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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET MARGARITA ENGLE
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| Margarita Engle |
When I was a child, I loved to read, and I loved nature. I did much of my reading outdoors, and one of my favorite photographs shows me sitting in a tree, with a book.
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 wrote poetry when I was young. Reading seemed to naturally grow into a love of writing. I experimented with different forms of poetry, gradually moving away from rhymed poems to free verse, and to the modern style of English language haiku, in which syllables are not counted. As a teenager, I was selected for an honors creative writing course. It was exciting, but at the same time, intimidating, because I did not understand the critique process. When other students criticized my work, I took their comments so seriously that I thought I would never write again. Eventually, I grew to understand that I can write what I want to communicate, whether all the critics like it or not.
When you were a child did you ever have moments when you decided that you were going to be a writer when you grew up?
I remember one lazy summer day when I was a young teenager. I turned to my mother, and said, "Someday, I am going to write a book about Cuba." I had just finished reading James Michener's " Hawaii," and I envisioned something equally long, a historical saga. As it turns out, I actually prefer shorter books, with a narrower focus. I love to choose a specific historical event or person, research the facts, and imagine the details, rather than trying to fit everything about a place into a single long story.
What are the topics are some of your books?
THE POET SLAVE OF CUBA is subtitled A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano. He was a slave who wrote poetry during the mid-1800s in Cuba. Since many Americans are not familiar with Cuban poetry, or with the role of slavery in Cuban history, I felt an intense desire to bring this amazing person's story to life in English. I tried to write it in prose, but the story is actually more suited to free verse, perhaps because Manzano was a poet. Until I switched to poetry, I was unable to finish this project.
Have any of your books earned special recognition?
THE POET SLAVE OF CUBA has received numerous honors, including the Americas Award, an International Reading Association Award, and finalist for a PEN Center USA Literary Award. The Americas Award was presented at the Library of Congress, making it an especially humbling event for me, since I was surrounded by the work of so many great authors. THE POET SLAVE OF CUBA is also part of the 2008 Middle School California Collection.
Do you enjoy researching or do you prefer working totally from your imagination?
I love to research historical events, especially those which are not well known. This means I rely heavily on interlibrary loan, to obtain rare books and copies of obscure documents. I also love storytelling, rather than dry repetition of facts and dates. Once the research is complete, I let imagination take over. Without this combination of reality and fantasy, I could not complete my books.
When is your next book going to be in book stores?
My next book is THE SURRENDER TREE, forthcoming from Henry Holt and Co. in April, 2008. Like THE POET SLAVE OF CUBA, it is a historical tale told in free verse, but unlike The Poet Slave, it covers a much greater time period. THE SURRENDER TREE is a tribute to Rosa la Bayamesa, a girl who was born into slavery, and was freed by her owner when he became a rebel seeking Cuban independence from Spain. Rosa served as a wilderness nurse, hiding in caves in the jungle during all three of Cuba's wars for independence, including the final one, known in the U.S. as the "Spanish American War." I admire Rosa because she nursed wounded soldiers from both sides, finding her own unique way to help others during desperate times, instead of just trying to make her own life easier. Her spirit of generosity is still relevant today.
Is there anything about yourself that you’d like to share - hobbies, where you were born, special talents other than writing/illustrating.
I continue to love reading and nature, and I have been fortunate to find the perfect combination. My husband is a volunteer trainer/handler for several local, state, and national wilderness search-and-rescue dog training programs. I go out with the dogs and handlers, and I volunteer by pretending to be lost, so that the dogs can practice finding someone, a hiker, or an Alzheimer's patient who has wandered away. I spend long hours hiding in the Sierra Nevada wilderness, in places that I think of as "enchanted forests." While the dogs are searching for me, I read, or write poetry.