This month’s Author Spotlight is on two-time Printz Honoree and National Book Award Finalist, Deborah Heiligman. Deborah joins us to discuss her new book, Loudmouth, a propulsive biography of Emma Goldman for young adults. Plus, check out the teacher’s guide!
Why did you choose Emma Goldman for this biography?
Deborah Heiligman: After Torpedoed, I wrote a short biography for young children about a ground-breaking woman named Clara Lemlich. It was personally moving and empowering to write about her, and so I decided I wanted to spend as much time as I could with another strong, powerful woman. I have known about Emma since I was 19, but I didn’t know much about her. I write to learn and so I tend to write about topics I don’t know much about.
What was your research process like?
Deborah: As I said, I didn’t know much about Emma when I started on this book. But rather than read other people’s takes on my topic, I like to start with primary sources, so I can hear about them in their own words and then paint my own picture. I stay with the primary sources for as long as possible. The first thing I read was Emma’s very long autobiography, Living My Life, and then Alexander Berkman’s autobiography, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist. I read letters and newspaper articles and other memoirs, taking lots of notes. I spent a lot of time thinking about themes, structure, parameters, and focus while I was researching.
Where were some surprising places you found bits of Emma’s history?
Deborah: I was thrilled, first of all, to find so much newspaper coverage of her. Long articles, little tidbits, all in newspapers all over the country for decades. She was such a famous and infamous–and influential person. It was also fascinating to see how badly much of the press treated her. But the most surprising thing was that I found actual personal connections to her in my daily life. Two fun examples: a man I know from walking my dog in the park found out his great aunt harbored Emma when she was hiding from the police. And my best friend’s husband discovered his great uncle was the prosecuting attorney in Emma’s last trial in America!
When you’re gushing about Emma Goldman out in the world, what is one story you always tell people?
Deborah: I tell the story of how she started speaking out against injustice at her first job at a factory in the United States when she was only sixteen. She really had guts. I love the scene in which she asks for a raise while staring at the boss’s million dollar roses. When he refuses, she quits!
What were some of the challenges that came up in writing about this particular person?
Deborah: Well, I fell in love with EG, as her friends called her, but only after I made peace with the fact that she did some bad things. She was a very complicated person and I did not always agree with her thoughts or actions. I mean, she plotted to kill a man, and even though it wasn’t successful, I do not condone murder! But I did understand her impulse in that case. My main goal was to present a fully-realized, well rounded person to my readers. But I must admit, I wanted at least some of them to fall in love with her like I did.
Why do you think it’s important for teenagers, specifically, to know about Emma Goldman?
Ah, there’s so much. But I think she is a very important part of the history of our country that is not taught (enough) in schools: the history of resistance and protest, of citizens speaking truth to injustice. Emma was a powerful woman who spoke out, who didn’t conform to societal norms, but she was also a real human, with loves, hates, problems, and heartbreak.
Can you tell us about a librarian or teacher that had an impact on you?
I had many wonderful and supportive teachers–from kindergarten through college. It’s hard to pick one, but the one that came instantly to mind was my fifth-grade teacher, Miss Laudenslager. I could go on and on about her, but I’ll tell you two things she did that made a huge impact on me: she stood in front of the class and read us a whole book aloud, and it was the best book: From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil e. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg. That took a lot of time, and what she was telling us–aside from reading a great story–was that books are important. Literature matters. I can trace my career writing books for children to Miss Laudenslager reading that book to us.
The second thing: she had us create our own country. We named it Cowabunga, made up a pledge and an anthem (which I remember!), a map, and a government. I ran to be the first president–and won! (My party was the Debbiecrats.) Cowabunga taught me about creation, creativity, collaboration, community, and connection. So Miss Laudenslager gave me all of that–and the veneration of books.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Deborah Heiligman has written many books for children and young adults, including Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of “The Children’s Ship,” a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award finalist and Golden Kite winner; Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers, a Michael L. Printz Honor winner, YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award winner, Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner, and Golden Kite winner; Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith, a National Book Award finalist, Michael L. Printz Honor winner, and YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award winner; and Loudmouth: Emma Goldman vs. America (A Love Story). She lives with her husband and dog in New York City.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Loudmouth by Deborah Heiligman
Ages 14-18
Shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Awards!
Both a love letter to America and a stirring rallying cry for the country to live up to the ideals on which it was founded, this propulsive biography from National Book Award Finalist and “nonfiction maestro (Horn Book)” Deborah Heiligman chronicles the extraordinary life and work of groundbreaking political activist Emma Goldman.
