Eileen and Jerry Spinelli: Writing for a Living and a Lifetime Together

by Terri Barnes

Long before they became bestselling authors, writing brought Eileen and Jerry Spinelli together. They met while working for Chilton, a former publishing company near Philadelphia. The company produced magazines for business and industry. Not the most romantic setting, perhaps, but with a little poetry—or a notebook full—love claimed the last word.

“He was an editor, and I was a lowly clerk,” says Eileen. “I wanted to be a poet, and I used to carry my poems to work with me in a loose-leaf binder. One day, Jerry and I were both waiting for a trolley. The trolley was late, and I plopped the binder in his lap and said, ‘Would you like to see some of my poetry?’”

“That was her pick-up line,” Jerry interjects wryly, and Eileen laughs.

“He was an editor of Dept Store Economist, so why I thought he would be interested in my poetry, I don’t know, but the word ‘editor’ was magic.”

Jerry said he fell in love with Eileen’s poetry right away and soon fell in love with the poet as well.

These days, Eileen and Jerry spend their mornings writing in their Pennsylvania home. She writes longhand, usually in her comfy writing chair. He writes at his desk, typing stories directly into the computer. By lunchtime they’re ready to share what they’ve been working on. Each reads the other’s work, then they talk about what’s good and brainstorm about how to improve what’s not so good.

With two authors under one roof working in similar genres, Jerry says people often expect them to be competitive, but just the reverse is true.

“We’re each other’s biggest cheerleader,” he says.

As well as cheering, they also challenge one another. Each serves as the other’s first reader, editor, and sounding board for ideas and drafts. Supporting each other means more than giving approval, says Eileen. The best support is honesty, being able to tell one another when something is not working or is not the other’s best work.

She admits the ability to give and take that level of honesty has grown along with their relationship.

“When we were younger, it was a little touchy,” she says “It might be a quiet dinner hour” when one didn’t appreciate the other’s responses.

“We’ve grown to appreciate that we can each be absolutely honest, and we know that’s really worth a lot,” she says. “I’m not always right when there’s something I don’t care for, and Jerry’s not always right. All we can do is give our honest opinion.”

Eileen and Jerry also support each other in other aspects of creative life, including fallow time, when they are developing ideas rather than putting words on paper.

“I wouldn’t pressure Jerry to write if he were not wanting to write, and he wouldn’t pressure me,” says Eileen. “Fallow times are really important. A lot happens inside of you, so that it may seem you’re not working, but really you’re working on a different level.”

During that down time, says Jerry, “The silt of experience is being deposited in your delta. It’s collecting all the time while the stream is flowing. Then, one day you take a spade and dig into the delta and see what came down.”

Eileen says this is different from being “stuck.” When that happens to one or both of them, they try to break through by tossing ideas back and forth, discussing them in turn.

“We do that a lot,” says Jerry. He shrugs off the idea that it requires a lot of trust for a writer to expose unformed, rough ideas to another writer.

Eileen and Jerry began their marriage with hopes of becoming successful authors. Jerry kept his day job at Chilton, and Eileen took care of their six children. Both wrote whenever they could, and each had success in getting books published, first Eileen, and then Jerry. They wondered if they could support their family as authors and decided to make the leap.

“One day after twenty-three years at the Chilton company,” Jerry remembers, “I took a deep breath and—with Eileen’s blessing—left my job to see if we could make a living off the books. It didn’t turn out so well.” At first.

The book he thought would launch his career couldn’t get off the ground. Not one publisher wanted it.

“Then, the heater went, and the kids needed braces,” says Eileen.

Their savings dwindled. Jerry began scanning the want ads, searching for another job.

Thn a phone call in January 1991 changed everything.

“I got the call in the middle of the night from a hotel in Chicago telling me that Maniac Magee won the Newbery Medal,” Jerry says.

“Our phone was in the hallway, and I heard him talking” says Eileen, “When I heard the word ‘medal’ I thought somebody in the family had been hurt—hit with a piece of metal. I thought something bad must have happened, because that’s why you get phone calls in the middle of the night.”

