We recently had the opportunity to interview the great Gary Paulsen. Best known for his Newbery honor book Hatchet and its companion novels, he’s also written more than 200 other books and is a real-life outdoorsman and adventurer. We’re thrilled that he took the time to answer some of our questions.
NewberyTart: When you first realized you had to write, did you set out to be a children’s and young adult book author? What do you love most about writing for young people?
Gary: I don’t think I set out to do anything as a writer except dance with words. I’ve always said it is artistically fruitless to write for adults–they’re worried about car payments and mortgages, but writing for young people…they can still get lost in the story. They take the stories so personally and can identify with the characters in a visceral way that adults lose with time. Young people are the best audience. They demanded that Brian’s story continued; I had no intention of writing about him again, but they kept asking questions that I felt I had to answer. That’s a great connection to have with your readers and I am grateful.
NT: So often children’s adventure books start with an idea, which the author then researches before they can write. With many of your books, your writing process seems to be the inverse: you live it, and then you write it. Have you found the books you write in that way to be easier or more difficult than the ones you write after researching?
Gary: The books all come from a place in my life, an experience I had personally, no matter what the subject matter is. That’s the only way I know how to write–personal inspection at zero altitude. Whatever I’ve seen or done or studied or discovered finds a way to turn in to a story idea for me.
NT: There are so many intricately described survival skills in your books. We’ve read about how your mom packed you off to your Norwegian uncles sometimes, but what led them to teach you hunting and trapping?
Gary: The uncles didn’t teach me to hunt and trap, they taught me farming, how to raise crops and take care of animals and put in an honest day’s work–up before the sun and to bed long after it had turned dark. I taught myself hunting and trapping by disappearing into the woods when things got bad at home. It was trial and error, baptism by fire, I made more mistakes than I had successes, but I realized that things made sense in the woods, I could figure out what to do, how to learn from my mistakes in way that I never managed with people or in the classroom.
NT: Which of these survival skills have you used in your own life out of necessity? Which do you just prefer to employ because you enjoy them?
Gary: Hunting and fishing and raising food, finding shelter, keeping warm and/or dry, making fire, listening to what animals tell me, riding horses, flying planes, shooting bow and arrow and rifles, running a dog team, sailing–they’ve all helped me survive and I have enjoyed them all. I don’t hunt anymore–I only ever did that to eat, it was never sport for me, it was always only ever survival.
NT: Your son Jim has said that you “have an uncanny ability to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Do you feel that that’s true, or are you glad that the dramatic events in your life also furnished you with the skills and interests that have clearly fascinated and sustained you throughout your life?
Gary: Well, he’s not wrong. I don’t regret anything except the Army and drinking; everything else worked out, more or less.
NT: Most of your books have protagonists who have strong relationships with animals. Is this based on your own feelings towards animals? If so, can you tell us about some of the animals in your life?
Gary: Animals have saved me more times than I can remember for as long as I can remember. Cookie, my lead dog, wasn’t anything less than my best friend, family, she saved my life. Everything I am I owe to her for saving me time and again. Dogs, of course, but horses, crows, cats, I had chickens and ducks that would fly into my arms when I came in the yard. I wrote many books trying to explain the bond I have with animals; I don’t think I’ve done it right yet, I don’t know if I even can completely explain what animals have meant to me and how they’ve added so much meaning to my life.
NT: Please tell us about competing in the Iditarod! How did you first become interested in it?
Gary: We were living in the woods, dead broke, and I had a trap line that I checked on foot. Someone gave me a few old dogs and a busted up sled to make the work a little easier. I fell in love with running the dogs.
NT: What can you tell us about the notification calls you received for each of your Newbery honor books – Dogsong, Hatchet, and The Winter Room?
Gary: All I remember about hearing about those awards was the numbness. And the gratitude. Everything else is a wonderful blur.
NT: Please share with us any memories that stand out about Newbery award ceremonies. (We especially love to know anything humorous or poignant about your experience.)
Gary: I never remember the awards or the ceremonies; when I look back, what I remember are the letters from kids. That’s what matters to me and the memories I hold closest if I ever think about being any kind of success. That teachers and librarians and booksellers worked really hard to put my books in the hands of young readers. And then those kids sat and read my books. Many write to me, many have come to bookstores to say hello and hear me speak and get me to sign their books. I love when they pull out the battered, dog-eared copies of their books and slide them across the table, whispering, “I didn’t buy this today, but will you sign it anyway?”
NT: Where were you and what were you doing when you got the call that you won the 1997 Margaret Edwards award?
Gary: I don’t remember where I was, but I do remember that my agent heard a rumor and rented a car to drive from New York to Washington DC before dawn to be at the announcement.
NT: Does anything in particular stand out to you about the Edwards ceremony?
Gary: What I remember most about that phone call and award and ceremony was that my friend Mike Printz, the Printz Award was named in his honor, had just died. He’d been a dear friend and a great supporter for years and I couldn’t help but think he’d been pulling some strings for me from the other side. He’d joked, when he was on the BBYA committee one year that a number of my books were under consideration, by introducing each title as “this is Gary Paulsen at his best.” He might not have been at the ceremony, but I heard his voice in my head. I credit him with that award coming my way, I really do. He always fought for me and my books and, if something like that is even possible, I wouldn’t put it past him to have influenced the committee members in some way.
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NT: Aside from your own, can you tell us some of your favorite Newbery books, if you have any?
Gary: For many years now, I’ve been reading and re-reading the Patrick O’Brien sea books. Those are probably my favorite books (they’re not Newbery winners, though).
NT: Please tell us what you are working on now. When can we expect to read your next great book?
Gary: I’m working on about half a dozen books right now, that’s how it’s always been for me. I have a handful of works in progress and I never quite know which book will wind up finished until it’s done. I jump between a few books at a time in various stages. I keep files on my laptop and desktop computers and I always have a few notebooks and pencils scattered around. I’m not sure what will be ready first, but I’m having a great time writing. The hair on the back of my neck still goes up when a story starts to work. I’ll write until I die. I don’t think I’ll ever write all the books I’m thinking about.
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