BuzzFeed spoke with the author about her most recent novel, The Impossible Knife of Memory, amongst other things. Here’s what we learned.
Laurie Halse Anderson has been an important and beloved voice in Young Adult literature since her debut novel, Speak, was published over 15 years ago. Since then, she's gone on to write five more YA novels, four historical fiction novels, and eight children's books. Last year, Anderson published The Impossible Knife of Memory, a story about a high schooler named Hayley Kincain whose father is a war veteran who struggles with addiction and suicide. The author isn't afraid to tackle other topics around mental health, eating disorders, sexual assault, and other serious subject matters in her literature.
BuzzFeed had the chance to catch up with Anderson and discuss The Impossible Knife of Memory, the importance of catering to teenagers during the crucial time of adolescence, and what she wishes she could tell her younger self.
Photo courtesy of Penguin Young Readers
Laurie Halse Anderson: With most books, when you're writing it, of course you think that the idea just hits you. When you have some hindsight you can see exactly where it came from. One thread was growing up with a World War II veteran father who had PTSD from his experience. My dad lived to be 86, and those memories were seared so deeply they caused him pain for all of those years, and he became an alcoholic, and there were a lot of family struggles, like many families of veterans have struggles.
The second piece was when my nephew left the army after several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Watching him try to re-integrate into civilian society really helped me understand my dad from a completely different perspective, and that got me thinking about the kids whose fathers and mothers were the new veterans from this war, and what kind of scars would they have that their kids couldn't see, that would make family life a challenge? The third part for me goes down to a little girl in Dallas, Texas. A couple years ago, I was speaking at her school, and she said to me, "Miss, are you ever going to write about a love story? Wouldn't it be nice to write something that wouldn't make you cry all the time?" That's what I tried to do with this one, it was a little bit of a different spin for me.
LHA: There's this part about writing, you can analyze technique and craft and inspiration six ways from Sunday, but at some point magic kicks in, and you're like, "Wow I have no idea where that line just came from, but I really love it." There are definitely parts of Hayley's experience that are mine. When you read that fear that's in her about when she goes home every day afraid of what she's going to find, the fear of having a suicidal parent — that was absolutely my experience. But I didn't start writing until her voice started cropping up in my head. This is the magic part; it's kind of strange, too, but the characters really do talk to you. So it was a little bit of me, but mostly her.
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