Q&A with Kate Hannigan

Kate Hannigan is the author of the new children's picture book A Lady Has the Floor: Belva Lockwood Speaks Out for Women's Rights. Her other books include The Detective's Assistant. She has worked for The Dallas Morning News and the San Francisco Chronicle, and she lives in Chicago.

Q: Why did you decide to write a picture book about women's rights activist Belva Lockwood?

A: When Belva Lockwood first came to my attention, I was researching a book about Nellie Bly. I was so surprised to read about “the lady candidate” that I dropped the Nellie project and jumped right into learning about Belva and her campaign for president in 1884.

As I found out more about her—that she’d accomplished so much and was somewhat ignored by the mainstream suffragettes—I wanted to share it with the world. First woman on the ballot for president, first woman admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court, first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court.

Belva faced daunting hardships and formidable obstacles along the way. She’s truly an inspiration. 

Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

A: Belva was articulate and a prolific writer, which makes the researching so much easier than for projects where the subject didn't record their own thoughts and opinions. I was able to dig up old newspaper articles where she'd granted interviews, as well as read her own writings about life and law and politics.

I learned so many things that should not have come as a surprise but did: that she was asked to teach school at age 14 but was paid only half what the men earned.

That she wanted to go to college after being widowed as a young woman but her father said an education would be wasted on her.

That she had to fight to be allowed into law school, and that even after earning her diploma the school still refused to give it to her.

That despite having the law degree and practicing in the courts as a full-fledged attorney, judges pounded their gavels and ordered her to be silent—they would have nothing to do with “lady” lawyers.

On and on and on, the injustices she encountered were jaw-dropping but part of what women faced as they changed society's norms.

Q: What do you think Alison Jay's illustrations add to the book?

A: Holy cow, Alison is so talented! I want to hang her illustrations on my walls! She gives the book an uplifting tone through her vibrant colors and whimsical figures. And her “crackle” (or whatever technical art term you’d use for that antique finish!) lends just the right feeling—that we’re looking at something historical.

Alison is such a pro! It would not be the same book without her gorgeous art. I feel like the universe smiled on me when I was paired with her!

Q: What do you hope young readers take away from the book?

A: I hope readers take away a sense of strength and inspiration from Belva’s story. That no matter what obstacles line your path, you can still reach your goals and even surprise yourself!

Belva just wanted what was fair—that girls get the same opportunities to lead full and satisfying lives as boys. So she pushed boundaries, all the way to the Supreme Court and even the White House.

“Let nothing stand in your way,” would be the mantra Belva imparts to young readers. Though she’s infinitely quotable already in her own writings and campaigns.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Oh my, how I love a good story of an amazing woman. I just finished the Nellie Bly manuscript and sold it to the same editor who worked on the Belva book! Carolyn Yoder at Boyds Mills Press.

And I’m happy to say that a middle-grade World War II project I’ve been writing and researching for about two years now has found a home. More details to come on that, but I’ve got lots and lots and lots of stories in various stages of contemplation and completion! And I can’t wait to get them out into the world!

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

April 5

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
April 5, 1856: Booker T. Washington born.

Q&A with Peter Swanson

Peter Swanson is the author of the new novel All the Beautiful Lies. His other novels include Her Every Fear and The Kind Worth Killing. His work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The Atlantic and Asimov's Science Fiction. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for All the Beautiful Lies, and why did you set it in Maine?

A: I've had the basic idea for All the Beautiful Lies running through my head for many, many years. I always thought it would be a classic whodunit in which a son discovers his deceased father's secret life. And I always pictured it set in a coastal town.

When I wrote The Kind Worth Killing, a portion of that novel is set in the fictional town of Kennewick, Maine. And when I began to finally write All the Beautiful Lies I knew that it would be set in that same town.

Q: The novel is told from a variety of different perspectives. Did you write the book in the order in which it appears, or did you focus more on one character at a time and then move things around?

A: I always write my novels in the order in which I think they will appear, although, after final edits, it's possible that things will move around a little. What is it they say on airplanes? "Warning: items may shift during flight."

In this case it made for an interesting writing process, because one day I'd be telling the story of Harry, a recent college graduate dealing with his father's death, and the next day I'd be writing about a high school teenager 20 years earlier.

Q: How was the novel's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

A: When I reached the end of the book I realized just how much of the novel was about the lies we tell ourselves.

In the case of the novel's main character, Alice Moss, she is someone who has caused a lot of damage in her life, but she truly believes she is innocent, that the damage has been caused to her. The reason these lies are beautiful is because they cover up whatever ugliness might be really there.

