Each day leading up to the 2019 Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony, we’ll be featuring an exclusive interview with one of our 36 finalists. Learn more about these incredible local writers and gear up to see the winners announced live in person April 6.
Interview with Stephanie Watson, author of Best Friends in the Universe, illustrated by LeUyen Pham.
Category: Children’s Literature, sponsored by Books for Africa
How does if feel to be a Minnesota Book Award finalist?
I am thrilled that my book was chosen as a finalist. What a treat!
Tell us something about your finalist book that you want readers to know.
I’ve noticed that friendships often start with some small, strange connection. Like, one of my good friends and I first connected because we both loved the show So You Think You Can Dance, and we liked tofu chocolate pudding, so we started getting together to watch SYTYCD and eat pudding. Our friendship grew to be about more than dance and pudding, but it’s where it began. Best Friends in the Universe started off as a simple numbered list of small, weird reasons why these two boys are friends. Things like: “We’re both dying for a pet python. Our moms got us fish instead. We both named our fish Python.” I had a lot of fun coming up with these reasons, and the rest of the story grew out this list.
Let us know a little bit about your writing life. What brought you to a writing career and how did you become a published author?
I have always loved reading children’s books. I read them when I was a kid and as a teenager and in college. At Sarah Lawrence College, I kept my kids’ book habit a secret, because I thought there must be something wrong with me if I’d rather read Ramona Quimby, Age 8 than One Hundred Years of Solitude. Kids’ books enchanted me in a way that stories written for adults did not. After college I met some adults who wrote children’s books and realized a) there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to read children’s books all the time and b) maybe I should try to write one myself. So I wrote Elvis & Olive, my first middle-grade novel published by Scholastic. For over a decade now, I’ve been writing both middle grade and picture books. I try to write every morning for about two hours.
What do you love about libraries?
1. They let you take home books for free. And movies. This never ceases to amaze me. Free books and movies? What? 2. They let you borrow up to 50 books and movies at once. I’m almost always at my limit. 3. The friendly, helpful librarians at the Minneapolis Washburn library. Hi Gloria Olson! Hi Ann Melrose!
About Stephanie Watson
Stephanie’s picture books include Best Friends in the Universe (illustrated by LeUyen Pham), Behold! A Baby (a 2016 MN Book Award finalist, illustrated by Joy Ang) and The Wee Hours (illustrated by Mary GrandPré). She also authored the middle-grade novels Elvis and Olive and Elvis and Olive: Super Detectives, both Junior Library Guild selections. Stephanie loves teaching writing workshops to kids and adults at schools, libraries and the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Learn more at www.stephanie-watson.com.