But it was not a bad thing at all.

“We were really struggling financially,” says Eileen. “After the phone call, we tried to figure what the royalties might be if every library in the country bought a copy of Maniac Magee, and we decided we could afford to go out to breakfast and celebrate.”

Jerry adds, “Since then we’ve been able to make a living writing stories.”

The tide had turned for the Spinellis. Eileen’s book, Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch won the Christopher Award that same year.

Medals and awards notwithstanding, the Spinellis say when their kids were young, they weren’t too impressed with their literary parents.

“When our son Sean was in school, I tried to get him to take one of my books for show and tell,” Eileen says, “but he thought there were many other more interesting things.”

Eileen and Jerry, like all wise parents, grandparents, and authors, never choose favorites among their own offspring, or their own books. However, each is eager to name a favorite of the other’s work.

Jerry’s favorite of Eileen’s books is When You Are Happy, which he describes in terms befitting a glowing review.

“It stunned me,” he says. “Rarely, if ever, has so much humanity been packed into so few pages. That’s how I describe the book, but I see that in all her work.”

Eileen’s favorite of Jerry’s is Space Station Seventh Grade.

“I love it for the reason I love Jerry’s books in general,” she says. “It’s funny, but it’s not just funny. It’s like life. It brings in the sadness of life and the humor of life, I love that mix.”

She also names another favorite of Jerry’s books, Stargirl. She’s in good company. Disney recently bought the rights to Stargirl and is making a movie for a new streaming platform, Disney Plus.

Though they spend their days writing together, the Spinellis have coauthored only one book, Today, I Will: A Year of Notes, Quotes and Promises.

“That was a fun one to do, and we’re proud of it,” says Eileen. “But it took a long time to write and a lot of effort.”

They don’t plan any more joint efforts, explaining that although they sharpen each other as fellow writers, their styles and approaches to writing are different. Still, they do see similarities in their work.

“Our books may feel very different, but what we have to say is similar,” says Eileen. “Our values and the way we see the world are much the same.”

The worst thing about living with another writer, Eileen jokes, is the medical benefits—or lack thereof. The best thing, she says, is the understanding.

“If I’m sitting in a chair instead of baking a cake, Jerry knows I’m working. I’m not just sitting there staring into space,” she says. “Somebody who didn’t understand my writing process might say, ‘Well, you’re just sitting there, why can’t you bake a cake?’ And when there’s a bad review or something’s rejected, we’re not just supportive but we actually understand the feeling that goes along with all that.”

Jerry agrees: “I try to imagine what it would be like to be married to someone who’s not a writer, like a chef or an engineer—"

“You’d like a chef,” Eileen interjects.

“On one level,” he concedes, “but Eileen qualifies as a chef too—and I can’t imagine being married to someone not interested in reading. I can’t imagine doing my writing and having nobody to show it to. It would feel very lonely.”

Both say they enjoy the companionship of their creative life together, and although they’ve been through difficult times, they also appreciate the unpredictability of it.

“With all the arts, you never know what’s around the corner,” Eileen says, “but there’s something good about the unpredictability about what might happen or what’s happening with your work—I like surprises.”

“Eileen probably takes to that more easily than I do,” says Jerry. “I didn’t know if the roller coaster would be a good fit for me. I had to adjust to it, and I’m glad I did, because, like Eileen said, you can have a black Wednesday, like I did when nobody wanted my book, and then have a phone call after midnight that changes everything. It’s an adventure.”

Eileen Spinelli
Web: EileenSpinelli.com

Jerry Spinelli
Web: JerrySpinelli.com
Twitter: @JerrySpinelli1

Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch, by Eileen Spinelli, read by Hector Elizondo on Storyline Online

Photos courtesy Eileen and Jerry Spinelli.

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Terri Barnes is a regular contributor to Books Make a Difference magazine, author of the award-winning book Spouse Calls: Messages From a Military Life, and senior editor at Elva Resa Publishing. 

This article was first published April 2019.