Kim Antieau, Young Adult Author at Embracing the Child

Antieau:

I've been writing for as long as I can remember. Before I could write, I drew tiny little picture books. As soon as I could write, I was writing stories. I loved stories. I loved fairy tales, myths, legends. My father read to us nearly every night, so that probably piqued my interest. And my mother really encouraged my writing. When I was just a young girl she told me to write in pen because pencil faded and people would want to one day read what I wrote. That was quite a boost to my confidence to hear that! So I wrote short stories and then when I got to high school, I wrote one book a year. I've been going strong ever since.

ETC: What is it you like about writing?

Antieau: Life seems easier and more manageable when I write. I figure out things about people and the world when I write, and that's a good thing because people are often such a mystery to me. I'm always searching for community, and I feel as though the characters in my books are part of my community. I like the people I meet in my stories. I like people who aren't like everyone else--they don't follow the crowd. I think we need more people like that in this world: People who are willing to be full of themselves.

One of the problems today is that we don't have authentic communities in many places. We don't have ceremonies and rituals to carry us from one stage of our lives to another. We don't have the wisdom of our elders. We don't have the wisdom of the land because we're so disconnected from nature. Children need mentors and wise elders. With that and the connection to place, we grow into our authentic selves: We are full of our true selves. I grow communities in my novels, so perhaps my novels can be fuzzy templates on how to make community. The families in my novels are seldom Mom, Pop, and children all living happily in a family unit. (There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but a lot of people don't have those kinds of families.) My families are often people who aren't necessarily related coming together to create a home.

ETC: You wrote for adults for a long time, but your last three books have been for teens. What made you start writing for a younger audience?

Antieau: I didn't plan it. I don't really think of the age of my audience when I write. At least I didn't when I wrote Mercy, Unbound. Then I was on the coast and this young woman who had come into my imagination several times before began telling me her story. She was 15 years old. When the story was finished, it was shorter than my other novels by about half. I gave it to my agent and he sold it as a teen novel. Then I wrote Broken Moon and then Ruby's Imagine.

ETC: What was your childhood like?

Antieau: I was born in Louisiana when my dad was in the Air Force. Then we moved to Texas for a short time, and eventually we made it back to Michigan where my parents had grown up. We lived out in the country. We were surrounded by woods and wildlife and family. I lived with my parents and four sisters, and my aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins lived nearby. I went to school in Brighton, Michigan, which was a few miles from our home. It was a small town, and I loved it.

ETC: You're a librarian, too. Do you find that influences your work?

Antieau: I became a librarian because I needed a job, and I wanted a job where I was doing good in the world. Good librarians are activists by nature. They stand up for civil liberties and intellectual freedom every day. I believe very strongly in our intellectual freedoms: in our rights to information and books without interference from the government. I believe in our right to privacy: The government doesn't have a right to know what you are reading. I believe that an educated citizenry can make the right choices about their lives and about our government. I believe all of those things as a writer, too, so I suppose both "jobs" kind of flow into one another.

ETC: Ruby's Imagine involves people living through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Have you ever lived through a disaster?

Antieau: About ten years ago, we had about a month of strange weather here where we live. It snowed a couple of feet. Then it started to melt and it froze again, which meant there was ice everywhere. No one could leave their houses because it was too slippery to walk outside. The ice caused the power lines to go down. We didn't have electricity and we couldn't leave to go somewhere else. This lasted for a few days. We were cold, and we were worried about staying warm and having enough food. Then it warmed up and everything melted. All the rivers around us flooded. We had the Columbia River to the south and a lake in front of us. Both rose above the 100 year flood plain. Other houses were flooded but ours was on a hill so we were all right. But there were rockslides on both of the only two major roads where we lived, so we were trapped. It was exhausting! Every day, every hour, we watched the river and lake rise and wondered what was going to happen next. It was a major disaster. I had my home, and I was exhausted. We were lucky! I can only imagine what they felt during Hurricane Katrina.

ETC: Ruby is so much apart of her neighborhood that it is doubly devastating when the floods come and destroy her home. Do you identify strongly with the place where you live?

Antieau: Ruby and I are very much alike that way. Yes, I strongly identify with place. I'm actually perplexed when other people don't! I'm aware of which wind brings cold and which wind brings heat. I look out and check the mountains for snow in the morning as winter comes and goes. I know when the eagles leave and return, same with the swans. I know the big old trees in town. I know what time of day the bats come out. I know when to walk down to the pier to watch the swallows diving for insects. I know what field the local bagpiper stands in to play his music. I know the sound of the children playing in the daycare across the street. I know that I feel one way when the moon is full and another way when it is just a crescent in the sky. I talk to the crows, the wind, and the old trees. I try to hug a tree a day. It's a wonderful way to be in the world.

ETC: Mammaloose is not always very nice to Ruby. Do you think someone can love you and be mean to you at the same time?

Antieau: Relationships are complex. I don't think most people are evil. I do think some people do terrible things, some of them unforgivable things. But most of the time when we do wrong, it's from ignorance or fear. I think Mammaloose lost herself. And she confused strictness and nastiness with doing the right thing. Fortunately, Ruby had all kinds of people who love her and cared about her . She understood that better than many of us. A lot of times we feel as though we're alone in the world and we aren't really. So yes, I think we can be cranky and mean to someone and still love them. I don't think it's good to be abusive or to stand for that abusiveness if we can help it; that's a different story.

ETC: Sometimes kids who are different, like Ruby, don't really fit in with other kids. What advice do you have for real-life kids who are different but still want to have friends?

Antieau: First, I think that we shouldn't all try to be like everyone else. We are individuals. We are also pack animals, like wolves, so we do like to have our friends and community! I think the first thing is to try to be confident in ourselves. (Easier said than done, I know.) We should develop interests and skills and try not to rely on the opinions of other people in order to feel good. Then maybe we can find people who have similar interests to our own. Ruby was friends with the trees and the animals and the wind and the birds. I was like that, too. But I understand that walking around talking out loud to trees and the birds might not win you friends!

Finding and making friends is sometimes very difficult. It almost has to happen effortlessly. By that I mean we shouldn't try too hard. In the meantime, make art, write stories, learn to dance. People are always saying, "Be yourself." And they're right: because you can't be anyone else! That way if someone likes you or doesn't like you, at least you know you were being true to yourself.