Today we’d like to introduce you to Mitali Perkins.
Mitali, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was born, I made headlines: FATTEST BABY EVER BORN IN KOLKATA! I was huge, hardy, and healthy, especially compared to the smaller, thinner babies born in that city and throughout India. Maybe that’s why I’ve always wanted to do something to serve children with less privilege. But how did I land on writing fiction to fulfill that mission?
As daughters of Bengali immigrants growing up in California, my sisters and I had three career options: engineer, doctor, or engineer. (Ha!) Our parents sacrificed and saved and scolded and surrounded us with love, and we ended up graduating from some of the best colleges in the country. Maybe that’s why telling them I wanted to write books for young readers as a full-time gig was daunting. But I had always loved reading children’s books, and that love wasn’t abating. During final exams week at Stanford, I’d sneak off campus and bike to the Palo Alto City Library to find a copy of THE SECRET GARDEN or LITTLE WOMEN to re-read. Those stories brought my stress level down, along with a roll of Sweet Tarts candy. I’d also been writing poems and stories since I was seven or eight years old, and that practice wasn’t stopping either.
I studied Political Science and then went to UC Berkeley for Public Policy. After that, my husband and I moved to Southern California, where I worked at World Vision International, an NGO battling global poverty, and taught at Pepperdine as a Visiting Professor in the International Studies Department. Of course, I was still reading children’s books and writing stories for children, but just for fun. On a lark, I finished a novel and submitted it to a contest at Little Brown, a publisher in New York. To my amazement, my entry won! THE SUNITA EXPERIMENT, a story about an eighth-grader growing up in California in a Bengali immigrant family (wonder where I got that idea) was published and even got a good review in the New York Times.
My husband and I moved to India to work with the Indian church and I wrote my second book, MONSOON SUMMER. I revised it thoroughly each time I’d submit it to a new publisher, but it kept getting rejected. Twenty-two editors said no to that story. Finally, it was accepted by Random House and released 11 years after my first book. During that season of rejection, I learned how much I wanted to be a writer. I kept at it, even when book one went out of print. Best of all, I was improving in my craft, which was giving me joy.
I took a day of prayer at Serra Retreat in Malibu to discern the best way to contribute to the planet, especially when it came to easing the suffering of children around the world. Increasingly, I was seeing that I could weave themes of justice and compassion into my stories. Fiction had widened my heart and mind when I was a child–maybe my affinity for children’s literature could do the same for young readers today.
It didn’t take long after that to be “all in” as a writer of literature for young people. I’ve written twelve books since then, including RICKSHAW GIRL, which is about the empowerment of girls in Bangladesh through microcredit and is being adapted to a film, BAMBOO PEOPLE, featuring ethnic cleansing and child soldiers in Burma, and TIGER BOY, which explores climate change’s effect on the most impoverished people on the planet. BETWEEN US AND ABUELA, my newest is a picture book set along the San Diego-Tijuana border (yet another light topic.)
These days, I travel around the United States and even to other countries to talk with young people who are reading my books. It’s truly a delight and privilege to stand at the intersection of justice, borders, children, and stories, and my parents (Mom now, and Dad before he died) are resoundingly proud that their chubby Kolkata baby turned out to be an author of children’s literature.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The years of rejection, as described earlier, were tough. But they honed my writing and made me see how much I wanted to create stories. This career, though, isn’t for the faint-hearted. Only a few books each year become bestsellers or win awards and it can be discouraging when yours are overlooked or don’t sell. To persist, I go back to that original vocational mission–to widen the hearts and minds of children and deepen their compassion–and forget myself in the flow and joy of craft.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I’m known for stories for young people that cross all kinds of borders and explore justice issues. This is a delightful distinctive.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I’d like to keep writing as long as I have breath. I also enjoy speaking and teaching. I might write adult fiction under a pseudonym someday.
Pricing:
- BETWEEN US AND ABUELA: A Family Story from the Border | Picture Book | Hardcover | $17.99
- FORWARD ME BACK TO YOU | Young Adult Novel | Young Adult Novel | Hardcover | $ 17.99
- RICKSHAW GIRL | Elementary-Aged Novel | Paperback | $6.99
- YOU BRING THE DISTANT NEAR | Young Adult Novel | Paperback | $ 9.99
Contact Info:
- Website: mitaliperkins.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mitaliperkins/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMitaliPerkins/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MitaliPerkins
Image Credit:
Bethany Carnes
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