Books we don't have to agree with: Interview with author Matt Mikalatos

     I was privileged to interview Matt Mikalatos, author of the Sunlit Lands fantasy trilogy and several non-fiction books and articles, This interview was conducted in February 2021 back when I wrote for my high school newspaper. While the article was published, (and won an award in the Student Media Olympics by OJEA,) the interview was not. I hope you enjoy this never-before released interview.

The Sentry: Why would you want a highschooler to read your books, especially the Sunlit Lands Series?

Matt Mikalatos: I hope, first and foremost, that they would just have a good time. The Sunlit Lands were written out of my deep love for fantasy and I had so much fun writing them... I hope that highschoolers reading them would have the same experience! If you don't laugh and cry by the end of the book I didn't do my job!

TS: What caused you to write these books? Why this book at this time?

MM: I sat down with a friend from the publisher that eventually bought the books and asked her, "What do you need more than anything right now?" She said lots of people were asking for books that dealt with some of the issues facing us today: prejudice, racial injustices, societal upheaval, inequities in the world. But it also needed to be fun and interesting to read and she would like it to be fantasy novels. I immediately said that I would write up a proposal and we would make it happen!

TS: You write a lot about various types of discrimination, among Asians, Blacks, and Native Americans. Why is this important to you?

MM: I have a lot of friends who are a different ethnicity than me, and it's painful to watch when they are on the receiving end of bigotry, prejudice, or racism. The reality of racial injustice in our nation is enormously complicated, and it can leave all of us feeling overwhelmed and unsure how to move forward. The beauty of fiction is that we can set up complex questions and problems and watch these characters try to sort things out, giving us insight about our own lives, options, and possible solutions. By putting the story in a fantasy setting, we can also explore some of these topics outside of our own experiences and prejudices, hopefully giving us some "aha" moments that we can put into action in the real world.

TS: What other social issues do you cover, and why?

MM: I love people. Some of my friends say I "collect" them (not in a creepy serial killer way, just in the way that I like to have friends from a lot of different backgrounds and beliefs). Any place where people are being treated unfairly, I'm passionate about working to change that. So that brings up a lot of social issues! Poverty, systemic racism, people in the LGBTQ community who are being mistreated, sexism... these are all things that have some sort of root in harming human beings, and there are plenty more, too!

TS: Do the parallels between what you wrote in your books and what then occurred in the real world surprise you? (i.e., ***spoilers***

Madeline giving up a year of her life to end a respiratory illness, then Covid shut down the world for a year; the death of Night’s Breath sparking a reconsideration of who should have privilege, then George Floyd dies; disagreement about who should rule the Sunlit Lands next, then the election fraud and surrounding tensions.)

***end spoilers*** Did you foresee this? How did these events affect you?

MM: I read this question to my wife and she said, "If you could forsee things you would have bought more toilet paper before the pandemic!" So, part of the answer is no, I didn't forsee anything. Madeline's breathing issues, for instance, come from a very personal place: my best friend was dying from cancer when I wrote the first book, and the cancer was in her lungs. So there was some personal experience informing Madeline's experience (I wanted Madeline, who has privilege in many ways ... she's upper class, majority culture, smart, beautiful, etc. to also have a place where she lacked privilege: she wasn't healthy. These things are complicated and I wanted to represent that.)

When we spend time looking at the world, we start to see patterns of these things happening over and over. It's easy to "predict" a situation like George Floyd's because it has happened before, many times, and it's going to happen again. Look up the story of Emmet Till. Right now there's rising violence in the United States toward Asian and Asian-American citizens. That can be predicted. It's happened before.

So in a sense, yes, as I'm writing a book and asking, "If this or that thing were to happen --" (like, spoilers, the attempted and possibly successful coup at the end of book 2!) there's a sort of "forseeing" in that it's me as the author saying, "This is the way the world works." It has happened before and it will happen again.

As for how those events have effected me, well, I guess it's just a reminder that the world is not the way it should be. Not yet. And people like you -- young people in general -- are going to have a chance to set things right where people like me and my generation have failed.

TS: Which character do you most identify with? For what reasons?

MM: I just love Jason Wu. Some of my friends have said he's a lot like me. He's funny, he's always trying to do the right thing and even when he messes up at least his heart is in the right place. I love that guy! Having this group of friends fighting in a fantasy war on another world is super fun, and Jason makes it more fun... especially when he gets ahold of that unicorn!

TS: Did living in the Pacific Northwest influence these books? If so, how?

MM: Oh, definitely. Here's a great example: in the third book, THE STORY KING, I have a group of radicalized white supremacists called The Vain Boys. They're modeled to some degree on the Proud Boys. Living in the Portland area I've had plenty of interactions with these guys over the years, and I wrote this book well over a year ago... before the Proud Boys made much national news. When I first was writing it, I had some questions about whether people would think it was a little extreme or unbelievable... there's this whole scene where the Vain Boys are scheming to start a riot during a "peaceful protest." And of course, those fears have been laid to rest because the whole US saw something really similar to that scene in my book happening at the Capitol this January. So it's an example of writing what you know, what you've experienced in your own back yard, and watching it become "universal" because others are having the same or similar experiences as well. 

TS: Does someone have to agree with your beliefs to enjoy your books?

 MM: Not at all. I have fans from a variety of different beliefs and backgrounds. All are welcome, and I hope the main themes of the books about seeking for truth, equality, love for our friends, and making the world a better place would resonate with any reader.

TS: Will there be more books, or is this a trilogy?

 MM: I would love to do some more books, but right now it's a trilogy: The Crescent Stone, The Heartwood Crown, and The Story King.

TS: What other books would you recommend to highschoolers?*

            MM: I love anything Gene Yang has done, but I'd start with "American Born Chinese."

            "Elatsoe" by Darcie Little Badger is really amazing and a lot of fun.

            Ursula K. LeGuin's "Earthsea" series are books I loved in high school.

            My kids and I were obsessed with Scythe by Neal Shusterman when they were in high school.

            And tell your English teacher that I suggested Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet or, if you're in American lit, The Scarlet Letter. I  used to be a high school English teacher so be nice to them!
*note: these recommendations have not been reviewed by Flight Patterns. Read at your personal discretion.

And that's today's post.... thank you for reading.