Q&A with Karen Hesse

Q: What is your favorite memory of the time you spent working on Out of the Dust?

A: While browsing in a consignment store (the proceeds of this store go directly to fund hospice work in our community), I came across a rag doll, perhaps nine inches tall. He was so unusual, with a mature male face that looked precisely the way I imagined Bayard Kelby would look. His reddish-brown yarn hair ranged wildly over his cloth head, his handmade clothes had been fashioned from feed bags and fabric scraps. I bought him, brought him home, tidied his hair and his chore clothes, and set him atop my computer monitor where he sat and watched me write Out of the Dust.

Q: Have you visited Oklahoma since writing Out of the Dust? If so, how was the experience?

A: Yes, I have visited Oklahoma since writing Out of the Dust. The experience was quite extraordinary. The people of Oklahoma treated me so graciously. They drove me around their beautiful state, where I saw oil pumps working in the fields, vast stretches of grassland, long, pastoral views dotted with cattle grazing. I witnessed first hand the land Bayard Kelby loved and had such faith in, and I met the strong, courageous people descended from the Oklahomans who found a way to survive the Great Depression and the devastation of the “Dirty Thirties.”

Q: Are you anything like Billie Jo?

A: We both love playing the piano.

Q: You’ve written about many different times and places in your books. Where would you go if you could be transported to another moment in history?

A: I would like to be a mouse in the house of Leonardo da Vinci.

Q: How do you get ideas for your books?

A: I read magazines, newspapers, nonfiction, I listen to interviews, watch documentaries, I go to museums, lectures, concerts, plays. All of these experiences stimulate my curiosity and help me see the world from different points of view. Sometimes an idea catches hold and won’t let go. Those ideas become books.

Q: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

A: I knew I wanted to be a writer in elementary school. I began publishing my poetry in high school. I fell in love with contemporary children’s literature when I read Of Nightingales That Weep by Katherine Paterson in 1978. If this is children’s literature, I thought, I want to do it, too! It took me thirteen years from that a-ha moment until the day I held my first published book, Wish on a Unicorn, in my hands.