I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone

Music is in Emily Black's blood. Just months after she is born, her mother, Louisa, left Emily and her father, Michael, in order to follow the burgeoning punk rock scene around the country. She couldn't stay in one place when there was such music to hear in the world. At least, that's what Emily's father tells her. The truth is that at sixteen Louisa shot her boyfriend Eric in self defence and then staged it to look like a suicide. After three years, unable to bear the weight of her own guilt, Louisa abandoned her new family. Michael concocted his tale of Louisa needing to follow the music in order to spare his daughter the truth. Emily puts together her own punk band, which is soon receiving rave reviews and more attention than they can bear. But all Emily really wants is to prove herself as a musician. Because if she is the music, then Louisa will follow the melody back to her. Right?

Stephanie Kuehnert got her start writing bad poetry about unrequited love and razor blades in eighth grade. In high school, she discovered punk rock and produced several D.I.Y. feminist zines. She received her MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and lives in Seattle, Washington. She is the author of Ballads of Surburbia and I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone. Learn more at StephanieKuehnert.com.