AARON LEVY

Some of you may know me as the playwright of PIZZA WITH SHRIMP ON TOP, a young adult play that's enjoyed over 60 high school productions.

 

Well, I wrote another play for teens that was originally titled "Hunger Pains." We did several staged readings back in 2010 and 2011, and the readings were well received by high school teens...BUT, because of the contemporary content and timely issues approached in the play, high schools were reluctant to fully produce it. This is a long-time debate for another day, but it's still interesting how when something is "out loud," like a play, the restrictive rules tighten vs the amazing non-restrictive material being produced/published in the young adult fiction genre. 

 

All to say, I took the next several years and rewrote the story in HUNGER PAINS into a young adult novel. I had to changed the title because apparently HUNGER GAMES became sorta popular and there aint 'nuff room in this now for HUNGER GAMES and HUNGER PAINS. And it sour grapes, but I kind of like my new title, WAISTED, better. 

 

You'd think changing a play to a novel would be easy, but it wasn't at all. After two major overhauls, several thousand revisions, a summer workshop at Sarah Lawrence College, and working closely with amazing editor, David Groff, I finally finished a draft this past Septempber worthy of submission, landing a real classy agent/agency.