Fantasy Fiction? It’s Not just for Children Anymore

My fall semester started just after labor day. I’ve been lost in a whirl—preparing my three classes, setting up the online system we use at my college, and putting out various beginning-of-the-term fires. A computer crash just before my second class didn’t add to the tranquility I was trying to cultivate. But I survived, and here it is suddenly autumn, and I’m finding some time to breathe—and to write.

I have mentioned earlier on this blog that I’m experimenting with fantasy, working my way through a young-adult fantasy novel. Writing fantasy is new to me—and strange because for much of my life I’ve looked down on the genre, seeing it as something for kids and nerds and authors who didn’t know how to write “serious” fiction.

I can’t believe I really thought that. In the last couple years, I’ve come around, luxuriating in the work of writers like Philip Pullman and Piers Anthony and (need I say it?) J. K. Rowling.

For those of you who already know the depth and beauty of fantasy writing, here are some interviews with writers you almost certainly know. For those who think fantasy is for children, as I once did, take a peek. You might be surprised.

Lev Grossman burst onto the fantasy scene with his New York Times best seller, The Magicians, billed as Harry Potter for adults. His sequel, The Magician King, came out last month. In this interview with The Jewish Daily Forward, Grossman talks about the relationship between fantasy and spirituality, and how fantasy has helped him deal with the past. Find Lev Grossman’s interview here

Holly Lisle. For years, Holly Lisle has been writing fantasy, horror, science-fiction, supernatural romance, and books that cross those boundaries in interesting and complicated ways. “I’m driven to find the answer to the question Why?” she says in this interview on the Science Fiction and Fantasy website. “Why do evil people prosper? Why do good people suffer? Why do we die? Why are we here in the first place?” Read more.

Ursula K. LeGuin. When Grossman and Lisle and the rest of us were still kids, Ursula K. LeGuin was already writing such science fiction and fantasy classics as The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea series. Her work is rich with social, cultural, and political insight. “As for ideology, the hell with it. All of it,” she tells Cosmo Book editor Nick Gevers in this 2001 interview. You can find the interview here.