Karen Cushman

Karen Cushman

Newbery award-winning children’s book author

Karen Cushman

What? A fantasy?

ph_kc_fantasy01Yes, I have gone public. In my NCTE talk, I announced that I am writing a fantasy, working title Song of the Wise Woman’s Daughter. I trepidatiously read a few passages aloud and no rotten fruit was thrown so I am encouraged. My fantasy has no vampires or zombies. No one dies. The world is not destroyed or even in much danger because the kind of book I like is the kind that celebrates love, embraces compassion, honors intelligence, and ends with hope.  G.K.Chesterton said that fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. And, may I add, even without magic.