Gary Eldon Peter, author of The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen
Young Adult Literature Category, sponsored by Expedition Credit Union
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?
That it eventually got published! I worked on the novel for many years, in many, many drafts and different forms. It took a long time for me to figure out what the story was that I wanted to tell, and then almost as long to find a publisher who believed in the book. It’s a relatively short novel (more like a novella in some ways), so it still amazes me to think about how many hundreds of pages I wrote before I finally got to the finished product.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer with an interest in your category?
Read a lot of young adult books just to get a sense of what’s out there and what the possibilities of the genre are – mainly because I think to be a good writer it helps to be a good reader, whatever you are trying to write. At the same time I’d also suggest focusing on writing the story you want to tell and worry about “what is it?” later. I think it is very easy to get hung up on trying to write a particular “thing” and trying to meet its expectations and to end up feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. In other words, work on the story and trust that it will eventually tell you what it wants to be rather than the other way around.
Tell us about a favorite book. Why did you find it moving, influential, or otherwise memorable?
I know that views of it have changed over the years, but it would probably be To Kill a Mockingbird, which in a lot of ways was the first “adult” book I ever read. When I read it as a child, it made me realize that the world could be an evil and scary place, without happy endings. So that seemed to be a lesson for me. Plus, I remembered feeling totally immersed in the world of the book, which was so different than mine, and wishing that Jem, Scout, and Dill were real people that I could somehow meet. As an adult, I definitely see some things differently about the book, but as a young reader it certainly had an impact on me.
Tell us something about yourself that is not widely known.
In my teen years I was the quintessential high school theater “geek,” and I harbored secret fantasies of being a star. I did make it on to the stage, but usually as a townsperson with one or two lines (or maybe none). I was also a very good student director and stage manager. That’s show business!
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.
The more that libraries come under “siege” these days the more grateful I am for their existence. I feel that even more so now with a Young Adult novel with a gay teenager as its main character, a book that could easily become a “target” but one that I hope could help younger readers feel that they are not alone…though of course if the book isn’t there, then that isn’t possible. And it seems pretty basic, but as I alluded to earlier, to be a writer it really helps to first be a reader. The libraries of my childhood and adolescence were essential places for me to start on my path to storytelling and writing.
Gary Eldon Peter is the author of Oranges, recipient of the Gold Medal for LGBT+ fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, the Midwest Book Award, and finalist for the Minnesota Book Awards and the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.