Alan Berks, Leah Cooper, and Becca Hart, authors and illustrator of In My Heart: The Adoption Story Project
Young Adult Fiction Category, sponsored by Expedition Credit Union
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?
The book comes from the true stories of hundreds of Minnesotans in the adoption community. We’re proud to share a piece of work that honors all those stories and captures the complexity of the people who shared with us—and transforms the grief, happiness, guilt, and joy into something that both they and a wider audience can appreciate. Also, no one has ever translated a successful play into a book before—so that’s something.
What do you hope that your audience learns or takes away from your book?
We hope it helps people with experience in adoption feel fully seen, heard, and understood and that their experience is an important part of what the concept of family means in the US. Too often we have kept the conversation out of the mainstream, painted it over with bright colors, or only seen the story from one perspective. For people who don’t think of themselves in the adoption community, we hope it helps them expand their definition of family and look with more empathy on their friends and neighbors. We also imagine that the issues that the adoption community faces in an extreme way—questions about identity, fate, destiny, and self-worth—are ones that anyone can relate to and find their own wisdom by sharing in this journey.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer with an interest in your category?
Well, since this is our first book, we have to say that you might as well follow your vision, no matter how rare or unique it is. Clearly, there is no one “right” way to tell a story and even painful truths are worth telling because they make us all stronger. We made a play from hundreds of stories and then made a graphic novel from an epic play, and that was exactly the right way to share this story. So trust your story to find its own shape. Good things may come from that.
Tell us something about yourself that is not widely known.
Leah’s parents adopted her after her adoptive mother saw her on a talk show on TV and called an 800 number to say ‘I want that one there, on the left!'” The illustrator, Becca Hart, started making comic books when she was in the first grade! And Alan used to be a goatherd.
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 conducive place for writers?
All of us come from outside Minnesota and have made our home here in large part because of the cultural environment—not just in reading but also with regard to theater, music, and other arts. What makes it such a great place for all that? It’s probably the winters. Californians don’t get to enjoy the pleasure of curling up with a good book in a warm house on a night that is freezing outside—or busting out in the summer time to go to as many art fairs and theater festivals as you can possibly squeeze in before winter comes again. It’s all good for the imagination.
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?
Because we’re all working theater artists, we may not have been able to finish this book without the pause in the theater that Covid caused (even though that pause has been such a great loss in so many other ways). Also, we’ve all taken this time to expand our writing/artistic work into new areas that we never imagined before, including memoir, tv writing, and other genres.
Alan Berks is the author of full-length plays, one-acts, short plays, and monologues that have been seen in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Indianapolis, and New York. He is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Wonderlust Productions.
Leah Cooper has been directing, producing, and managing in theater for over 30 years and is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Wonderlust Productions. She is also a facilitator and consultant in community engagement and organizational development.
Becca Hart is an illustrator and actor working in the Twin Cities. Her work in stage illustration and design has been seen at local theaters, including the Minnesota Jewish Theater and The Jungle Theater.