Alison McGhee, author of Dear Brother
Middle Grade Literature Category, sponsored by Education Minnesota
Each week leading up to the 36th 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.
What is one detail you wanted to include in this book, but couldn’t find a place for?
I would have loved to include a spread of Frightful, the book’s bearded dragon, dreaming of the Australian desert home where her ancestors lived. Eventually I decided (rightly) that such a spread would break the flow and funniness of the book, but I keep the vision of it tucked away in a corner of my mind. Maybe someday it will become a book of its own.
Tell us about someone who proved instrumental to the creation of this book.
This is such a great question! Credit goes to Cleo the original bearded dragon. She was the inspiration for the entire book. Her name is in the dedication, along with Devon and Matt, the two humans who loved and cared for her during her astonishingly long life (seriously, she was a contender for the Guinness Book World Record for longest-lived bearded dragon.) We all loved Cleo, and watching how beautifully her humans took care of her over the years melted my heart.
Tell us about a favorite read from the past year. Why did you find it enjoyable, insightful, or memorable?
I’ve recently become obsessed with British writer Penelope Fitzgerald, author of small, intensely insightful, extraordinary novels like The Blue Flower and The Bookshop. The last line of The Bookshop opened a window into every line that came before it, and almost brought me to tears. Penelope Fitzgerald died quite a while ago but she lives on in these astonishing books. How I wish I’d known her. I’m determined to keep her books in rotation.
Please tell us something about yourself that is not widely known.
Sometimes, when I’m out jogging, I’ll hit rewind on the same exact song for the entire run. The same, exact, song x 20. Such is the beauty of earbuds! No one has to know just how obsessed you are with that song you heard for the first time thirty-six years ago.
Share your thoughts about the role and value of libraries.
Libraries represent the best of our democracy. They’re for everyone, no matter who you are, where you live, or where you come from. I grew up way out in the country, and the Didymus Thomas Library in tiny Remsen, NY, was my favorite place to go. Once a week we’d trek over and I would take out ten books – the limit. Now, with people trying to ban books and limit access to them, we all must work to keep our libraries open and openminded, the way they’ve always been.
Alison McGhee is a multiple-time Minnesota Book Award winner and the New York Times bestselling author of Someday, as well as Dear Sister, What I Leave Behind, Pablo and Birdy, Where We Are, A Very Brave Witch, and the Bink and Gollie books, among others.