7 Questions For: Author Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry was born in Hawaii and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and Japan. After several years at Brown University, she turned to her family and to writing. She is the author of more than thirty books for young adults, including the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader's Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. Her first novel, A SUMMER TO DIE, was awarded the International Reading Association's Children's Book Award.

Click here to read my review of The Giver.

And now Lois Lowry faces the 7 Questions:


Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

THE ESSENTIAL NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK.

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY.

THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF E.B. WHITE


Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

Probably four hours a day, including weekends, in each category. Now to do the math: 28 hours writing,. 28 reading.


Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

College—writing—college again—writing—marriage—writing—baby;baby;baby;baby—writing—graduate school—writing—sent a few things off to publishers—BINGO


Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

I think some people are born with an ear and aptitude for language. I think certain elements of the craft of writing, and an appreciation of fine literature, can be taught. There are those who are born with the gift but never study, and there are those who study and study but simply never have the gift. When the two things combine, as they did for me, then one becomes a writer.


Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

My favorite thing about writing is the solitude of it. Least favorite: the necessary look-how-great-I-am promotion required of professional writers.


Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

These are the things that are time-wasters and ultimately unimportant: reading about writing (including the words I am currently putting on the page); schmoozing about writing; going to workshops about writing. This is the thing that matters: writing.


Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Flannery O'Connor. No reason except that we would both make lunch short in order to go back to work.

www.loislowry.com