Author Interview

Author Interview -- Sharlee Glenn

September 4, 2003

Sharlee Mullins Glenn was born in Vernal, Utah and graduated from high school in Twin Falls, Idaho. After serving a mission in Italy, she returned to BYU where she earned a B.A. and then an M.A. in Humanities with a dual emphasis in English and Art History. She taught at BYU for a number of years before giving up academia for the writing life. She has published essays, short stories, articles, and poetry in The Southern Literary Journal, Women's Studies, Irreantum, Wasatch Review International, and BYU Studies. 
Recently she decided to turn her focus to writing for children. Her first novel for young readers, Circle Dance, was published in 1998. Other publications include One in a Billion (a picture book), and a number of stories in Cricket, Ladybug, and the Friend. Two more
picture books are forthcoming from G. P. Putnam's Sons-- Keeping Up With Roo (Spring 2004), and Just What Mama Needs (Fall 2005). She lives in Pleasant Grove with her five children.


1-- Why did you decide to become a writer?

I'm not sure I ever *decided* to be a writer. That's just what I am. I write. I can't help it. Even if I didn't write stories or books, I would write--letters, journal entries, notes to myself on scraps of toilet paper, very creative shopping lists (chopin liszt), etc. Writing is how I process life.

At some point, however, I must have made the decision to try and become a *published* writer. I think I was about seven when that happened.

2_--Who is your favorite character that you have written?

Probably Roo, the title character in my forthcoming picture book, KEEPING UP WITH ROO (Putnam, 2004). Roo is based on my real-life Aunt Martha and, like Martha, she is spunky, irrepressible, and loyal.

3--If you could change one thing about being a writer, what would it be?

Hmmm. I'm not sure I would change anything about being a writer. I would change some things about *me* that sometimes get in the way of my being a writer though. I would become less obsessive-compulsive about housework, for example. I would love to
be able to just ignore those dirty dishes and piles of laundry and WRITE!

4-- Do you remember the very first piece of fiction you wrote?

No, but I used to create fiction orally all the time when I was little! Boy, could I tell some good whoppers. I think I probably started writing stories and poems as soon as I could write anything. I started my first novel, THE BRICADIA GIRLS, when I was 11 years old.

5-- Who are your favorite authors?

Adult writers: Eudora Welty, Jane Austen, Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, Anne Tyler, Flannery O'Connor, Dostoevsky, Virginia Woolf

Children's Book writers: Karen Hesse, Sharon Creech, Lois Lowry, Betsy Byars, Patricia MacLachlan, Katherine Patterson, Louis Sachar, Kevin Henkes

YA writers: Joan Bauer, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Chiam Potok

6--Do you have any specific goals as a writer?

Sure, same as everybody. I want to win the Newbery. :-)

7-- What was your favorite book as a child?

Picture Book: SNIP, SNAP, AND SNUR AND THE RED SHOES

Novels: FROM THE MIXED-UP-FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER and LITTLE WOMEN

8-- What are you working on now?

Lots and lots of picture books. I'm also rewriting CIRCLE DANCE and plugging away on another middle-grade novel. And I dabble periodically at writing for adults--poems, short stories, essays.

9--Do you ever write about UT?

I did in CIRCLE DANCE. It is very autobiographical and is set on the Uintah-Ouray Indian Reservation in northeastern Utah where I grew up.

10--What is the hardest thing about being a writer?

Writing.

11-- What is the easiest thing about being a writer?

Writing.

12--What good advice do you have for people who want to be writers?

If you want to write for children, you have to love (and understand) children, you have to love (and understand) children's books, and you have to know the business. Join SCBWI, do your homework, read, read, read, interact with kids, then get out there and WRITE.
 

For more about Sharlee check out her website at www.sharleeglenn.com