'Another Brooklyn': Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson delivers for adults

Jacqueline Woodson's new novel for adults is about a friendship that's everything, all-important and all-consuming — until it isn't.

Woodson, who won the National Book Award for her book for young readers, "Brown Girl Dreaming," delivers a beautiful meditation on the power of friendship and the ripples of its absence in "Another Brooklyn."

It's Woodson's first book for adult in twenty years. She joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to talk about "Another Brooklyn" and what drives her to write.

"Another Brooklyn" follows August, and the story hopscotches between her adult life and her memories of growing up in the 1970s. She recalls the moment she first met "her girls" — the friends that she roamed the neighborhood with, that she defined her life by. She spies them out the window, and feels the instant need to belong in their number, despite her mother's warnings.

"My mother had not believed in friendships among women. She said women weren't to be trusted. Keep your arm out, she said. And keep women a whole other hand away from the farthest tips of your fingernails. She told me to keep my nails long.

August doesn't mind her mother's advice, and "Another Brooklyn" traces the patterns that bloom from this moment.

"I always say I write because I have questions — not because I have answers.," Woodson said. "I write to figure out, I write to hold on, because my books, although they're not necessarily physically autobiographically, they're emotionally autobiographical. Every emotion my character feels is one that I've felt or am feeling as I'm putting it on the page."

For the full interview with Jacqueline Woodson on "Another Brooklyn," use the audio player above.

Another Brooklyn Another Brooklyn