Anne Ursu, author of The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy
Middle Grade Literature Category, sponsored by Education Minnesota
Each week leading up to the 34th annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony, we are featuring exclusive interviews with our 36 finalists. You can also watch the authors in conversation with their fellow category finalists here.
Would you tell us one or two things about your finalist book that you are particularly proud of, and why?
Mine is set in a fantasy world inspired by Romania, where my grandfather was from. This allowed me to do some digging into my own heritage, which I loved doing, and develop threads about the subversive value of folk arts. 
What do you hope that your audience learns or takes away from your book?
One of the things the protagonist learns over the course of the book is to think about who certain stories serve—both stories about the world around her, and stories she’s told about her own value. In this age of propaganda and book banning, I hope readers might look at these stories and think about who they serve.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer with an interest in your category?
I would tell them to read as much in the category as they possibly can, in a variety of genres—contemporary, fantasy, mystery, historical—from a diverse group of authors. 
Tell us something about yourself that is not widely known.
I used to have a fairly notorious Twins blog. 
Minnesota enjoys a reputation as a place that values literature and reading. If this sentiment rings true for you, what about our home state makes it such a welcoming and conductive place for writers?
The fact that the state is willing to fund the arts, libraries, and writers means we have a state of readers. I am so grateful to live here. 
Since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, virtually everything about our lives has changed in some way. Has COVID-19 (and its fallout) impacted your writing habits and preferences? Has the unique zeitgeist of the past two years influenced your writing output in any other ways that you can pinpoint?
I started playing Animal Crossing, which is not great for writing. I’m also working on a haunted house book and have discovered several friends are as well. I don’t think its an accident that suddenly people are setting books inside houses!
Anne Ursu is the author of the acclaimed novels The Lost Girl, Breadcrumbs, and The Real Boy, which was longlisted for the National Book Award. The recipient of a McKnight Fellowship Award in Children’s Literature, Anne is also a member of the faculty at Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.