Bernard Beckett is the author of eight young adult novels, numerous plays and four films.
He has won the Esther Glen Award and Young Adult Fiction Category of the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Malcolm and Juliet, and the New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults for both Malcolm and Juliet and Genesis. The latter also won the Prix Sorcières in the Adolescent Novels category.
Born in rural New Zealand, the fifth child of seven, he moved to Wellington to complete a degree in economics, then trained to become a high school teacher.
Bernard began directing plays in his spare time, then novels during a stint as an English tutor in Japan. His first five novels were turned down; then he published Lester in 1997. On returning to New Zealand, he busied himself with writing and directing school plays, including Malcolm and Juliet, later converted to an award-winning novel. Soon he had numerous young adult novels and an international audience to his name, Genesis alone being translated into more than 20 languages. He also wrote Falling for Science, a nonfiction work examining “the philosophy of science and relationship between storytelling and scientific modelling.”
An avid hiker and mountain biker, he is married with three children, including twins, and continues to write both plays and novels from Wellington, New Zealand. https://bernardbeckett.wordpress.com
Q: You’ve written in a lot of mediums and genres. Do you have a favorite and if so, why?
A: I think my favourite is still the one I started with, the contemporary realist teen fiction, usually based on school life. I write a lot of plays for school as a drama teacher and because I’m working with teen actors, a lot of the plays also fit within this genre. I’ve flitted about in terms of genre in part just to try new things, but I’d like to go back to that starting point some time soon. I miss it.
Q: Was it a rural upbringing, family influence or particular type of book that made you into a keen reader early on, and did you also write as a child?
A: I think a rural upbringing, particularly back in pre-internet times, did lend itself to that life of the internal story. I passed a lot of time reading, listening to music, wandering through the countryside, running and cycling, all solitary activities, and I’m the sort who is constantly talking to myself, spinning yarns. I still do a lot of my best thinking and creating while running or on a bike. I think learning to be alone is a crucial part of growing up. I can’t remember who it was who said “if we don’t teach our children to be alone, they will know only how to be lonely,” but there’s a lot of truth in that.
Q: What is a common thread in all your works, and who do you picture as your reader?
A: My imagined reader is a version of myself, I’m sure. I think this is inevitable. I like to think I’m writing for the curious, those who like to be presented with a problem, the solution of which isn’t immediately obvious. There’s a kind of political element to my work in this regard. I want to provoke thought, or maybe disturb comfortable thoughts is a better way of looking at it.
Q: As one of New Zealand’s more prominent young-adult authors, how would you characterize NZ YA and who are your favorite fellow NZ authors?
A: These days, with being a parent and a teacher and writing when I can, I do far less reading than perhaps in the past. As with anywhere, we have a bunch of writers doing great things, trying to reflect the lives of our young folk back at them. I like writers who do this in a way that is oblique and playful, writers who don’t talk down to their readers. Kate De Goldi is a NZ writer who is very good in this regard.
Q: You’ve co-authored one book with your wife, and written at least one book specifically for your sons. Can you talk about how family and writing fit together?
A: I love being a parent, and a partner too. Family is a busy sort of joy, with all the inevitable moments of exhaustion and frustration that come along for the ride. Writing very often has to take a back seat; I’m not one to go off to write while the family are around so what I do manage happens later in the evening when the kids are in bed. It makes writing a hobby and an escape, rather than a chore, and I think that’s a pretty good balance. Being a parent also changes the sorts of things I want to write. It’s made me more motivated to write stories that offer hope, I suppose. I want my children to grow up with access to the sort of instinctive optimism that uplifting narratives can help nurture.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m currently working on a novel set in a near-future world. I’ve done a few of those now and suspect this will be the last of that type. It looks at the things the powerful and wealthy will demand of those who are less privileged, and how easily this comes to seem normal. A kind of socialist novel perhaps.