Zetta Elliott
What would you like readers to take away from your book? I hope that readers will care about my three characters—when they read that last page, I hope they’ll go back to their own world still thinking about D, and Nyla, and Keem. I want readers to believe in the power of friendship, and appreciate how love and loyalty really can triumph in the end. I also hope my novel ignites the reader’s imagination—we rarely see African Americans having fantastic adventures but I want all kids to know that magic can happen to anyone anywhere. What is your favorite scene from your book?
Born in Canada, Zetta Elliott moved to Brooklyn in 1994 to pursue her PhD in American Studies at NYU. Her poetry has been published in several anthologies, and her plays have been staged in New York, Chicago, and Cleveland. Her essays have appeared in Horn Book Magazine, School Library Journal, and Hunger Mountain. Her first picture book, Bird, won the Honor Award in Lee & Low Books’ New Voices Contest; it was named Best of 2008 by Kirkus Reviews, a 2009 ALA Notable Children’s Book, and Bird won the Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers. Elliott’s first young adult novel, A Wish After Midnight, has been called “gripping,” “a revelation…vivid, violent and impressive history.” Her latest novel, Ship of Souls, was published in February 2012 and was included in Booklist’s Top Ten Sci-fi/Fantasy Titles for Youth. Zetta Elliott is Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at Borough of Manhattan Community College and currently lives in Brooklyn. www.zettaelliott.com http://sormag.com
I’m a big Lord of the Rings fan and I watched that film trilogy while writing Ship of Souls. I think my favorite scene is when D and Nyla are fleeing from the rock monster but it catches Nyla and pins her to a tree with a sharp spear. D can’t stand to see his friend suffer and so he offers up his most prized possession—even though Nyla tells him to just run away and save himself. I got chills writing that scene! And it’s similar to a scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo gets speared by a cave troll…
Speculative Fiction
SORMAG Digital - NOV/DEC 12
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