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Stephanie Kuehnert's Interests
General
Writing. Reading. Worshiping at the altar of rock n roll. Tasty vegan treats. Drinking, especially at the Beacon Pub. Bad decisions and the stories they create. Car rides. Sidney, the punkest cat ever, and Kaspar and Lars, his partners in crime. My boyfriend (awww). My friends. Lack of sleep (we have a love/hate thing). My house. The Midwest. Chicago, Wisconsin. The West Coast. Traveling (especially to Seattle and LA, and I'd love for someone to pay for me to go to Europe. Please?). Chicago White Sox baseball. Pirates. Playing my geetar (badly).
Music
Nirvana, Hole, Rancid, Against Me!, Social Distortion, Screaming Trees (and Mark Lanegan's solo stuff), The Distillers, The Gits, Sleater-Kinney, The Cure, Dinosaur Jr, White Stripes, Joy Division, REM, Pixies, Babes in Toyland, Propagandhi, Johnny Cash, Leadbelly, Material Issue, Katastrophy Wife, Robert Johnson, The Capricorns, Office, The Wipers, Tiger Army, Alkaline Trio, Sex Pistols, Bowie, The Muffs, P!nk, The Vaselines, Bad Religion, Bauhaus, Rush, PJ Harvey, Mudhoney, Rise Against, Lucid Nation, Eyes Adrift, Everclear, Alice in Chains, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rites of Spring, Sonic Youth, Tori Amos, Foo Fighters, The Clash, Tilt, MTX, Screeching Weasel, The Queers, NOFX, L7, Huggy Bear, Morphine, Garbage, Green Day, Huggy Bear, Smashing Pumpkins, Auf der Maur, My Bloody Valentine, 7 Year Bitch, The Afghan Whigs, Death Cab for Cutie, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Concrete Blonde, Soul Asylum, The Replacements, The Dead Milkmen, Faith No More, Echo and the Bunnymen, Heavens to Betsy, The Stooges, Jane's Addiction, Patti Smith, do you want me to keep going cause I can...
Movies
Pirates of the Caribbean(all of them!), The People Vs Larry Flynt, The Breakfast Club, Juno, Almost Famous, City of Lost Children, Heathers, Beetlejuice, Delicatessan, Titus, The Lost Boys, Grease, Harry Potter, Sid and Nancy, PCU, Office Space, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Crow, Walk the Line, Winnie the Pooh, The Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Finding Neverland, Edward Scissorhands, basically anything with Johnny Depp, Gross Pointe Blank, Singles, Velvet Goldmine, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Clerks, Mystic River, Reality Bites, Blade Runner, Lord of the Rings, Rebel without a Cause, Amelie, 40 Year Old Virgin
Television
Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High, Degrassi: The Next Generation, My So-Called Life, Grey's Anatomy, Star Trek the Next Generation, Beverly Hills 90210, One Life to Live (though I miss the original Todd Manning). Yeah my TV watching habits are dorky, I am fully aware. No reality TV except Intervention and the tattoo shows. Oh and Rock of Love, but that's my bad eighties taste rearing its head. I also enjoy White Sox games and the Family Guy and am subjected to a lot of other TV via my boyfriend.
Books
Grapes of Wrath, Hairstyles of the Damned, The Scarlet Letter, Queen of the Oddballs, Trainspotting, Ecstasy, Porno, The Book of Ralph, America's Report Card, The Hanged Man, all of the Weetzie Bat books, Harry Potter, Shout Down the Moon, Love Medicine, Such A Pretty Girl, Leftovers, Graffiti Girl, Almost Home, Bastard Out of Carolina, Adios to My Old Life, Heavier Than Heaven, Perfume, Whores on the Hill, Pretty Little Dirty, Brave New Girl, Tropic of Cancer, American Skin, Wraeththu, Thin Air, The Great Gatsby, and many many more
Heroes
All the writers I mentioned in the book section. Kurt Cobain. Girls that play guitar and rock hard like Brody Dalle and Courtney Love. And above all others, my mom.
Columbia College Chicago
Chicago,Illinois
Graduated: 2006
Student status: Alumni
Major: MFA and BA in Creative Writing
Clubs: Fiction Writing Student Board, Fictionary
2000 to 2006
Antioch College
Yellow Springs,Ohio
Graduated: N/A
Student status: Alumni
Major: Aborted bachelor's degree in Self Society and Culture, whatever the hell that means.
Clubs: Randall girls!
1997 to 1998
Oak Park & River Forest High Sch
Oak Park,Illinois
Graduated: 1997
Student status: Alumni
Major: going to as few classes as possible and still managing to graduate early with a 4.0
My first novel I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE will be published by MTV Books in JULY 2008. Here's what it is about:
A raw, edgy, emotional novel about growing up punk and living to tell.
The Clash. Social Distortion. Dead Kennedys. Patti Smith. The Ramones.
Punk rock is in Emily Black’s blood. Her mother, Louisa, hit the road to follow the incendiary music scene when Emily was four months old and never came back.
Now Emily’s all grown up with a punk band of her own, determined to find the tune that will bring her mother home. Because if Louisa really is following the music, shouldn’t it lead her right back to Emily? Get a sneak peek of the first chapter here
Here is what people are already saying about it:
“A wonderfully written and evocative story of a mother and daughter, parted by circumstance and joined by music. I heartily recommend it.”
- Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting, Ecstasy, The Bedroom Secrets of Master Chefs, and other fine literature.
“Stephanie Kuehnert has written a sucker-punch of a novel, raw and surprising and visceral, and like the best novelists who write about music, she’ll convince you that a soul can indeed by saved by rock and roll." - John McNally, author of Troublemakers, The Book of Ralph, America’s Report Card, and editor of numerous anthologies
Here is the playlist I created for this novel. It consists of songs that inspired me to write or that my characters (and I) love.
Who I'd like to meet: People who love books. People who love punk rock. Girls who dream of being rock stars. Hell, anyone who secretly wishes they were a rock star. Midwesterners. Run aways. Pirates. People who love road trips. People who are just looking for a good story.
Oh and my new favorite band:
i LOVED the book (i actually finished it the day after i bought it), especially the last third or so. you have a great writing style - IWBYJR doesn't read like a first novel at all. it's nice to find well-written literary gems at a time when our current writing scene is all trashy romance or murder mysteries written by sexagenarians.
i also must commend you for making a great playlist to go along with the novel.
