Jo Walton Interview

Winner of the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novel Among Others.

Visit the Jo Walton Website - Bluejo’s Journal

JMW: Hello, this is Jean Marie Ward for BuzzyMag,com. With me today is author Jo Walton whose 2011 novel “Among Others” just won the Nebula Award for Best Novel of the Year. Congratulations, Jo.

Jo Walton: Thank you.

JMW: “Among Others” is your first YA novel, set in a decade most of us would like to forget. Yet it’s on everyone’s list of favorite books. What’s the secret that makes this book so special, and resonate so strongly with readers?

Jo Walton: It’s not a YA book, it’s not published as YA, and it is not a YA book. It just happens to have a young protagonist. Not every book with a 15-year- old protagonist is in fact, YA. Because you know what, practically all grownups alive today used to be 15.

JMW: This is true.

Jo Walton: It’s kind of hard to meet somebody who wasn’t. This is a book for ex-15-year-olds, not particularly for today’s 15-year-olds. No, in fact, today’s young people will have been enjoying as far as I can tell. I think that is the secret. Everybody used to be 15. Everybody can identify with somebody who was 15.

JMW: I was wondering if part of the resonance was the importance of Science Fiction, and Fantasy, and how that informed the characters relationships.

Jo Walton: Yes, I think so. I think that’s a lot of it, particularly within [inaudible 01:30] and within [inaudible 01:32], that people are reading this book because - or at least they are identifying, they’re liking it, because it is a female intellectual coming of age.
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