Author Jodi Picoult on the writing life

'My fifth novel, The Pact, is about teen suicide and depression, and about the fact that parents don't know their children as well as they think they do. Shortly after publication, librarians started to put it on school shelves, and teachers began to include it on curriculum lists. One of the first schools to do this was Keene High School in New Hampshire. Teachers there asked me to speak to their students, and the exchange was considered such a success that the invitation became an annual one. But two years ago, when I went to speak at Keene, it wasn't business as usual. All my illusions of a perfect afternoon faded when a woman stood up in the middle of my reading, waved a copy of The Pact, and proclaimed, "This is smut and trash ... and I'm going to get it removed from the curriculum!" She pushed her way out of the room, leaving the rest of us stunned and speechless.' Read on.