Q&A with Children’s Author Uma Krishnaswami

Uma Krishnaswami is the author of numerous critically acclaimed books for young readers, from picture books through novels, including the multiple-star-reviewed book, “The Grand Plan to Fix Everything,” which Kirkus Reviews called “a delightful romp.” Her latest novel, “The Problem With Being Slightly Heroic,” is a sequel to “The Grand Plan to Fix Everything” and is a Junior Library Guild selection. Uma is published in the USA, Canada, India and Australia, and is on the M.F.A. faculty in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in northwest New Mexico and travels regularly to India.

What do you do when you have writer’s block?
I don’t think of it as writer’s block. It’s more like writer’s emptiness, as if I’ve suddenly used up all the words in my word bag and need to find some way to fill it back up again. Reading helps to fill my word-bag quite well. So does teaching. I teach writing, and the ten days I set aside each month for my students’ work is just enough time away from my own. By the time I’m done, I feel ready to tackle my next writing challenge.

If you could ask another author (living or dead) one question, what would it be and what author would you ask it of?
I’d ask Beatrix Potter why she never had any sheep characters in her books. She loved sheep, even saved a traditional herd of them from extinction, so why no sheep characters to compare with Peter Rabbit or Jemima Puddleduck?

Why write?
It’s the only thing I know how to do. If I didn’t write I would be completely unemployable!

Why children’s books?
Because I was a child who read all the time, and I’d like to pay that forward to today’s young readers. I think there is no finer audience than young readers.