Each day leading up to the 32nd annual Minnesota Book Awards we’ll be featuring an exclusive interview with one of our 36 finalists.
Interview with Anne Ursu, author of The Lost Girl, part of the Middle Grade Literature category, sponsored by Education Minnesota
How does it feel to be a Minnesota Book Award finalist?
It feels incredible. The depth of Minnesota’s writing for young readers talent pool is nationally known, and it’s just such an honor to be a part of that community.
Tell us something about your finalist book that you want readers to know?
It takes place in Minneapolis, and there is an art thief with access to magic that steals some extremely important Minnesota artifacts.
Share something about your writing process and preferences. For instance, where is your favorite place to write?
I wish I had a good answer for this. I tend to wander around the house with my beat-up laptop, whose keyboard is dusted in crumbs, coffee stains, and cat hair, looking for some kind of nest. I try to write wherever the words will come, and if they don’t come, I’ll move. And maybe, once in a while, clean off my computer screen.
Minnesota has a reputation as a state that values literature and reading. In your experience, what is it about our state that makes it such a welcoming place for writers and book creators?
Books matter here. The arts matter. The state understands that literature and the arts are part of what keeps a community healthy. I have lived in a few other places, and was always confused—where are all your writers? But none of those places valued artists, and so the artists didn’t thrive. Here, we can thrive.
What is something you are good at that few people know about?
I am very good at cat-diapering.
What do you love about libraries?
Libraries are magic. I grew up in the Walker Library in Minneapolis, haunting the shelves of the kids section like an avaricious ghost. The books I read there made me love kids’ literature, and are why I write now.
Anne Ursu is also the author of Breadcrumbs and The Real Boy, which was longlisted for the National Book Award. She received a McKnight Fellowship Award and is a member of the faculty at Hamline University.