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What do you do when you're stuck inside due to a pandemic taking place across the world? You explore the woods near your house with your faithful canine companion!
And what do you do once you've explored those woods? Write a book about it!
In this episode of the podcast Joe welcomes legendary author, M.T. Anderson to the show to discuss his latest book "Elf Dog & Owl Head". A fiction youth book he wrote during COVID about his experiences exploring the woods with his dog.
M.T. and Joe get into a discussion about literature, helping to shape future leaders through literature, and some advice for aspiring authors (among many other exciting topics)
Enjoy!
About M.T. Anderson
M. T. Anderson has written stories for adults, picture books for children, adventure novels for young readers, graphic novel adaptations of ancient French tales, and several books for older readers (both teens and adults). His satirical book Feed was a Finalist for the National Book Award and was the winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize. Both Time Magazine and National Public Radio have included it on their lists of the best 100 YA novels of all time. Another satirical science fiction novel, Landscape with Invisible Hand, has been turned into a movie starring Tiffany Haddish and Asante Blackk.
Anderson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was raised in the nearby town of Stow. He has a BA from Cambridge University in England and an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. For many years he taught at Vermont College of the Fine Arts. He is a lifelong New Englander and lives in a small, haunted 18th century house in the hills of Vermont.
Clay has had his fill of home life. A global plague has brought the world to a screeching halt, and with little to look forward to but a summer of video-calling friends, vying with annoying sisters for the family computer, and tuning out his parents’ financial worries, he’s only too happy to retreat to the woods. From the moment the elegant little dog with the ornate collar appears like an apparition among the trees, Clay sees something uncanny in her. With this mysterious Elphinore as guide, he’ll glimpse ancient secrets folded all but invisibly into the forest. Each day the dog leads Clay down paths he never knew existed, deeper into the unknown. But they aren’t alone in their surreal adventures. There are traps and terrors in the woods, too, and if Clay isn’t careful, he might stray off the path and lose his way forever. Graced with evocative black-and-white illustrations by Junyi Wu, Elf Dog and Owl Head is heartfelt and exhilarating, wry and poignant, seamlessly merging the fantastic and the familiar in a tale both timely and timeless.
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Thanks to Empire Toys for this episode of the podcast!
AND Thanks to Self Unbound for this episode of the podcast:
