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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET MINA JAVAHERBIN (11/2010)
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| Mina Javaherbin |
Every afternoon when all the children and adults took siestas in Iran I never took a nap. Instead I tiptoed out of the bedroom and rode my tricycle on the brick path around our rose garden. I was only five and did not know how to write yet but I sang songs and told stories to insects, bricks or the garden wall.
What books influenced you most when you were growing up?
Impossible to name, there are way too many. I read incessantly as a child and a young adult. My mother took us to the library every Wednesday. I miss those days and the luxury of time associated with it.
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?
Yes to all of the above. I also wrote poems and plays and we produced them in the neighborhood.
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?
It never even crossed my mind. I thought of authors as sacred and never imagined to become one.
When you went to college, were you already pursuing a writing career? (or a career in illustrating? or just art in general?)
No, I studied architecture, became one and worked in that field too.
Do you do other types of writing - for example, educational, nonfiction, magazine work?
I write poetry, picture books, middle-grade, YA and articles for magazines. I also write screenplays and plays.
Have any of your books earned special recognition?
GOAL! is on the Texas Blue Bonnet List right now, and SCIBA also had it nominated next to Eve Bunting and Marla Frazee’s books as one of the three best picture books published in 2010, that was an absolute honor for my debut picture book.
Do you work on more than one book at a time?
Yes I alternate between projects when I’m stuck on a story I’ll spend some time on another one. It works for me.
What are you working on now? When do you expect to start submitting it to publishers?
I’m working on a YA and a picture book, they’ll be ready in about six months to a year. I like to submit very polished work.
Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?
Yes I do write every day, one session during the day and one session later at night.
What do you most want the students to get out of your school visits?
I hope to make children genuinely interested in the books. I hope to inspire them to read because it’s fun and informative, because it’s empowering not because they have to.
Did you ever think you would become a published author and write books that are not in your native language?
No I never thought that in my wildest imagination. This fact goes to show how reality is more if not as equally amazing as fiction. I love that I write in English and I speak Persian at home! I have been published in Persian too but nothing with a major publisher yet. I’m lucky to be equipped with more than one language and one culture in today’s world. These tools have given me a wide perspective on life. I highly recommend traveling, learning languages and exploring different cultures.