Like one of the narrator’s prize mix tapes, Emily Franklin’s charming debut novel is a grab-bag of delights.”
—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children
“This book is a rare one—the gimmick is actually well-executed, making this story as good as it sounds. With realistic characters, fantastic flashbacks, and a great soundtrack, you are sure to laugh, cry and sing along with Laney as you read her Liner Notes.”
—Bildungsroman
The Girls’ Almanac chronicles the lives of Jenna and Lucy—two thirty-something women who desperately long for a true friend—as well as the lives of the women and men who have touched them: friends, lovers, parents, and neighbors. Set across the Northeast-through suburban neighborhoods, preppy camps, island resorts, and Ivy League colleges-as well as far flung locales like Ecuador and Iceland, The Girls’ Almanac traces the friendships of women willing to risk both self-consciousness and intimacy, loss and betrayal, in pursuit of a proper best friend. Exploring the fascinating closeness and distance that female friendships encompass, The Girls’ Almanac reveals the map of Jenna and Lucy’s interconnected lives, and ultimately their pathways to each other.
“Franklin’s collection of stories centers on a group of women who are connected tangentially, with two of the characters becoming fast friends in the final story. It highlights the struggle of moving toward and the joy of finding a true best friend. The stories begin in girlhood, travel through adolescence, and progress into adulthood. Some take place in faraway locales like Iceland and Ecuador. Interesting plot lines include one woman dealing with her cheating fiance’s drowning and another woman struggling to bear a child after multiple miscarriages…Each story is appealing and well written…Enjoyable moments are plenty…”- Library Journal
“A weblike illustration mapping the relationships of 30 characters kicks off Franklin’s collection of interconnected short stories… Franklin’s smart prose sees her characters through rites of passage including first sexual encounters, marriage and motherhood, as well as difficulties such as terminal illness, infidelity and widowhood. Highlights include “Kindling,” a story of two roommates and their communal living situation; “A Map of the Area,” set in an upscale hippie retreat; and “The Math of the Fourth Child,” about two women trying to predict the future of a yet-to-be-conceived child… thought-provoking stories pull readers through.”- Publisher’s Weekly
“In these charming, wise, and heartfelt stories, friendship is both the tie that binds and a map of the interconnected paths of love. Emily Franklin has written a wonderful, utterly absorbing book.”- Mameve Medwed author of How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life
“Emily Franklin’s stories are unnervingly perceptive and moving … she has a remarkable talent for diving to the heart of things and spinning a story around that center.”- Lewis Robinson Whiting Award author of Officer Friendly and Other Stories
“Emily Franklin writes beautifully of the essential, pivotal moments in women’s lives. Reading The Girls’ Almanac I find myself smiling in recognition again and again, as mothers, daughters, sisters and friends lift each other’s daily experience to the light and find surprising, healing truths within.”- Heidi Jon Schmidt, author of The Rose Thieves, Darling? and The Bride of Catastrophe
“In these taut, tender, transporting stories, Emily Franklin combines an appreciation of human nature and a flair for language that keeps us reading and wanting more. After I finished these stories, I found myself missing the women who populated them. They’d come to feel like close girlfriends.”- Judith Claire Mitchell, author of The Last Day of the War
“…lovely, keenly observed stories; snapshots of women which, taken together, allow us to see their lives unfold as if we’re leafing through a photo album…”- Laura Zigman, author of Animal Husbandry and Her
“Though told in the present tense, Emily Franklin’s stories have a wistful awareness of the passing of time, and her great attention to detail seems an intricate form of nostalgia.”- Lily King, author of The Pleasing Hour
“I love my mom and I’m a good cook, and still I can’t help wishing that Emily Franklin would adopt me–or maybe send me a care package. But at least I’ve got her recipes now. And this book, which is the perfect mix of heartwarming and mouthwatering. Yum.” -Catherine Newman, author of Waiting for Birdy
“Emily Franklin’s Too Many Cooks is a boon for anyone trying to cook healthy simple meals for children. It is also great fun for those of us who love to peek at the domestic lives of others. Franklin has a warm, unpretentious voice and appealing recipes that are asking to be tried.”-Jenni Ferrari-Adler, author of Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant
Emily Franklin’s food memoir Too Many Cooks was born of two simple loves: food and children. A foodie and former chef, Franklin wants to pass on her love of food and cooking to her kids; she wants them not only to enjoy what they’re eating but to know what they’re eating. So, over the course of a year, she introduces her children to new dishes–some exotic, some thrown together with whatever she has in her cabinets–with varying degrees of success. Undaunted by failure (“This tastes like sand!”), Franklin pursues her culinary mission from the heartland of Indiana to the Umbrian countryside. Some meals conjure visions of pleasure while others are utter catastrophes. Along the way, she discovers how a delicious (or even disastrous) meal can bring families together and feed the soul.
