An Inside Look with Ann Ursu
*Season #SIX (Summer 2019)
Free Virtual Launch Events (Registration Required)
Wednesday, October 13 at 7 pm CT Anne will launch her book in a virtual conversation with Laura Ruby, hosted by the RED BALLOON BOOKSHOP in St. Paul Minnesota. Click here for more information. We hope you will join us!
October 26 at 6 pm CT Anne will be in conversation with Kelly Barnhill, hosted by WILD RUMPUS BOOKS in Minneapolis. Please click here for more information. We hope you will join us then as well!
About the Book:
If no one notices Marya Lupu, it’s likely because of her brother, Luka. And that’s because of what everyone knows: Luka is destined to become a sorcerer.
The Lupus might be from a small village far from the capital city, but that doesn’t matter. Every young boy born in Illyria may possess the rare ability to wield magic, to protect the country from the terrifying force known only as the Dread. For all the hopes the family has for Luka, no one has any for Marya, who can never seem to do anything right. But even so, no one is prepared for the day that the sorcerers finally arrive to test Luka for magical ability, and Marya makes a terrible mistake. Nor the day after, when the Lupus receive a letter from a place called Dragomir Academy — a mysterious school for wayward young girls. Girls like Marya.
Soon she is a hundred miles from home, in a strange and unfamiliar place, surrounded by girls she’s never met. Dragomir Academy promises Marya and her classmates a chance to make something of themselves in service to one of the country’s powerful sorcerers. But as they learn how to fit into a world with no place for them, they begin to discover things about the magic the men of their country wield, as well as the Dread itself — things that threaten the precarious balance upon which their country is built.
About the Author:
Anne Ursu is the author of the acclaimed novels The Lost Girl, Breadcrumbs, and The Real Boy, which was longlisted for the National Book Award. The recipient of a McKnight Fellowship Award in Children’s Literature, Anne is also a member of the faculty at Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She lives in Minneapolis with her family and an ever-growing number of cats. You can visit her online at www.anneursu.com.
PRAISE FOR THE TROUBLED GIRLS OF DRAGOMIR ACADEMY
“A wonderful and inspiring feminist fantasy.” – Kirkus
"An accessible, timely school story with a rather Transylvanian flavor to its fantasy setting. Ursu explores girls’ conditioning in timidity and shame in a male-dominated world and, ultimately, envisions a hopeful, female-determined future of magical ability." - Horn Book Magazine
“A suspenseful tale woven with secrets and magic, with a gasp-worthy twist at the end, The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy is everything I love about fantasy. Spell-binding.” - Christina Soontornvat, Newbery Honor-winning author of A Wish in the Dark
“Anne Ursu practices her own brand of sorcery—the ability to craft wondrous, magical stories that are unlike anything you’ve ever read. Another extraordinary tale from a remarkably talented author.” - Erin Entrada Kelly, Newbery Medal-winning author of Hello, Universe
"A thoughtful and incisive story of lies told to control people and the complicated girls who ask questions, push back, and keep fighting." - Tui Sutherland, New York Times-bestselling author of the Wings of Fire series
“It’s no secret that Anne Ursu is a gifted storyteller. The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy is intricately plotted and compulsively readable, with characters who will stay with you long after you stop reading. I could not put it down.” - Aisha Saeed, New York Times bestselling author of Amal Unbound
"The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy manages the particular magic of being both a true fantasy novel and a clear-eyed reflection of the here-and-now. Bighearted, generous, and outstandingly original, this is a story only Anne Ursu could write."- Elana K. Arnold, award-winning author of The House That Wasn't There
BLOG TOUR STOPS
October 12 A Nerdy Bibliophile in Wanderlust
October 13 Read Wonder
October 14 Nerdy Book Club
October 15 A Library Mama
October 16 Maria’s Mélange
October 17 By Singing Light
October 18 Bluestocking Thinking
October 20 Insatiable Readers
How did you come to know Marya?
It was hard to figure out Marya for a long time. This book began with the concept of the world, and so figuring out the girl whose journey could best express it took a while. She needed to have both a reason to feel like she somehow did not fit the mold of “girl,” but also some reason to have a seed of confidence, something she could build on later. Out of that came a couple of circumstances— on one side, an older brother who everyone believes is destined for greatness and a family obsessed with status and image, and on the other side, a mentor character who tries to nurture her sense of self-worth. As for Marya herself, she emerged on the page eager-to-please but impulsive, desperately wanting a life that she is not allowed to have, trying to find a place for herself in a world with no space for her.
What do you think is her most admirable quality?
There’s a spark in Marya that simply won’t be snuffed out. It’s the spark that her neighbor, Madame Bandu, tries to nurture. While she desperately wants to please her family, there’s part of her that truly identifies with Anton, the unruly billy goat that only she can manage. He just wants to run around and head butt people and eat things—it’s his nature—but everyone tries to keep that nature suppressed. It’s the unruly billy goat in her that ends up helping her in the end.
