I started out in children’s publishing, where our director always said the most important ingredient in a picture book is trouble. After all, a good way to tell kids about life is to tell them about trouble. I’ve taken this with me, because I think it’s true of all great writing. What’s the issue you’re working through, the argument that’s sticky, the tradition you’re pushing against? It’s an invitation to be brave, too—meeting difficulty doesn’t mean you’ve hit a wall, but might suggest you’ve found somewhere worth going, through mud or high water. Crisis can be home to humor, originality, surprise—it keeps the reader moving. I now edit nonfiction, poetry, and classics, and have learned the other side of trouble is trust. This has to work both ways between the writer and reader: The books with the longest hold on my memory don’t solve all their struggles. Even the most assertive nonfiction should leave the reader with something to unravel.
—Eleanor Cousins Brown, editor, Penguin Press