Kim Culbertson’s “Other People’s Kids,” out Tuesday, is a big-hearted novel that celebrates the imperfect beauty of human relationships and the courage to face life’s uncertainties. Set in the small town of Imperial Flats and told in rotating points of view, the story follows Chelsea, Evan, Nora and Denny as they navigate personal and professional crossroads. Chelsea, a high school English teacher, returns to her hometown after a traumatic incident, while Evan, a band teacher, struggles with fatherhood and his past. Nora, the school principal, faces burnout, and Denny, a rock star, disrupts their lives in unexpected ways. It captures the demanding reality of raising and teaching kids in today’s world while subtly reminding us that teachers are humans with complex emotional lives beyond the classroom.
The novel is an ovation to educators, capturing the emotional toll and impact of teaching, including the chasm between public and private school settings. Culbertson’s characters are flawed and achingly human. Through their vulnerability, her characters achieve self-awareness and growth, resulting in relatable and inspiring journeys. The author balances humor and heartbreak, offering moments that feel both intimate and universal. This novel is a must-read for educators, parents and anyone navigating middle age, reminding us of the power of connection and the importance of growth and grace.
I connected with Culbertson, who attended the Dominican University of California in San Rafael, where she obtained her teaching credential, to discuss her novel rooted in her 25-year-plus experience as a high school teacher. We explored how she navigated the line between her journey and the fictional narratives, illuminating the full humanity of teachers, including their joys, frustrations and private moments of despair and triumph.
“Being a teacher brings with it the joy and complexity of the job. It’s an important job with responsibilities, but we are also human beings, and the world is a lot for us in the same way it’s a lot for other people. I’ll just say that the old adage of ‘writing what you know’ came in handy in this book,” said Culbertson, who is a fiction mentor for the Dominican University MFA in creative writing.
The story opens with an assault on a teacher by a disgruntled parent. I asked Culbertson about the decision to begin the story with this shocking confrontation, and she shared that she has observed a concerning shift in parental behavior over the years.
“We are seeing so much more reactivity and bizarre requests and complaints that don’t truly serve the student in question. This isn’t true for most parents, of course, but the rise in the aggressive behavior I’ve been seeing is alarming,” she said.
It “causes stress for educators and feels attacking instead of collaborative.”
In the back of the book, Culbertson writes that teaching is a job that makes her “cry at least once a week.” I wondered how she channeled her “teacher heart” into a book that resonates with the broader experience of navigating middle age and the passage of time.
“Education is immersive and involves so much emotional management — my own, but also my students, their parents, my colleagues, etc. And it is work I love. I was so interested in what keeps these three educators — one at the beginning of his career, one in the middle of hers and one on the way out, but all in their 40s and 50s — getting out of bed in the morning, both in their work lives and their personal lives.”
The novel’s vivid portrayal of Chelsea’s complex mother-daughter dynamic — where she both longs for unconditional love and actively, perhaps unconsciously, sabotages it — resonates deeply within a community often characterized by overachievement. I was interested in how Culbertson sees this specific kind of relational “loss,” this feeling of having “misplaced something special” with a mother.
Culbertson, who identifies as a “recovering people pleaser,” recounts a lunch with her first publisher when she found herself “overexplaining and making excuses” for not wanting to do something — an experience that undoubtedly will resonate with some readers.
Her publisher told her, “You don’t owe anyone an explanation for your life.”
Culbertson says she wanted Chelsea to learn this, too, especially with her mother.
“This is a tricky thing,” she said, “because she craves a close relationship with her mother, but her mother’s criticism and fatphobia have hurt Chelsea throughout her life. We put so much pressure on certain relationships in our culture, but we’re all just people, messy people. It’s definitely one of my favorite things to read and write about — the various ways families hurt and love each other, fail and support each other. It’s rich material, being human in a family.”
Ashleigh, an intriguing teenager, is bold and perhaps a controversial character. I asked Culbertson about crafting her storyline and how she views her as a character.
“I have taught young women like Ashleigh, and she has her own agency in this book as a person. It’s the adults in her life who have let her down, and I wanted to explore how, as adults, we often want to blame teenagers for behavior that we’ve been a huge part of causing. Ashleigh is young, but teenagers are fierce and wide-eyed and certain at this age. (I’ve been teaching them for so, so long, and I see this kind of certainty in them so often.) She believes she knows things that she doesn’t have the life experience to truly know yet. And, ultimately, she sees an out to her situation and takes it,” she said.
Evan’s chapters are a compelling portrayal of a single music teacher navigating the complexities of fatherhood, confronting a complicated past with his former bandmate, Denny, and exploring an evolving relationship with Chelsea. I asked the author how she approached crafting Evan’s unique blend of obstacles and vulnerabilities.
“I adore Evan so much — so many moving parts with Evan,” Culbertson said. “This is very much a book about second chances in midlife and taking risks when it feels scary, and Evan gets a workout with these themes. I’m so proud of him for realizing that life isn’t always about the success we wanted when we were 17.”
Nora’s perspective on education stayed with me: She finds inspiration in this generation’s empathy and open dialogue about mental health, yet laments the systemic changes that have reduced teaching to a “procedural act.” In a community that often places immense pressure on academic success and “accountability,” I couldn’t help but wonder how Culbertson sees this shift in the educational landscape affecting the mental well-being of both students and educators, and what might be the long-term implications for fostering true “grit” and “transparency” when data-driven mandates are overshadowing the art of teaching.
“Honestly, a short answer to this question could make up an entire interview,” Culbertson said. “What I will say is that I got quite the response to reading this section at an event recently — people definitely came up afterwards and wanted to talk about it, and that makes my heart full because we need to be talking about this much, much more than we are.”
The novel highlights stirring messiness as a path to growth. By confronting conflict avoidance, Chelsea embraces deeper connections while Evan learns openness. Nora explores a new direction by acknowledging her limits, and even Denny’s flaws are tempered by surprising vulnerability. Emotional honesty empowers us to confront our fears, fostering connection, accountability and ultimately, healing.
In the end, Culbertson left me with this: “We are all other people’s kids. We all belong to someone and come from somewhere. This is what I lead with as a teacher.”
Details: Culbertson and Marin resident Mary Alice Stephens discuss their new books, “Other People’s Kids” and “Uncorked,” respectively, at 6 p.m. Sept. 17 at Sausalito Books by the Bay. More information at sibyllinepress.com/events.
Mill Valley resident Britta Stromeyer, an award-winning children’s author, is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Her writing appears in the Common, Tupelo Quarterly, Beyond Words Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine, Bending Genres Journal, Necessary Fiction, On the Seawall and other publications.