The Lost Girl Author Anne Ursu on Girls Supporting Each Other, Finding Plot Holes, and Raising Cats
Anne Ursu is a kind, generous, and warm children’s book author whose protagonists are often fierce and determined. She’s the recipient of the McKnight Fellowship in Children’s Literature, and a teacher at Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Minneapolis where she find a balance between writing, raising her son, and doting love on her four cats.
Her last book, The Real Boy, was on the longlist for the National Book Award. I got the chance to connect with Ursu about her most recent middle grade novel, The Lost Girl, about identical twin sisters who are outraged when they find out they won’t be in the same classroom for five grade.
The Lost Girl
Hardcover $16.99
The Lost Girl
By Anne Ursu
Hardcover $16.99
It was so great to chat with Ursu about writing, the relationships between girls, and the power of magic in stories.
It was so great to chat with Ursu about writing, the relationships between girls, and the power of magic in stories.
I loved hearing how the seed for The Lost Girl was planted five years ago, as you spent much time thinking about the way in which growing up in a patriarchal society disempowers girls bit by bit. And how girls give one another strength, how they provide protection and support. Can you say more about what inspired you to write this novel?
Yes, I started writing this book in 2014. Back then, it was just an idea about two identical twins separated in school for the first time, a little scene I wrote about the Pied Piper, and an idea about a chalkboard sign I saw outside a local antique shop that read, “Alice, where are you?”
You say that you kept ideas for this story in “a stash” and I’m curious to know that this stash looks like?
Some of it was in a file on my computer, some was in a very neat-up notebook, and some, I’m afraid, was in my brain. Which is a terrible place to keep anything.
I’m curious: why did you decide to tell The Lost Girl from the point of view of the crow?
Every revision it felt like there was something missing from the book, and I kept hearing this first person narrator addressing Iris in my head. I didn’t know why, but I finally started adding that narrator in. Midway through that revision I knew who she was and why. I always love having narrators in general—I love the storytelling feel, and it seems to me they lend stories layers of meaning, that if someone is telling you a story they must be doing it for a reason. For this book, it isn’t just about Iris and Lark, but about being a girl in our society. I thought a first person narrator could lend the story more resonance, more echoes.
I love how Iris tries to protect her sister. Can you share a little more about why you decided to write about sisters?
The Real Boy
Paperback $10.99
The Real Boy
By
Anne Ursu
Illustrator
Erin McGuire
In Stock Online
Paperback $10.99
I was thinking a lot about the way society talks about relationships between girls—as something to be wary of, as something necessarily toxic. I wanted to write about a really close relationship with girls who give each other lots of support, and the way the people around them eye that as something necessarily unhealthy. And I wanted to write a story that affirmed the close relationships between girls, and even posited them as subversive.
I was thinking a lot about the way society talks about relationships between girls—as something to be wary of, as something necessarily toxic. I wanted to write about a really close relationship with girls who give each other lots of support, and the way the people around them eye that as something necessarily unhealthy. And I wanted to write a story that affirmed the close relationships between girls, and even posited them as subversive.
I LOVE your recent Instagram video for #authorlifemonth Day 8 of your cat. Tell us about your cats please…
I have four cats! Petra is 16, Hazel is 8, and Bartleby and Hex are 5. After my cat Jalen died five years ago and we went to get a kitten, my son said, “If we’re going to get one cat, we might as well get two.” I really couldn’t argue with that logic. Bartleby and Hex are brothers, and they are enormous, and cause wreckage wherever they go. My boyfriend referred to them once as “the wascals,” and it’s stuck.
Melanie Conklin, another middle grade author, says that The Lost Girl is a story about overturning the patriarchy… what do you say?
I am honored that Melanie said that, and I think that is a fair reading of the book. I had a review on Goodreads from someone who didn’t read the book because other reviews said the book was political and she didn’t like political kids’ books. But the thing is, every book is political. It’s just sometimes the politics of a book are about reinforcing forms and ideas we’re comfortable with.
How old is your son now? Does he get to read your drafts as you’re working on them?
Breadcrumbs
Paperback $9.99
Breadcrumbs
By
Anne Ursu
Illustrator
Erin McGuire
In Stock Online
Paperback $9.99
My son is 12 years old. He steadfastly refuses to read anything besides graphic novels, so he has not read my books. But when I was writing my last book, The Real Boy, he was five and started questioning me on the plot. He kept asking me why everything happened, and I discovered a giant hole at the center of my plot that way. He’s merciless.
My son is 12 years old. He steadfastly refuses to read anything besides graphic novels, so he has not read my books. But when I was writing my last book, The Real Boy, he was five and started questioning me on the plot. He kept asking me why everything happened, and I discovered a giant hole at the center of my plot that way. He’s merciless.
How do you balance teaching at Hamline University’s MFA with writing and mothering?
Well, this is my first book in five years. I’m still trying to figure out how to write as a mom, when I have to fit everything I need to do during school hours. But the teaching feeds my writing. I’ve learned and grown so much because of it. My colleagues are astonishingly brilliant. I also just love working one on one with students and watching their writing grow. I feel very lucky.
The Lost Girl is on B&N bookshelves now.