Ask the Author: Harriet Levin

“My book, How Fast Can You Run has been released and Michael and I were interviewed on NPR. You can listen to it here and ask me questions: http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2016/1...” Harriet Levin

Answered Questions (7)

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What mystery in your own life could be a plot for a book?

Harriet Levin I've always wanted to write about my grandparents' immigration. All four of my grandparents came here from Eastern Europe or Russia--I don't even know where! The reasons why they came here, how they traveled, and where they came from are complete mysteries to me. Three of my grandparents came here when they were very young but my maternal grandfather came here in his twenties. But he died when I was only ten years old, so I never got a chance to learn about him. I've tried to find out where they were from by looking them up at YIVO but I got nowhere, probably because I only know their American names. I would need to extensively research their lives and then probably invent much of it to tell their stories. The loss of my grandparents' histories make it all the more important for refugees and immigrants today to write down their own stories.

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How do you get inspired to write?

Harriet Levin Reading always give me ideas.

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Harriet Levin I met Michael Majok Kuch through a writing project with One Book Philadelphia and he asked me to write a book about his life. I decided to do it in the novel form because a lot of the events happened when he was very young and he did not remember them all clearly enough for the book to be a memoir. Plus I love novels and think that the ups and downs of his experience fleeing war and searching for his mother is best conveyed in novel form.

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