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Emily Habeck (B.F.A. ’11) is this week’s featured alum in our new Alumni Spotlight series for the This Week at Meadows e-newsletter. Each week, a different Meadows alum will be highlighted for their accomplishments post-graduation.

With the tools a Meadows education provides, skills and knowledge in one area can often translate into other art forms and ultimately help alumni along the path to career success in a new way. Alum Emily Habeck graduated from Meadows’ Division of Theatre and started her career in the acting and film industry, but it was her self-proclaimed “quiet side project” that really put her on the map.

While working in film, Habeck had also been writing a novel and after a few years decided to seek out a literary agent to help secure a book deal. This led to the publishing of her debut novel Shark Heart: A Love Story in 2023, a book that went on to receive critical acclaim and become a USA TODAY bestseller.

“The world moves fast, and artists are subjected to the pressure to be productive just like everyone else, yet, some projects take time to understand and bring into existence,” explains Habeck of the journey to becoming a published author. “External opportunities are easy to spot, but the inward ones require intuition to notice. A memory, feeling or curiosity might be the start of a deeply fulfilling project, collaboration or even an entirely new path.”

This new path presented itself after Habeck had spent time working in film development in Los Angeles. Getting movies made is challenging process, so she was eager to work on something where she could control the pace, process, and vision.

One day, after a trip to the beach, Habeck visualized a scene from the middle of the book in which the main character undergoes a radical physical transformation into a great white shark. This, she believes, was a reflection of her own inward transformation during that season of life.

“I was questioning so many things I’d once believed were certain,” says Habeck. “I wondered, what do we do with all the grief in this life? Is it possible to be good at change? What is the purpose of art and work? I still don’t have the answers, but writing Shark Heart helped me make peace with the mystery.”

Though she majored in theatre rather than English, the time Habeck spent at Meadows was a deeply formative part of her artistic journey as an author, and the acting and theatre training she received during her time in the program has informed her fiction writing in many ways.

“As a theatre student, I always loved the ‘homework’ part of acting, analyzing a character’s motivations, fears, insecurities, loves and contradictions,” explains Habeck. “As a novelist, I get to do that work for many characters at once.”

When editing, she would often try to think like an actor, examining the drive behind each line and action of her characters. This method helped develop and strengthen the two main characters throughout the novel. The establishment of these protagonists was imperative as Shark Heart is, at its core, about the journey of grief and the changing circumstances of going through life with someone you love, even during the unexpected.

Habeck’s pivot into fiction writing may also seem unexpected given her degree, but career paths, especially in the arts, are not always linear. Habeck believes it was essential to focus on knowing and accepting herself rather than comparing her journey to others’ in order to achieve her literary success.

“The artistic life can feel so competitive, but whatever you can do to block out the noise and do your own thing will make your work and life feel so much better.”