Author and Alumna Phoebe Thompson ‘08 Unveils New Novel About Female Friendship

We caught up with Marin Horizon Class of 2008 alumna Phoebe Thompson on the occasion of her new book, Girls Our Age. 

The novel is about the intimacy of female friendship, how relationships shift through our twenties, and the unique way we’re known by the people we grew up with. We’re excited for her book launch and look forward to a great read! Girls Our Age is currently on pre-order with  Book Passage and wherever books are sold. 

Phoebe shared with us that she traces a part of her interest in writing to her early days at Marin Horizon. “I often think about keeping journals starting in first grade,” she says, “and how Andrea, my first-grade teacher, would read and respond to them.” Phoebe has kept journals ever since, later bringing the same practice to her own students while teaching Creative Writing at University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Having a dedicated space to explore my thoughts before I’ve made sense of them has always been important to me,” she says. “It’s what drives me toward writing fiction most days of my life.”

Phoebe is both an author and a graphic designer, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband. She runs a marketing agency called Extra Cred, while writing fiction on the side. 

Read the full interview with Phoebe below…

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Q&A With Phoebe Thompson

Q: For which grades did you attend Marin Horizon School? And what year did you graduate?

I started in Debbie and Andrea’s Pre-K in 1998, and graduated eighth grade in 2008!

Q: What schools did you attend after Marin Horizon? What were your fields of study and what degrees did you earn?

I went to Marin Academy for high school, studied English Literature at Bowdoin College, then pursued an MFA in fiction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Q: What are you doing now, professionally and personally? Please tell us about your novel!

I live in Brooklyn, New York, with my husband; run a marketing agency called Extra Cred; and write fiction on the side. 

My first novel, Girls Our Age, is out May 2026. It’s about Lily, Ana, and Margot, who have been best friends ever since Hawthorne Res Life assigned them as roommates during their first year of college. Ten years later, Lily is engaged and planning her wedding; Margot is living in Chicago, where she’s on the cusp of landing a life-changing promotion; and Ana is head fourth-grade teacher at the alma mater of her long term boyfriend, who's just asked her to move in with him. All three women are thriving—until the events preceding Lily's wedding surface the challenges the friends have been able to keep from each other and from themselves. Girls Our Age  is about the intimacy of female friendship, how relationships shift through our twenties, and the unique way we’re known by the people we grew up with. You can learn more (and read my short stories!) at phoebethompson.com, or preorder Girls Our Age wherever books are sold.

Q: What is your favorite memory of Marin Horizon School? Educational or otherwise?

In 2007, we relocated to the Presidio for middle school while the old building was torn down and re-built. Something about a new location with the same people kind of lit us up. We used to hide in supply closets and sneak up on our teachers when they’d come in to get fresh erasers. We also used to run at Crissy Field, prank call radio stations from the bus while traveling over the Golden Gate Bridge, and play hide and seek in the thick bushes.  It was possibly my peak.

Q: Who was/were your favorite teacher(s) and why? 

Hard and impossible to pick!! I have a special place in my heart for Carla, whose patience and sense of humor is present in many of my best middle school memories. I was surprised when I got to high school to learn how many people didn’t like middle school at all. I loved middle school!

Q: Did you have a favorite class or subject? Tell us about it.

I really loved Annie’s fifth grade math class. I remember feeling very grown up learning about the order of operations. Also, Annie was the first person to wisely discourage my perfectionist tendencies. Twenty years later, I am very much NOT a perfectionist, and much better for it. 

Q: How did Marin Horizon prepare you for your next steps - high school and beyond? 

I was a little surprised after Marin Horizon to learn that not everyone was super nice all the time. After recovering from that initial shell shock, I was able to reemerge as a more whole version of myself, and I think that version existed because I had 12 really solid years of being known and loved for being exactly myself, which is how I felt at MHS, pretty much always. Aside from that, I think, academically, I’ve always had a sense of curiosity and uncompetitiveness, both curated at MHS. These traits led me to explore a lot of varying and a little off-the-beaten-path academic interests, like going to Vermont in High School to attend The Mountain School for a semester and studying Medieval English Literature at Bowdoin. 

Q: With the benefit of hindsight, what do you think was unique about your education at Marin Horizon, compared with your peers in high school and beyond?

I think I learned to trust myself. This was partially thanks to the curriculum, which let us engage with what we gravitated toward—I think kids are great at pursuing their interests and exploring the world in whatever way makes sense to them, but many of us get that instinct educated out. As a writer, I feel that I have a unique ability to write without self-consciousness, and in the direction of my unique relationship to the world around me. I feel that a Montessori inspired education and learning from teachers who knew me deeply shaped the foundation for this. 

Q: Are there things you learned at Marin Horizon that stay with you to this day? 

I often think back to keeping journals starting in first grade, and how Andrea (my first  grade teacher back in 2001) would read and respond to them. I’ve kept many journals since then, and they’ve formed the foundation of my career as a writer. When I taught Creative Writing at UW-Madison, I had my students keep in-class journals, and I always read and responded to what they wrote, and many of them shared how foundational that practice was to them in learning how to think the thoughts they didn’t know they were thinking. Having a dedicated space to explore my thoughts before I’ve made sense of them has always been important to me. It’s what drives me toward writing fiction most days of my life.