Annie Barrows

For Powells.com, Danielle Marshall interviewed Annie Barrows, author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and other works. Part of the interview:

Danielle: I did a little research and found you had written several books under a pen name, Ann Fiery, in addition to your well-known children's books, the Ivy and Bean Series and The Magic Half. I couldn't help but think, "This is a woman with a wide variety of interests!" There was opera, divination, urban legends...

Barrows: This was my theory when I first began writing: anything I wanted to know about that I didn't already know about, I would propose a book on it. That would be how I would indulge myself as a writer. I didn't know anything about opera. You could not find anybody more musically ignorant than I. But I thought, "I want to know about opera, and what's more, I really want to buy a lot of operas and I can't afford it, so I'll propose this book!" It was great. At that particular stage in my life, I was having baby number two, so for that whole first year of my second kid's life, I just sat around listening to operas and writing the stories of the operas. What a great project.

Danielle: It's the opposite of the old adage, "Write what you know."

Barrows: I never really thought much of that theory.

Danielle: Because then that second book comes along, and what do you write about?

Barrows: Exactly. You run out of stuff you know. I personally don't really know that many things. I also think if you're not learning anything, where's the joy?

Danielle: Speaking of joy, I consider The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society to be the most downright joyful and pithy novel I've ever read. Pithy. That's the only word I can think of to accurately describe it.

Read the complete interview.

Visit Annie Barrows' website.

--Marshal Zeringue