Affiliate Links In Post & a Note from Nicole: I am so excited to invite author Margi Preus to my blog today and talk about whether writing is political. As a writer, I often find myself stumbling into my own point of view in my writing, whether I like it or not. I love what Margi has to say, so read on for her powerful insights!
Or is it? There’s an argument to be made for that statement, but I’m not going to make it. Especially since my realm is writing for young readers, I’m not going to opine about whether Creepy Pair of Underwear, in which Jasper Rabbit deals with a glowing pair of underwear that won’t go away, is politically motivated. Even if it is, (is that glow radioactive?) what a joy-sucking situation it would be if all literature for young people was politically motivated. And yet, a quick look at the NYT bestseller list for YA turns up, for instance, The Hate U Give, Stamped, and Dear Justyce.
It was George Orwell who stirred up the “all writing is political” conversation in the first place with his statement that “no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is in itself a political attitude.” This reason for writing—one of four, according to Orwell—stems, as he says, from “a desire to push the world in a certain direction.”
Rather than argue the point, I’m just going to skirt the whole question by saying I don’t know about anybody else, but my writing is political, in the sense that I do have a desire to push the world in a certain direction.
That said, I don’t set out to write about issues. I set out to tell a story. But in stories, as in life, issues arise. As a writer (and as a human being) I can choose to ignore those issues, try to tackle them, or at least acknowledge that they exist.
In some of my books the issues take center stage: Village of Scoundrels (Amulet Books, 2020) is about a bunch of teenagers standing up to fascism in WWII France. Shadow on the Mountain (Amulet Books, 2012) has similar themes but is set in Norway. Sometimes issues aren’t at the center of the story, but still raise their ugly little heads. Even the very light-hearted The Littlest Voyageur (Holiday House, 2020) acknowledges that because of the fur trade (in which the voyageurs were engaged) beavers were driven to within a hairsbreadth of extinction.
The Silver Box—and the other two books of the Enchantment Lake mystery series, Enchantment Lake and The Clue in the Trees—take place in northern Minnesota, a wild place, full of lakes and forests. It is a resource-rich area, and consequently suffers from its share of issues: copper-nickel mining, pipelines, lakeshore overdevelopment, corporate potato farming (think water pollution from herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers the next time you order fries at MacDonald’s), plant theft from public lands, climate change, and probably some other issues I’m not remembering at the moment.
These stories are not about these issues. Rather, the issues are an inherent part of the stories, because of the setting, but also because of me. Because I have a desire to push the world in a certain direction, and that direction is to take better care of our planet and each other.
About The Silver Box by Margi Preus
In the final Enchantment Lake mystery, Francie’s search for the truth about her mother—and herself—plunges her into danger during a North Woods winter.
When she wakes in her aunts’ cold cabin on the shore of Enchantment Lake, Francie remembers: everything about her life has changed. Or is about to. Or just might. Everything depends on the small, engraved silver box that she now possesses—if only she can follow its cryptic clues to the whereabouts of her missing mother and understand, finally, just maybe, the truth about who she really is.
Francie, it turns out, has a lot to learn, and this time the lessons could be deadly. Her search for answers takes her and her best friends Raven and Jay as far afield as an abandoned ranch in Arizona and as close to home as a sketchy plant collector’s conservatory and a musty old museum where shadows lurk around every display case. At the heart of it all is a crime that touches her own adopted North Woods: thieves dig up fragile lady’s slippers, peel bark from birches, strip moss off trees, cut down entire forests of saplings to sell for home décor. But Francie is up against no ordinary plant theft. One ominous clue after another reveal that she possesses something so rare and so valuable that some people are willing to do anything to get it. When Francie’s investigation leads her into the treacherously cold and snowy North Woods, she finds out that she too is being pursued.
About Margi Preus
Margi Preus is the author of the Newbery Honor book Heart of a Samurai and other books for young readers, including the Minnesota Book Award winning West of the Moon, and the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award book The Clue in the Trees. Her books have won multiple awards, landed on the New York Times bestseller list, been honored as ALA/ALSC Notables, selected as an NPR Backseat Book Club pick, chosen for community reads, and translated into several languages. New titles in 2020 include Village of Scoundrels, The Littlest Voyageur, and The Silver Box, part of the Enchantment Lake mystery series.
Back when such things were done, Margi enjoyed traveling, speaking, and visiting schools all over the world. Now mostly at home in Duluth, she likes to ski, hike, canoe, or sit quietly with a book in her lap.
You can follow her online at:
Twitter: @MargiPreus
Instagram: @MargiPreus
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MargiPreusBooks/
Purchase The Silver Box online at Bookshop.org. Or add it to your GoodReads reading list.
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