High: Mary Sullivan in Conversation with Maria Kiely

All She Wrote Books welcomes Mary Sullivan in conversation with Maria Kiely for a celebration of HIGH: A Novel. HIGH is a young adult novel in verse that features fourteen-year-old Ceti, who is a star on the soccer field but struggles at home with her mother's heroin addiction.

It is impossible not to root for Ceti, almost fifteen, who tells her story of growing up in shelters, learning soccer from Gramps, and sleeping in her mom's red truck. Following in the steps of her hero, Lionel Messi, Ceti is a shooting star on the soccer field. A U.S. scout is coming to watch her play in the State Championship; she has Ruby, her best friend since kindergarten, rooting for her, and a crush on a boy who lives in her building. But at home, she'll find a spoon in the sink, a ball of tin foil and a needle in the trash. Her mom, who used to be beautiful with long honey hair and green eyes, is now wasted and track-marked. And she is pregnant. Her life in constant upheaval with a mother who wants only the next high, Ceti must find the courage to hold on to her dreams.

About the Author

Mary Sullivan is the author of Dear Blue Sky, which won the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle Award. Her other novels include Stay and Ship Sooner, and she has ghostwritten for the Beacon Street Girls series. She is the also the recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award, and a St. Botolph's Award. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her family and teaches at Harvard Extension and Summer School.