Pep Talks
We recruited an all-star team of authors to share their advice and thoughts on writing. Their pep talks will be emailed to participants throughout November. We hope their insight and encouragement help you on your way! (And if you’re hungry for more writerly encouragement, you can read all past pep talks from previous years here.)
Gennifer Albin
Gennifer Albin is a recovering academic who realized she could write books of her own and discovered, delightfully, that people would read them. She lives in Kansas with her family and writes full-time. Her debut novel, Crewel, the first in a trilogy, will be published in October 2012 by FSG/Macmillan. It began as Albin’s 2010 NaNoWriMo novel. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook. She also blogs infrequently at genniferalbin.com and weekly at The League of Extraordinary Writers.
Chris Baty
Chris Baty is the founder of NaNoWriMo and a Board Member Emeritus at the Office of Letters and Light. He’s an author, a speaker, and a maker of posters for writers. His mercilessly pants-kicking books, No Plot? No Problem! and Ready, Set, Novel! are available at your favorite store. His quest for the perfect cup of coffee is never-ending, and will likely kill him some day.
Kate DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo’s 2003 novel The Tale of Despereaux won the annual Newbery Medal, three years after Because of Winn-Dixie was a runner-up. Both books have been made into films. She is also known for the Mercy Watson series of picture books, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen. DiCamillo lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her dog, Henry.
Tupelo Hassman
Tupelo Hassman’s first novel, girlchild, was published this year by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, Harper’s Bazaar, The Independent, The Portland Review Literary Journal, We Still Like, ZYZZYVA, and by 100WordStory.org, FiveChapters.com, and Invisible City Audio Tours, among others. More is forthcoming from The Arroyo Review Literary Journal and This Land.
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is the author of such works as High Fidelity, About a Boy, Fever Pitch, all of which have been adapted into feature films. His novel, How to Be Good, was longlisted for the Booker Prize and was deemed the UK’s favorite fictional work at the WH Smith Book Awards. In 1999, he was awarded the E M Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Nick’s latest work includes his 2010 novel, Juliet, Naked as well as a scripted adaptation of Lynn Barber’s memoir An Education. (Photo credit: Michael Wilson)
Marissa Meyer
Marissa Meyer is the New York Times bestselling author of Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles, which got its start as her 2008 NaNoWriMo novel. She’s a fan of most things geeky (Sailor Moon, Firefly, any occasion that encourages costumes), and has been in love with fairy tales since she was a kid. She lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and three cats. She may or may not be a cyborg.
Karen Russell
Karen Russell is the author of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, which won the Bard Fiction Prize, and Swamplandia!, which was a New York Times Ten Best Books of 2011 selection and winner of the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. She is a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow and has taught creative writing and literature at Columbia University, Williams College, and Bryn Mawr. Her second story collection, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, is forthcoming from Knopf in February, 2013.
Scott Westerfeld
Scott Westerfeld is the author of thirteen novels for young adults, including the best-selling Uglies series. His books have won the Philip K Dick Special Citation, the Aurealis Award, the Victorian Premier’s Award, and have been named NY Times Notable Books and BBYA Top Ten Children’s Books of the Year. He has contributed nonfiction to Nerve, BookForum, the scientific journal Nature. His latest book, The Manual of Aeronautics, is an art-filled guide to the NY Times bestselling Leviathan trilogy, an illustrated steampunk retelling of World War I.
Kevin Wilson
Kevin Wilson is the author of the collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, which received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and the Shirley Jackson Award, and a novel, The Family Fang. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, with his wife, the poet Leigh Anne Couch, and his son, Griff, where he teaches at the University of the South. More information can be found at www.wilsonkevin.com.