Q: The book's early reviews mention Patricia Highsmith as a comparison. What do you think of that?

A: Terrible. I mean, she was such a hack, wasn't she? Just kidding. I revere Patricia Highsmith, so I'm obviously thrilled. She was the absolute master at writing cold, disturbing thrillers. She understood that everyone, in the right circumstances, could be a criminal.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Just finishing up a novel about a married couple that move to a suburban neighborhood, and are invited to their neighbor's house for dinner. The wife of the couple sees something in the neighbor's house that makes her think she's solved an old crime.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: If you ever decide to visit the lovely coastal town of Kennewick in Maine you will find it doesn't exist. But it does greatly resemble another town, called York. And that town, along with having a lot less murders, is well worth a visit.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Peter Swanson.

Q&A with Jonathan Weisman

Jonathan Weisman is the author of the new book (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump. He also has written the novel No. 4 Imperial Lane. He is deputy Washington editor of The New York Times, and he lives in Washington, D.C.

Q: How do you think things have changed in this country for Jewish Americans since the candidacy and election of Donald Trump?

A: As I explore in my book, the guardrails can come off polite society remarkably quickly.

In May of 2017, the National Bureau of Economic Research published a peer-reviewed study of how norms have already changed, in this case how anti-immigrant sentiments once kept under wraps or not spoken at all are becoming acceptable to speak out loud.

As I wrote, "a social genie can escape its bottle fast, societies can change for the worst, we are not destined for inexorable progress – and that genie can’t be shoved back in."

I would not say day-to-day life for Jewish Americans has changed much, but warning signs that ominous change could be coming are all around us.

Q: You write about your own experiences being attacked on social media by anti-Semites and neo-Nazis. How did that affect you personally, and how did it affect your relationship to Judaism?

A: I am always reluctant to make too much of the anti-Semitic swarming attacks that befell me on social media. They veered into more personal territory with a few messages left on voicemail or emailed to me. But generally, I didn't feel endangered.

I did feel awakened. I am not a particularly observant Jew, and before the attacks, I'd say I was only moderately Jewish-identified. From that came the power of the attack: If they could pick me out for attention, they could pick out anyone.

That did heighten my awareness of my Jewish roots, and it sent me looking for responses from within Judaism itself.

The turning point came when Rabbi Daniel Zemel said the Jewish response to white nationalism should come from the Torah, not from some debate over tactics and strategy. Where the Jew sees injustice, the Jew is to stand against it.

My surprise at this answer said a lot about my own disconnection from the spiritual side of my religion. And it made me embrace Judaism not only as an identity and a people, but a rich, warm spiritual wellspring.

Q: How was the book’s title selected, and what does it signify for you?

A: Many Jewish journalists came under attack by bigoted Trump supporters during the 2016 campaign. My claim to fame was the surfacing of the "echoes," those three parentheses around a name that signified Jew.

The first attacker said that he had "belled the cat" with those parentheses, and enterprising reporters discovered that a piece of software, blandly named the Coincidence Indicator, could be downloaded from Google, then used to search out Jewish targets who had been belled.

To be honest, the title of the book was the idea of my agent, Rayhane Sanders, (((Semitism))), not anti-Semitism, since it was to be an affirmation of Jewishness, with the "echoes" signifying that something was askew. It just worked.

Q: You write, “This is an era that calls for fearlessness, not heedlessness, but also for a refusal to play along.” What do you think the response should be to this wave of bigotry, and what do you see looking ahead?

A: Jews need to be proud but not arrogant, to acknowledge the rise of anti-Semitism, but within the larger context of white nationalism and its pantheon of bigotry, and to use our organizational skills, muscle and resources to help combat hatred and on-line attacks, to team with Muslim Americans, immigrants, Latinos, African Americans and other groups that are being marginalized in this nationalist moment.

I have gotten some strong pushback from Jewish activists who have said I have given short shrift to their actions, and I want to acknowledge that great work is being done, especially at the synagogue level. Smaller and more upstart Jewish organizations are certainly making the combating of bigotry a focal point for their actions.

But I would still argue that the most powerful, mainline Jewish organizations are not doing enough. If they were, we would know.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I am turning back to a second novel that is about two-thirds complete and has been languishing. Donald Trump has had a big impact on my life, mainly occupying too much of my time, thoughts and energy. I need to look elsewhere.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I always expected this book would elicit some sharp responses. I did not expect Jewish liberal activists would be the ones to react the most negatively. Yes, the book ends with my views on what should be done, and perhaps I should have been more effusive in my praises for those on the front lines.