Is there anything you wish she would have changed or done differently in her story?
It’s such a hard question to answer because our job as writers is to take the protagonist from a point of being wounded to the point where the wound is healed, and along the way they make all kinds of terrible choices, because they’re not able to make healthy ones. That’s why they need to be the protagonist of the book. So I want to be the mentor to Marya, I want to yell Don’t you see what’s going on here? But she isn’t going to grow into the person she needs to be at the end unless she figures it out herself.
What do you think Marya can offer to other children that are experiencing similar situations to what she went through?
I hope she helps other kids see that shame can be a weapon, that its designed to make us feel small so we don’t fight for ourselves and for things bigger than ourselves. I hope she helps them see that they don’t have to accept the labels other people put on them. And I hope she helps them see the benefit of community, of finding strength in friendship.
Do you and Marya share any similarities?
We both feel like we’re not quite cut out for the world around us, but really enjoy a good book. Neither one of us has good fine motor skills, but we love animals. We both want to please people and want to make a better world; two desires that can be wholly contradictory at times. And we both like to wear our long frizzy hair in two braids, because braids hold.
What do you think Marya is doing as the present time?
I hope she is with her friends trying to build a better world. And I hope she has a goat.
SEASON #SIX (Summer 2019)
Interview #122 with Tamara Bundy (Author of Pixie Pushes On)
Interview #123 with Lindsay Lackey (Author of All the Impossible Things)
Interview #124 with Tae Keller (Author of When You Trap a Tiger)
Interview #125 with Jamie Sumner (Author of Roll With It)
Interview #126 with Hena Khan (Author of More to the Story)
Interview #127 with Phil Bildner (Author of A High-Five for Glenn Burke)
Interview #128 with Leslie Connor (Author of A Home for Goddesses and Dogs)
Interview#129 with Gillian McDunn (Author of Queen Bee and Me)
Interview #130 with Jody J. Little (Author of Worse Than Weird)
Interview #131 with Jenn Bishop (Author of Things You Can't Say)
Interview #132 with Kaela Noel (Author of Coo)
Interview #133 with Rebecca Stead (Author of The List of Things That Will Not Change)
Interview #134 with Gae Polisner (Author of Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me)
Interview #135 with Emily Blejwas (Author of Like Nothing Amazing Ever Happened)
Interview #136 with Joy McCullough (Author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost)
Interview #137 with Kim Baker (Author of the Water Bears)
Interview #138 with Erin Entrada Kelly (Author of We Dream of Space)
Interview #139 with Jess Redman (Author of Quintessence)
Interview #140 with Melanie Conklin (Author of Every Missing Piece)
Interview #141 with Lindsey Stoddard (Author of Brave Like That)
Interview #158 with Rebecca Ansari (Author of The In-Between)
Interview #159 with John David Anderson (Author of One Last Shot)
Interview #160 with Tracy Holczer (Author of Brave in the Woods)
Interview #161 with James Bird (Author of The Brave)
Interview #162 with Marcella Pixley (Author of Trowbridge Road)
Interview #163 with Barbara O'Connor (Author of Halfway to Harmony)
Interview #164 with Alan Gratz (Author of Ground Zero)
Interview #165 with Lisa Fipps (Author of Starfish)
Interview #166 with Ann Braden (Author of Flight of the Puffin)
Interview #167 with Kimberly Willis Holt (Author of The Ambassador of NoWhere Texas)
Interview #168 with Elana K. Arnold (Author of The House That Wasn't There)
Interview #169 with Erin Soderberg (Author of The Great Peach Experiment)
Interview #170 with Donna Gephart (Author of Abby, Tried, and True)
Interview #171 with M. Evan Wolkenstein (Author of Turtle Boy)
Interview #172 with Lindsey Stoddard (Author of Bea is for Blended)
Interview #173 with Jess Redman (Author of The Adventure is Now)
Interview #174 with David Levithan (Author of The Mysterious Disappearance of Aiden)
Interview #175 with Chris Grabenstein (Author of The Smartest Kid in the Universe)
Interview #176 with Ali Standish (Author of The Mending Summer)
Interview #177 with Holly Goldberg Sloan (Author of The Elephant in the Room)
Interview #178 with Jeff Zentner (Author of In the Wild Light)
SEASON #ELEVEN (Fall 2021)
Interview #179 with Katherine Applegate (Author of Willow)
Interview #180 with Padma Venkatraman (Author of Born Behind Bars)
Interview #181 with R.J. Palacio (Author of Pony)
Interview #182 with Kyle Lukoff (Author of Too Bright to See)
Interview #183 with Barbara Dee (Author of Violets are Blue)
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