Emma Brodie ’07 came to Hotchkiss determined to become a writer. Now, her new novel has earned national acclaim.

Read the Summer 2026 Hotchkiss Magazine

By Darryl Gangloff

Emma Brodie '07 arrived in Lakeville as a lower mid with one goal. “I knew going into Hotchkiss that I wanted to be a writer,” she said.

Her dream is now a reality. This spring, she appeared on NBC’s Today with Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones to discuss her second novel, Into the Blue, a decades-spanning love story that follows two people who are continually drawn to each other despite a devastating twist of fate. Her interview marked a remarkable moment in a career that she has pursued with a singular focus since childhood.

The epic novel, which was published through Hager’s Thousand Voices imprint, was also selected as a Reese’s Book Club pick by actor Reese Witherspoon, catapulting Brodie’s story to a national audience. During her Today appearance, Brodie received a surprise video message from Witherspoon herself. “I loved every page,” Witherspoon said.

Brodie said the whirlwind has been exhilarating and surreal.

“The Reese piece was a huge surprise,” she said. “It was an absolute shock and such a thrill. I’m still honestly reeling.”

Into the Blue explores what it means to diverge from the script to forge your own story. Brodie began forging her story in Hotchkiss classrooms.

A Lifelong Mentor

In Lakeville, Brodie immediately found a place where her ambitions were encouraged.

Carita Gardiner P’17,’20, Class of ’42 Teaching Chair, Lufkin Prize recipient, dean of the Class of 2027, and instructor in English, took Brodie under her wing. She mentored Brodie through a special independent project during her senior year.

“I had the opportunity to start writing a full-length novel at Hotchkiss, which was amazing,” she said. “It was a multi-generational archaeological thriller about the Oracle of Delphi.”

Gardiner remains her mentor today. “Carita was the second person to read Into the Blue. That’s a lifelong friendship. I have so many friends who have come out of Hotchkiss.”

The resources at Hotchkiss extended beyond writing. Brodie organized full-scale ballet productions of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, involving dozens of classmates, including members of the football team.

“They just gave me the auditorium,” she recalled with a laugh. “Hotchkiss is a place where I was really allowed to flourish.”

Lasting Lessons

Nearly two decades later, Brodie still sees Hotchkiss woven throughout her work.

She points specifically to a bioethics course taught by Lou Pressman P’98 that introduced ideas she would later revisit in Into the Blue.

“I can trace a direct line from the book to the stuff we were talking about in that bioethics class,” she said. “It is crazy how much influence that time in my life had on my current self and on what I’ve made since then.”

Even unexpected memories found their way into her fiction. The novel opens in a video rental store. “One of my favorite things about Hotchkiss at the time was that they had all these DVDs in the library,” Brodie said. “It was like unlimited movies.”

In another unexpected connection, eagle-eyed viewers watching her Today interview spotted something stuck to the mirror in her childhood bedroom: her Hotchkiss Revisit Day nametag, hanging next to a photo and quote from Witherspoon in Cosmo Girl.

“That nametag was from when I decided to go to Hotchkiss,” Brodie explained. “I put it on the mirror as a way of saying, ‘I’ve made this decision.’”

Finding Her Joy

After graduating from Johns Hopkins University’s Writing Seminars program, Brodie built a career in publishing, eventually becoming an executive editor at Clarkson Potter while continuing to write fiction. “I think editing is really helpful for writing,” she explained.

She published her American Book Award-winning debut novel, Songs in Ursa Major, in 2021. It fulfilled her lifelong dream, but it also left her emotionally drained. “It was a really vulnerable experience,” she said. “I honestly wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to do it again.”

It took nearly two years before she felt ready to begin writing Into the Blue, which follows aspiring comedy writer AJ Graves and actor Noah Drew across a decade as they navigate friendship, chemistry, and a devastating secret that will send their lives careening apart, even as fate continues to draw them together.

Brodie found unexpected inspiration in improv comedy.

“As AJ learned how to improvise, I was sort of relearning how to play and be spontaneous on the page,” she said. “And it’s a very different art form from writing. I took improv classes when I first moved to New York as a way of making friends. Revisiting it was my way of getting back into the creative water and relearning how to have that joy and spontaneity.”

By the time she reached the novel’s later chapters, she found herself writing with a freedom she had not experienced in years. “It was an amazing experience to ride that wave,” she said, acknowledging that she misses the characters she spent years creating.

A Whirlwind Publication

Unlike her debut novel, Into the Blue took years to develop. Then everything changed almost overnight.

Originally scheduled for publication in July 2026, Into the Blue was moved up several months after Witherspoon selected it for Reese’s Book Club. The accelerated timeline led to national media appearances, including her visit to Today. Fortunately, working with Hager and her imprint eased many of her nerves.

“She’s wonderful,” Brodie said. “She’s been part of all the conversations from the beginning, so I’ve gotten to know her and really trust her.”

Brodie’s career has been unfolding since she was a teenager, filling notebooks at Hotchkiss, working one-on-one with a trusted mentor, and discovering what could happen when someone believed in her ambitions. Looking back, she sees those years as the beginning of the creative life she continues to build.

“I love Hotchkiss,” she said. “It was an incredible opportunity in so many ways.”