LiveWorld Transcripts

Time Warner Bookmark presents

Author Nalo Hopkinson
Chatting about her latest novel, "Midnight Robber"

March 2, 2000

Author Nalo Hopkinson chats about her latest novel, "Midnight Robber" and her first book, "Brown Girl in the Ring."

Page 1 of 7

TWBookmark: Welcome to TimeWarnerBookmark! Warner Books and The Talk City Network are proud to present our special guest for tonight, Nalo Hopkinson, the winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and author of the newly released novel "Midnight Robber." Thank you, Nalo, for joining us today in Talk City!

Nalo Hopkinson: Thank you! I'm very pleased to be here -- pleased to be able to be contacting people from my home, since I've just spent the last four days on the road touring "Midnight Robber!"

TWBookmark: What kinds of books did you read when you were growing up?

Nalo Hopkinson: Most fantastical works. Everything from comic books to Homer's "Iliad." My father was an actor, playwright and poet. My mother worked in libraries. So books were everywhere, and I pretty much read whatever I could get my hands on.

DeeDee: What is the meaning or derivation of your name, Nalo, if I may ask?

Nalo Hopkinson: Nalo comes from Africa, from Guinea. My brother and I were named after the lead dancers in the African Ballet.

Barbara: What was the first story you wrote - do you remember?

Nalo Hopkinson: Yes, I do! I was a poem in blank verse, VERY blank verse! It was a science-fiction poem, a pun on the phrase "Nothing can sustain life forever." Actually, that was probably the second story I wrote, now that I think about it. I was about 15 when I wrote that one. But before that, at about age 10, I wrote a vampire murder mystery. It involved lots of blood and a Catholic priest. I remember my father reading it and saying, "Nalo, this is very nice. Is there anything bothering you?"

Samantha: Who do you like to read?

Nalo Hopkinson: That's becoming a tough question to answer. In my apartment I have probably 8 bookshelves and lots of book crannies, and it used to be that I read or tried to read everything on my bookshelf. That's no longer true, because I don't have the time and I'm finding and buying cool new books faster than I can read them. Samuel Delany is an eternal favorite. I've read and still read a lot of the feminist SF writers, and I'm thrilled that Elizabeth Lynn started writing again. I read a lot of non-fiction about social theory.

Michael: How did you first become interested in writing science fiction as opposed to other kinds of literature?

Nalo Hopkinson: I always read something fantastical, whether it be Shakespeare's plays or folktales, and while I was still a young teenager when I was done for the day with school I would go to the library where my mother worked and wait for her to finish work. To keep me occupied she would give me her adult library card, so it was an easy graduation to go from books such as "The Borrowers" to adult science fiction and fantasy. Since I was living with a writer, and surrounded by other artists -- people who were story-makers of one kind or another -- it was easy to wish that I could be a writer, too, but it was something that was very daunting for me to think of doing. It wasn't until 1993, when Judith Merrill showed a group of young Toronto writers how to workshop their own stories, that I started writing fiction.

Page 1 of 7