As Franklin chronicles her family’s year around the kitchen table, season by season, she shares original recipes. From comfort, kid-friendly food like Mummy Nuggets, to the more adventurous Saffron Fish Chowder, to food made on the fly like Orange-Oaty-I-Don’t-Know Cookies, each recipe follows a charming or bittersweet or laugh-out-loud anecdote that captures the chaos of cooking for four young kids.
Franklin seasons her stories with how-I-did-it advice on cooking and parenting that makes this such a delightful and inspiring read. And with more than 100 simple, mouthwatering dishes, Too Many Cooks is a happy mix of recipes, memories, and good storytelling.
“This is one of the best books I’ve read on cooking by instinct. You can’t learn to cook by instinct just from recipes or instructions…although if you follow enough recipes you’ll start to develop instincts…An engaging, funny book on the perils and promise of the kitchen when there are many children underfoot.”-Faith Duran, The Kitchn.com
“This delightfully written memoir puts into practice what [it] preaches. Novelist and former professional chef Emily Franklin chronicles her yearlong mission to introduce her four children to exotic foods from purple potatoes to curried goat. Franklin mixes tales of wonder…with more than 100 recipes that were tested on her own kids. Recipes range from simple (Roasted Broccoli) to imaginative (Crunchy Sesame Tofu).”-The Boston Globe
“Too Many Cooks’ appeal is the real life, day-to-day chronicle of one person’s, Emily, commitment to teach her children about food. We get to tag along with her, experiencing first hand, the trials, tribulations, teachable moments, and end results, of young children as they are introduced to a vast array of ethnic and exotic foods. Side splitting commentary about things like fuzzy footballs (coconuts) keep you turning the pages to discover what other ‘out of the mouth of babes’ stories she has to share.
“Her simple recipes will inspire even the kitchen-phobic to try new things for picky eaters. Like the practical mom she is, Franklin suggests baby steps. Taste-test yummy-sounding recipes on your kids…Adults will like them and the book.-Jewish Woman
“We all know a kid like this—one whose diet consists primarily of hot dogs, pizza and chicken nuggets. Dismayed by her own children’s limited palate, Emily Franklin, a novelist and former chef, decided to embark on a year long culinary journey with her four children—to introduce them to new dishes, both exotic and thrown together, involving them both in the preparation and the partaking. The memoir of that year, Too Many Cooks is a delight to read both for its comedy and wisdom, not to mention recipes for “Many Mushroom Soup,” “Apricot Almond Bread,” and other easy-to-prepare recipes that we may want to add to our own repertoires.”-USA Today
Emily Franklin’s approach is inspirational, turning the kitchen, pantry, markets and restaurants into interactive classrooms for her children. Balancing child rearing, traveling, and just everyday living, she reminds us that what may appear as mundane or ordinary on the surface, can be far from it. Her stories remind us that every moment is a teachable one, if only we would just pause, step back and enjoy them. Her wit and sense of humor are limitless. She provides many kitchen tips that are valuable for moms or dads on the go along with a wonderful blend of recipes, memories, and a fun approach to just plain day-to-day living. This book isn’t just about food, it’s about family and how the two are inextricably intertwined. Whether you’re a foodie, currently raising a family, looking for ways to get the kids (or your husband) to try different foods, or you just need to know that you aren’t alone in trying to figure out how to balance it all, this is the book for you.”-Gourmet Girl
Read “A Cure for Grief” on New Ohio Review.
Read “Epigenetic Inheritance” on The Cincinnati Review.
Read “Tell Me How You Got Here” on Shenandoah.
Read “Japan, Autumn” on Blackbird.
“Emily Franklin’s Tell Me How You Got Here is rich with the objects of this world-a stray sneaker on the highway, a garage-sale skillet, “damp frogs small as grapes”-ordinary things and situations revealed as extraordinary, thanks to her original vision and precise language. That most overworked and least understood muscle, the human heart, is the great filter through which these objects pass and accrue their startling beauty. At the end of the book, Franklin returns us to the world, and returns the world to us, redeemed. What more could we ask for from poetry?” – Beth Ann Fennelly, Poet Laureate of Mississippi, 2016-2020
“These poems acknowledge a broken world. Franklin illuminates grief and loss, identity and memory while navigating the space between the childhoods we’ve helped create for our children and the shifting landscapes of our parents’ aging. She is a brilliant writer, one I seek out-time and again-for insight and solace.” – Julianna Baggott, Instructions: Abject & Fuming