Emma Goldman made trouble her whole life. The first time was by accident. Her birth (in Lithuania, in 1869) angered her father. He had wanted a dutiful son, not a headstrong daughter. The other times were on purpose.
When she arrived in America as a young woman, she loved its democratic ideals but was appalled by its hypocrisy. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness seemed to be only for those at the top. Something had to be done for everyone else. Someone had to speak up. Soon Emma was delivering rousing speeches on topics like workers’ rights, feminism, and the atrocities of capitalism.
This is the story of Emma’s complex love affair with America. It’s also the story of her many romances with the men she met while trying to change America. Emma believed marriage was disempowering to women and lived her life according to the principles of free love.
Emma called herself an anarchist and a freethinker. Her critics called her a troublemaker, a “loudmouth.” But sometimes you need to be loud, if you want your voice to be heard.
Deborah Heiligman is a National Book Award finalist, a YALSA Nonfiction Award winner, and a Printz Honor winner. In Loudmouth she tells the extraordinary true story of a woman who was a fearsome fighter for change in her complicated new country—and a complicated human being in her own right. This is an essential read for young people—or for anyone—who wants to use their voice to make the world a better place.
PRAISE FOR LOUDMOUTH
A National Jewish Book Awards Shortlist Selection
A Chicago Public Library Best Books of the Year Selection
A New York Public Library Best Books of the Year Selection: Top 10 Books for Teens
A Booklist Editors’ Choice List Selection
A Jewish Women’s Archives Winter 2025 Book Club Pick
An Official Rewire 2025 Book List Selection
★ “Heiligman’s latest YA biography, about Emma Goldman, solidifies her as one of the absolute best in the business . . . Heiligman treats Goldman with immense perception and compassion, providing helpful context around her subject’s contradictions and delivering a lucid portrait of a complicated, multifaceted, and dynamic individual who dared to imagine a better world, full of joy and unconstrained by rules established by people aiming to maintain or increase their own power. As a work of biography, Loudmouth is a master class, but it’s Goldman’s story in particular that makes this such a success . . . Juicy, empowering, extraordinarily well researched, and deeply intelligent, this is essential reading, and not just for teens.” —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Activist Emma Goldman was a remarkable woman and, as this sharp, informed biography shows, a ferocious, engaged, observant, and compassionate child and teen as well . . . The book is fearless in exploring Goldman’s considerable strengths as an orator and activist, while also rounding her out as a full woman who became the unofficial spokesperson for the free love movement, who was a loyal friend, and who carried the scars of a nightmare childhood all of her life . . . Heiligman also does exceptional work in exploring how any single speech, warm exchange, or relationship that Goldman had also changed the other people involved.” —BCCB
“The complexities and passions that characterized Jewish, Lithuanian-born writer and anarchist Emma Goldman (1869–1940) drive this comprehensive, thoroughly researched biography by Heiligman . . . Drawing information from Goldman’s own works, Heiligman builds a vivid portrait of a resilient figure who navigated prejudices against immigrants, Jews, women, and the working class at the dawn of the 20th century.” —Publishers Weekly
“Well-researched and comprehensive . . . will feel relevant to contemporary teens. Vividly portrays the life of a champion who stood up—loudly—to injustice.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Heiligman’s newest work of nonfiction touches on a long list of hot-button contemporary issues: due process, free speech, gender equity, economic inequality, pacifism, prison reform, reproductive freedom, political violence, and sexual mores . . . True to form, Heiligman distills this remarkable, complex legacy for a new generation with a sure hand, using a conversational voice that draws readers into her meticulously researched narrative.” —The Horn Book
“An engrossing biography . . . Heiligman’s depth of research and absorbing, crisp writing makes for a page-turner about a fierce, complex, and influential dissident.” —School Library Journal
“Heiligman doesn’t attempt to whitewash Goldman’s complicated and sex-filled life for young readers, and her story reads more like a novel than a biography.” —Rewire News Group
“Deborah Heiligman presents a detailed view of her subject’s life in all its complexity. Whether readers are unfamiliar with Goldman’s life and work, or aware of her influence on movements for social and political change, Loudmouth will offer new facts and perspectives on ‘the most dangerous woman in America.’” —Jewish Book Council
“As a fan of Heiligman’s work and her meticulous commitment to factual accuracy, Loudmouth certainly doesn’t disappoint. It feels at once historical and urgently contemporary. It’s a must read for YA readers and adults as well. Goldman is presented not as an idea or symbol, but as a wholly realized human. Commercialism and capitalism within the publishing industry aside, even Goldman herself probably would have approved of her depiction in Loudmouth.” —JUDITH MAGAZINE