Hi Everybody,
Yes, it’s Black History Month, and boy do I have a month of treats for you!

As a reviewer with YA Books Central (www.yabookscentral.com), I come across some wonderful books, and sometimes I get the opportunity to chat with some outstanding writers. Recently, I got the opportunity to review Lockdown, by two-time Newbery Honor author Walter Dean Myers, and he very graciously consented to an interview.

Because I had so many questions for him, I organized the questions into basic themes. I hope this makes it easier for you to digest.

Have fun, and happy Black History Month!

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR WALTER DEAN MYERS

THE EARLY YEARS

RitaL: Thanks so much for granting this interview, Mr. Myers! I read that you began writing poems and short stories as early as age nine. Do you remember any of the titles or characters in those early pieces?

WDM: My first published poem was to my mother. I was nine and going to school in Harlem. Other poems were mimicking the British poets we studied in school. I wrote odes to just about everything.

RitaL: I also read about your turbulent early years, and how they influenced your writing. Do you feel you would still have become a writer if your early life was different?

WDM: I think I would have become a writer because I enjoy the process of creating with language.

RitaL: What was the title of your very first trade book? Describe for us aspiring writers how it felt to see your first book in print?

WDM: Where Does the Day Go? was published by Parents Magazine Press. I was surprised and happy to see the books in stacks at a downtown book store!

RitaL: Who has been your biggest supporter in your writer’s journey?

WDM: My wife has been my biggest fan and helper.

GENRE DECISIONS

RitaL: You have a very impressive body of work that includes picture books, poetry, screenplays, historical fiction and more. Tell me, what’s your favorite genre? Which genre do you find the most challenging to write, and of all the markets out there, which do you find the hardest to break into?

WDM: I like all genres of writing. Historical fiction is quite challenging because you really want to get the facts straight while making the book entertaining. True stories are sometimes very boring. The hardest market to break into is poetry. There are so many people out there grinding out poems, and the books usually don’t make money.

RitaL: What inspired you to write Lockdown? And what do you hope your audience will gain from reading it? (Read my review of Lockdown on YABooksCentral.)

WDM: Lockdown was inspired by my visits to juvenile facilities across the country. So many of the young people voiced fears about leaving the facilities, afraid they would get into trouble again and perhaps have a life of constant incarceration. The difficulties they had on the outside which led them to prisons weren’t going to go away because they had paid their debt to society. What I would like for young people to take from the book is the language my central character uses to describe who and what he is. I feel we need to provide the means for young people to both articulate their problems and to think them through so that they can at least begin to cope with them. If we were talking about kids coming from the area of a toxic lake we would treat them and would either clean up the lake or move the kids away from the affected area. When we talk about kids coming from a toxic environment we make it a condition of his release to return him to that environment.

RitaL: Well said, and so very true. Thanks for sharing that. I recently had the privilege of reading, Riot, also, and I truly enjoyed it. (My review of Riot will post on YA Books Central on February 10, 2010). I’m a historical writer/reader myself, and can’t get enough of these stories. How did this particular story catch your attention? How long did it take to research and write it?

WDM: I was first attracted to the story by the idea of the orphanage being burned down. I was raised in a foster home and have always been sensitive to children without parents. This was a relatively easy book to research because of the availability of newspaper accounts and the many published eyewitness accounts. It took about four months to research the basic story, and then more research over the four months it took to write the book.

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