Laurie Halse Anderson – laureate 2023 1
Laurie Halse Anderson, author tice faced by teena
gers. When I’m writing about American history, I’m writing about things that I think we should all know about. Here in the United States, we’re just now beginning to be honest about our history, which is very bloody and filled with injustice. I write from anger, I write from curiosity, and I write from confusion. When did you know that you wanted to become a writer? It was not until I had children, and my daughters were sitting on my lap and I was reading to them, that I thought I should try writing myself. It took me a while to learn how to write properly though. I had plenty of ideas, but the first stories I wrote were all terrible. Is there a reason why you write about difficult topics such as pain, anxiety and sexual abuse? My childhood was wonderful, and my parents were so lovely. But I have firsthand experiences of how hard it can be when children are hurt, and they don’t know how to talk about what’s Laurie Halse Anderson, 2 years old, with her mother. 11