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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET ARI BERK (Michigan ) Co-Author CAROLYN DUNN (California)
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| Ari Berk |
I liked to walk and explore. Whether at parks my parents took me to, or on the wooded hill behind my childhood home, I was always looking out for some little green place to hide and imagine. In those woods and parks were my castles, forts, caves, towers, islands…all the places of my imaginative journeys and adventures.
Did you write stories when you were growing up? at school? Or at home as a hobby? As a young child, or as a teenager, or both?
I did write as a child, up to about the 4 th grade. The earliest I can remember was a story about the meeting the Loch Ness Monster (which I was a little obsessed with for a while). I recall Pegasus also made a brief appearance in that story. Then, for some years, I mostly painted and made pictures and wrote almost no stories. But I think, looking back, that time drawing really helped my writing because it taught me to look more closely at all the details, something that is vitally important to good writing.
What was your first job when you graduated from college?
When I finally graduated from college (and it took a while, because I went to graduate school for some more degrees), I became a college professor, teaching mythology, folklore, and Native American literature. College teaching is a wonderful job for a writer, because the job actually requires that you write and do research, and because teaching a subject is the best way to learn more about it. Because of the areas I teach, I am surrounded by wonderful stories all the time. It's very inspiring.
When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career?
I wasn't. But all of a sudden I was asked to write a book (on Native American myth and legend) so I did. It was a great experience mostly because I learned I could actually write and finish a large project like that on a schedule. After that first book, I was hooked, and I knew I wanted to keep writing.
What are the topics are some of your books?
Almost all of my books are about folklore, in some way, either through retelling actual folk stories, or by using folklore as inspiration for original stories. I have written (or am writing) books and stories about faeries, ghosts, giants, old houses, magical lands, not so magical lands, Victorian collectors, cabinets of curiosity, bats, a star that fell to earth, Shakespeare, and undersea worlds.
How did your life change when you got married? and had children? Did it make it easier or harder to find time to write?
Well, having a child certainly limits the number of hours you have available to you, but I also found parenthood very inspiring. Most importantly, the birth of my son focused my writing in some curious ways. It made me feel like I was now writing for someone in particular, something I found very helpful at the time. I wrote three books while my son was under two years old (THE RUNES OF ELFLAND, GOBLINS!, and LADY COTTINGTON'S PRESSED FAIRY LETTERS), and I wrote them all between 11pm and 3am…the only quiet time I had.
What are you working on now?
I am always working on more than one thing at a time, a technique I find both practical and effective, for when you reach a little plateau on one project, you can focus on another for a bit. Right now I am working on a series of books called "The Secret Histories." The first one (which comes out this September in America) is called THE SECRET HISTORY OF GIANTS. I am nearly finished with the next volume in the series which is on mermaids and merfolk. I am also writing an illustrated children's book about a bat and his mother, as well as a trilogy for young adult readers about ghosts.
What kinds of things inspire you to write?
I am inspired by the past, by the stories and visions gifted to us by our ancestors of long ago. And I am inspired by places, by the land, by the stories that can be read from wood, water, and stone.