Andrew DeYoung, author of The Temps
Genre Fiction Category, sponsored by Macalester College
Each week leading up to the 35th annual Minnesota Book Awards, we are featuring exclusive interviews with our 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?
I tried to pull off a few things at the same time in The Temps: tell a postapocalyptic science fiction story with a compelling and suspenseful plot, engage in some cultural criticism about the experience of young adulthood and corporate work in the 21st century, and lastly to write a book that was at least occasionally funny. Whether I got that mix right is probably a little subjective based on the reader, but the mix ended up being pretty close to right for me.
I wrote the kind of book I’d like to read.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer with an interest in your category?
The best advice is the most commonly given: write a lot, and read a lot, both in your category and outside of it. Having a sense of what other writers are doing can set you up for a productive push-pull with your category, where you both follow the conventions of a genre but also break those rules in judicious ways.
Tell us about a favorite book. Why did you find it moving, influential, or otherwise memorable?
So many to choose from! One that comes to mind recently is Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here, which is a really funny and quirky book with a strange premise, about a pair of kids who burst into flames when they get angry, and the young woman who’s hired to be their nanny. What I love about this book is how it takes that goofy fantastical premise and brings it to a really deep and emotional place of reflection about parenthood and found family.
The Minnesota Book Awards is a celebration of writers, readers – and libraries. We’d love if you would share thoughts about the role and value of libraries.
Libraries are the best! So are librarians—I have a couple of them in my extended family. Libraries have been part of my life since my parents took me to the local library as a kid for piles of books, a practice we’re now carrying on with our own children. I engage with the library almost every day. Libraries are carriers of a number of important values: the value of books, for starters, but also the value of community and sharing resources that are accessible and available to all.
Andrew DeYoung is an editor and Minnesota Book Award-winning author of The Exo Project.