“Your Stories Are Infinite”: An Interview with The Girl Who Drank The Moon Author Kelly Barnhill

It’s a pleasure to welcome Kelly Barnhill here today to answer a few questions.

What inspired you to write The Girl Who Drank the Moon?

To be perfectly honest, I was inspired to write this book by one of the characters in this book. I was out for a run one day on a beautiful forested trail with my dog, Sirius Black, when all of a sudden I had an utterly clear image in my head of a swamp monster. It had four arms and wide, damp jaws and a long tail that curled around his body. In one hand, he held a daisy and in another he held a flute. And he recited a poem. I stood perfectly still and paid attention, memorizing the poem (my poor dog was so confused). And then I ran home and wrote it down on a note card. I looked at the poem for a minute and then turned the card over. “Swamp monster”, I wrote on the back. And then I looked at that for a minute more. Then I wrote, “His name is Glerk.” I had already been thinking about the issue of false narratives and the damage they do, and I knew I wanted to explore it in the book. What was surprising, however, was the fact that a character from the book that I was going to write just showed up, and helped lead me in to a place where I could write it.

Oh, gosh. All of them. Every time I finish a book I grieve for each character—because when we publish a book we have to give it up, you see. It doesn’t belong to us anymore. It belongs to the world. I think the one that was hardest to say goodbye to was my beloved Fyrian. He was particularly close to my heart.

I love all of your middle grade books (see below for a list of Kelly’s earlier books). Do you have a personal favorite ? Was there one that was more fun (or at least less difficult) to write, or that came closest to being the finished book you dreamt it could be?

I think my favorite, of all of them, was my second book—Iron Hearted Violet. It is my most overtly philosophical book, and the one that wrestles directly with the problem of the beauty myth, which continues to plague girls and cause harm. No book is easy to write, though. Each one is borne out of struggle and heartbreak and self-doubt and worry. But I knew that when I signed up to do this job.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon was incredibly special when I wrote it, and it all came out in kind of a fever dream. It wasn’t that I thought that the book itself was more special, or that I thought it was better in any way—I didn’t. In fact, when I turned it in to my editor I did so with a letter of apology, because I thought that no one else besides me would like it and that it likely wouldn’t sell well, and that I promised to do better next time. Turns out, writers aren’t always the best judges of the salability of our own work. Who knew?

What are you working on now? Do you think you’ll ever write a series?

I’m working on a few things right now. I just finished a story about an Ogress that I like quite a bit. And I’m re-constructing a story about dragons and female rage and also Prom that is going to be some sort of novel, but I’m not entirely certain which shelf it will live on in the library. And I’m also writing a retelling of Hansel and Gretel set in South Minneapolis. And good question about a series. There is another book—that might be more than one book—but I’ll let you know when I figure that out.

First, I think that all kids, whether they liked The Girl Who Drank the Moon or not, should all read The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste—and the books that come after it—because that series is amazing. The York series by Laura Ruby is also absolutely wonderful (the first book is The Shadow Cipher). And I think everyone should read Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones, because it is wonderful forever.

What advice can you offer young writers?

Take care of yourself. Don’t be hard on yourself. Read everything you can get your hands on, and think about it deeply. Pay attention. Love everything. Love everyone. Listen to people’s conversations. Remember that you are a person with a human brain which means that you think in stories all the time—which means that your stories are infinite. Remember that your stories matter. Remember that you matter. And when you write, don’t write to impress anyone but yourself. Write to express. And learn from everything.

Thank you, Kelly! Congratulations on all the well-deserved success of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, and I’ll look forward to whatever you publish next.

The Mostly True Story of Jack tells of a boy born from ancient magic. When he’s plunged into the center of the magic that’s threatening to tear the town apart, he has to figure out just who he is, and what he is wiling to sacrifice, in order to restore balance and save the lives of those he loves.

Iron-Hearted Violet is a gripping story of a princess who must stay true to herself when she confronts an evil being that threatens everything she loves. With help from stories, a stalwart friend, and an ancient dragon, she wins through, but it is a close call!

In The Witch’s Boy, Ned must save his mother’s magic from the wicked bandit king who hopes to seize it. The bandit king’s daughter joins forces with him, and together they wake the giant stones who have been waiting for centuries for their own magic to return.

I highly recommend them all!

The Girl Who Drank the Moon is now available in paperback.