Most students call home from boarding school with complaints about dining hall food. Shelby Cunningham called home with stories so wild that her mother, bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand, knew they had to become a book.
That book, “The Academy,” was released on Sept. 16 and transforms Cunningham’s real experiences at St. George’s School in Rhode Island into a compelling work of fiction. Cunningham, a sophomore at the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences majoring in creative writing, co-wrote the novel with her mother, who is the author of more than 30 books.
The idea was sparked during Cunningham’s first year at boarding school. After growing up on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, the transition to a New England prep school provided endless material. “I called my mom all the time, like three times a day, with just the craziest stories,” Cunningham explained during a book launch event at the University’s Lakeside Village.
When her mother pitched the collaboration, Cunningham’s response was immediate, she recalled: “Don't tempt me with a good time.”
While her mother brought decades of publishing experience, Cunningham’s voice gave the book authenticity. She edited dialogue and infused the novel with Gen Z speech that only she could provide. Cunningham would tell her mother, “Absolutely not,” to outdated slang like “GOAT status” or references to the Rolling Stones or Converse sneakers.
“She’d say, ‘You’re not a teenager’ and cross out whole paragraphs,” Hilderbrand laughed, adding that her daughter kept all the rejected pages to read back during public events.
Their fictional Tiffin Academy mirrors many real boarding school traditions, but the authors said they were careful to create original characters and situations. They pulled elements from daily life at St. George’s, such as chapel on Tuesdays and Thursdays, mandatory afternoon activities, and games on Wednesdays and Saturdays, all while inventing their own drama.
The novel tackles contemporary issues head-on. Social media plays a central role through a plot about an app called “ZipZap” that mirrors a real incident at St. George’s involving anonymous posting that eventually required FBI intervention.
“What separates Gen Z is that you all know what every single other person is doing,” Hilderbrand said. “It’s really a double-edged sword.”
“The Academy” does not shy away from adult content. Instead, the authors decided early on to show boarding school life authentically, even if that meant including profanity and mature themes that might surprise readers of Hilderbrand’s summer novels.
“If we wanted to be authentic, then we would have to include profanity because we all swear,” Cunningham noted.
The story unfolds through the perspectives of multiple students, teachers, administrators, and even a chef with a gambling problem who elevates the school’s cuisine. This approach creates what Hilderbrand called “universe building,” offering readers a comprehensive view of boarding school life that goes beyond the single student perspective of other boarding school novels.
The book launch event, which was presented by the University of Miami Alumni Association in partnership with the Miami Canes and Books & Books, held special significance for the family, coming several months after Hilderbrand’s son Dawson graduated from the University.
The mother-daughter team has landed a two-book contract, with the follow-up novel “The Thoroughbreds” coming out next year. It’s a testament that a student’s stories, when told well, can reach far beyond the classroom.
