Interview by Shannon Barnes
Tell us about your latest book or a project you are working on.
I recently published a novel with Annick Press called Lying, Stealing, and Other Ways to Save the Planet. It takes place in the same world as my first novel, Dragging Mason County. The novel follows a teenage journalist as he teams up with a pair of high school environmentalists to expose the eco-crimes of a wealthy country club owner. It's a zippy, caper comedy, and I'm really proud of it.
Tell us about your writing process.
I am a much more structured playwright than I am a novelist. Novels are so much bigger than the more rigid container of live theatre, so I just try to chase the obsession of the idea as far as it will take me when it comes to writing novels. I would say I follow form with theatre, whereas I follow character with novels.
How did you first get published?
In 2022, I submitted a draft of my novel Dragging Mason County to Annick Press' general submissions. Khary Mathurin at Annick took a shine to the manuscript and it went from there.
What do you like about writing for young people?
Teens see right through hypocrisy in a way we eventually train out of ourselves in an effort to remain sane under the dehumanizing demands of capitalism. They maintain a bit of Beginner's Mind, and are often putting it to good use. I like encouraging that.
Tell us about writers who inspire you.
I am deeply entrenched in a years-long Ursula K. Le Guin deep dive. She rejected the idea of fiction as a consumer good. She imagined radical, alternative ways of living. She treated young adult fiction as a place to create wise and introspective literature worthy of that age range. She inspires me every day. We are so lucky to have her work.
I continue to return to Omar El Akkad's One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This amid Israel's ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, in which the Canadian government continues to be complicit. His succinct and humane approach to laying out the human cost of colonization is directly in line with Le Guin's work, and I've learned so much from both of them. Free Palestine.
For more information about Curtis Campbell and his work, follow him on Instagram @curtisdangcampbell.
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