Similarly to Feed, Anderson had to put himself in the shoes of a young person from a different time period when he wrote The Astonishing Life. He has heavily researched the time periods of his novels in order to accurately portray his characters.
The only exception to this view of his characters has been his main character in The Astonishing Life, Octavian Nothing.Īnderson faces unique challenges in writing for the young adult market, especially concerning the topics he chooses. Unlike many other young-adult writers, Anderson views the characters he creates simply as figures moving and acting on his terms. As a writer he does not shy from taking on difficult questions and deeper, more mature concepts and themes. A shy person, Anderson has stated that he greatly prefers writing to public speaking. He's used this method many times, including reading 18th century novels during his writing of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. He used these media sources to convey an accurate teenage voice, but even more depleted and abbreviated. While he was writing Feed, Anderson took in younger, pop-culture oriented media, such as Seventeen, Maxim, and Teen Vogue.
In response to the question of why he gives so much credit to his young audience, Anderson stated in an interview with Julie Prince: "Our survival as a nation rests upon the willingness of the young to become excited and engaged by new ideas we never considered as adults." Anderson tends to write with sophisticated wit and storylines, making the point that young people are more intelligent than some might think. He's also written children's picture books such as Handel, Who Knew What He Liked, and novels directed toward pre-teen readers such as The Game of Sunken Places. Anderson has also remarked "We write because we can't decipher things the first time around." His novels directed at young adults, such as Thirsty and Feed, tend to direct their satire at society. Writing styleĪnderson is known for challenging his readers, of varying ages, to look at the world in new ways. He currently lives in Cambridge (Mass.) and is on the Board of the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, a national non-profit organization that advocates for literacy, literature, and libraries. He has also worked as a disc jockey for WCUW radio as an instructor at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he now serves on the Board and as a music critic for The Improper Bostonian.
Anderson worked at Candlewick Press before his first novel Thirsty (1997) was accepted for publication there. Mark's School, Harvard College, the University of Cambridge (England), and Syracuse University. His father Will Anderson was an engineer, and his mother Juliana Anderson was an Episcopal priest. The Astonishing Life of Octavian NothingĪnderson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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