But really, this book is so much more than that. It traces the history of the Alt Right and the new white nationalism threatening democratic pluralism, not only in the United States but across Europe. And at its heart it is about my awakening.

I'm not sure why activists who agree with the need to stand up to bigotry feel the need to attack the messenger.

On another front, I did expect pushback from mainline Jewish organizations and Jewish conservatives who would say that I did not spend enough time discussing the anti-Semitism of the left.

The book does in fact address the BDS movement and European anti-Semitism that has welled up out of anti-Zionist sentiments. It does not discuss Louis Farrakhan, frankly because Farrakhan made news with an anti-Semitic speech that was delivered long after the book was done.

I condemn anti-Semitism in all forms, especially the gutter hatred spewed by Farrakhan. But I would also urge people to keep some perspective. 

Thousands of neo-Nazis marched in the streets of Charlottesville chanting, Jews Will Not Replace Us. Hundreds of thousands of proto-fascists marched in the streets of Budapest in support of an authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban, who has unsubtly made George Soros his great enemy.

White nationalists are about to control the Italian parliament. Marine LePen was almost elected president of France. It is now illegal to suggest that Poles had any role in the Holocaust.

You can moan all you want about a bigoted mullah preaching on the South Side of Chicago or venomous anti-Zionists on college campuses. I would argue that we should focus on the rising threat.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Jonathan Weisman.

April 4

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
April 4, 1928: Maya Angelou born.

Q&A with Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen is the author of the new children's picture book On Gull Beach. Her many other books include Owl Moon and the How Do Dinosaurs... series. She lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. 

Q: How did you come up with the idea for On Gull Beach, which is the third in a series written for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology?

A: I spend summers just a few blocks from a beach (not on the Cape, but St. Andrews, Scotland) where gulls are often on my mind.

One year a female gull nested in my chimney and her lone nestling slid down the rather steep roof and landed in the garden. He (or she) was too young to fly and I spent the weeks before he (or she) fledged, feeding that hungry baby with bread and cookies and other goodies, though from a distance since every time I got too close, Mama Gull dive-bombed me.

He slept at night on my garden steps and made a considerable mess. But I loved him (or her). And when he (or she) finally—after a few practiced lift off and flights around my garden—took off into the sky, we never saw one another again. Or maybe we did and I didn’t recognize him. (Or her.)  

But after that, I knew I wanted to write a book about a gull. Only it ended up being a very different kind of gull book because it rested on the rhythms of the first two books I had done with Bob Marstall.

Q: What do you think Bob Marstall's illustrations add to the book?

A: I think they MAKE the book. The story was, of course, written with his wonderful art in mind. But as always with Bob, he listens to the words and then deepens the ideas and the gives visual depth and heft to the story.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

A: First—fun. Like a day at the beach. But then—again like a day at the beach—memories, information, recognitions, and something new learned. But always in these books, fun first.

Q: What are some of the special characteristics of the beaches on Cape Cod?

A: We spent one summer with our children n the North Shore of Massachusetts—not Cape Cod but with some of the same great scenery.

The brilliant blue above a beach that isn’t the soft sands of southern climes but filled with rocks and tide pools and a kind of rougher water as well. The color is deeper, not the aquamarine of  Mediterranean beaches but the darker, cooler blues the old whalers surely knew. 

The shorebirds are different, too—and the bits of stuff that the ocean spits out, making a demarcation line between tide and sand are different as well.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I have another bird book coming out from Cornell in the fall, Crow Not Crow. It is a book based on the way my son Adam Stemple—a birder almost as good as his dad (my late husband was the original Pa in my book Owl Moon)—taught his wife to identify birds.

She was a Minneapolis city girl who nothing about bird watching. Though she knows an awful lot about medicine, music, politics, and making people laugh!

Adam and I wrote the book together, and the amazing illustrator, Elizabeth Dulemba, brought it brilliantly to life.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: This year my 365th and 366th books came out—so you could actually read a book of mine a day for a year, even on the leap year. So we have been doing a lot of celebrating.

The two books that were 365 and 366 were Mapping the Bones (a Holocaust novel) and A Bear Sat on My Porch Today (a rhymed picture book) and they both came out on March 6,  so we have no idea which is ‘5 and which is ‘6. But we do know that On Gull Beach was not far behind!

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

April 3

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
April 3, 1783: Washington Irving born.