Transcript from an interview with Laurie Halse
Anderson, author of Speak
A Bumpy Start
When I was growing up, nobody thought I was going to become a writer. Especially if
you talk to those early teachers. I struggled a bit to learn how to read. I had to go out for
extra reading support and speech therapy, too, because I had a speech impediment
when I was a little kid. When I did crack the reading code, I became that kid who was
always in the library. I became a voracious reader, but I was not really great at paying
attention in class. And I was never fond of English because I'm not good at grammar. I
couldn't spell. And as I grew older, I hated when they would make us analyze books.
But in second grade, I had a wonderful teacher who taught us how to write haiku. And I
liked it because it was short. And that meant my chances of spelling the words correctly
were enhanced because I'd always choose words that I knew how to spell. I didn't want
to take that risk of being ashamed by spelling words incorrectly.
And my teacher, just in her own brilliant way, explained that I could write down how I
was feeling in this structured poem and then the person who would read it would
understand what I was feeling. And she said it much better than that. Very, very lovely
woman.
Family Influences
I was very fortunate when I was a little girl because my father was a natural born
storyteller. Maybe it's from the Irish heritage. My father's a poet. And when I was a child
growing up, he was always writing poetry and then crumpling it up and rewriting poetry.
And at the dinner table, in addition to being, you know, a storyteller and a poet, he was
a minister. And I think all those three things are connected quite deeply. So my father
would at dinner talk to us about the roots of words in different languages. And he would
talk to us about how, you know, language is connected and that had absolutely a huge
influence on me because I went onto earn a degree in college in linguistics.
My father told a story from the pulpit every Sunday morning-beginning, middle and
end. You know, you have a larger theme, you have specific examples and if you're really
smart, you have some subtext. Make them laugh. Make them cry. Send them home.
And my dad's an expert at that. He's very, very good. So I think I would not be a writer if
I were not his daughter.
My mom... My mom's not much into the book world. She's always been a little
suspicious of my career because she loves me and she wants me to be okay. And she's
always suggested when I'm having a rough day that I should really consider nursing
school.
She wanted me to go to nursing school from the beginning. "You get a job. It's good
people. It's a clean job," you know. And just has never really put her faith in publishing.
What I loved about mom though and how she strengthened me as an author is when I
was a little kid, I'd be sent to my room to clean it-which never really happened-I
would take a book out and I would lay in the middle of the mess and read.
Genre Jumping
Many people often ask me why it is or how it is
this is the most important concept because?