We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anna Lapera. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anna below.

Anna, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

Ever since my school’s poetry week in 5th grade, I knew that I wanted to be a writer. However, I did not begin writing seriously until I was 33 years old. That day back in 5th grade, my class sat in a circle outside and I wrote the following line: “clear blue opening shadows of the earth’s territory”. At the time, I thought that was SO good! It didn’t matter; I loved the feeling I got while writing, so I tried to write whenever I could. I wrote poems to friends, I later oined my high school’s creative writing magazine, and I entered a writing competition here and there in college. However, I never truly chose writing. It was always a side project I did while I was doing my main thing.
I went to grad school for Latin American studies and urban planning and on research trips I started a blog where I wrote creative essays about my experiences, but slowly, my writing stopped and I never found time for it. I ended up working for the Federal government for three years, during which I wrote nothing. I felt unhappy, so I quit to become a teacher. I think I was feeling restless and unfulfilled because I was not writing at all, but I could not figure that out at the time. It was three years into teacher that I was scrolling through my email and I saw an announcement from a local writer’s center for a one-year evening short story workshop. Even just applying for the workshop was the step and motivation I needed to reignite that feeling I got when writing. I got into the workshop and began to build a writing schedule and routine that worked for me as a full-time teacher and mom: I wrote (and still write) every single morning from 4 – 6 am. There have been moments in my writing journey from the past three years where I wish I could have started sooner. There are moments during my 4am writing sessions when I just can’t put the right words together, that I wish I could have chosen writing in my 20s, in college and grad school when I could have written for hours during the middle of the day. I sometimes think about how many books I would have already written by now. Sometimes I wish I would have started writing before having kids, because I think of all the books I could have written during those evening hours. But recently that changed. I realized two things: First, I became a voracious reader not until in my 30s, and that has shaped me as a writer. I could not have become a writer without becoming a reader first. Second, my life experiences have shaped my writing. I write for teens, and the world building in my writing is shaped by the countless hours I spend in school classrooms and hallways. After my novel was published, I slowly began to realize that I chose writing at the time that was right for me; that any sooner might not have shaped me into the writer I truly wanted to be. I still write at 4am, and even though I balance my writing with the responsibilities of family, teaching, and life, I have been able to return to that first feeling I got in 5th grade, which I have finally been able to describe: that this is exactly what I am meant to be doing.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Guatemalan-American author, educator, mom and occasional drummer. My novel, Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice, was published March 5th, 2024. I spent decades wanting to write but never choosing writing as my path, until, three years ago when I decided to take the leap and join a writing workshop. I never did an MFA and I didn’t start writing my novel right out of college, even though I would have liked to do all of those things. But I made a way and let all of my life experience shape and inform my writing, and I think it has made me a stronger writer.
I am most proud of the way I have made room for my passion and the ways in which I have prioritized it along with being a present mom and teacher. I am also proud that I write stories of which there are not many. I tell stories that feature Central American experiences and histories. During my time teaching kids that were newly arrived from Central America, I started to see what a void there was of stories that centered young people from Central America. It also made me remember that own childhood of never seeing books that represented the places my family was coming from. I wanted to write stories not just about immigration (though that is an important topic and we need those stories too), but also about friendship, finding your voice, activism, family, as well as the many challenges that all kids are faced with in school. It is important not only for all kids to see themselves represented in stories, but to give all kids the opportunity to make connections with characters and experiences that may be new to them. I think everyone can find connection with Central American stories.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After graduate school, I entered a job that just wasn’t for me. I was very unhappy in it, even though having this job made my family very proud. I had very little opportunity to be creative in this job, and that really affected me emotionally. I stopped seeing myself as a writer or in general as a creative person. One day, I decided to take a big leap and go into teaching instead. It paid way less and was so different than what I was doing. But my gut told me it was the right thing to do, and I knew there would be so many aspects I enjoyed. The freedom of crafting my own lessons ignited the creative side of me that had been very subdued. Slowly I began to write again, and it was through this change that I realized I was meant to write for kids, too. That is how I became a kidlit writer. Being in that environment made me realize that this is the age group I want to write for. I would not have found the thing I was meant to do (writing) if I had not pivoted several times in my life.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are so many community creative spaces that I wish I would have taken advantage of earlier. For example, open mics, writer meetups, etc. Many writers talk about what a lonely and solitary endeavor writing is, but I have found the opposite to be true. I would say I write a lot in community. I got to open mics, I join online writing meet ups, in person meetups, and form friendships and critique groups at several of these. Now, whenever I meet someone who is just starting out, I try to invite them to every community writing space I know of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.annalaperawriter.com
• Instagram: @annalaperawriter
• Twitter: @WriterOfCuentos

Image Credits

Personal photo: Kira Palmer

Other photos: Harold Morales, An Open Book Foundation, Ilana Giller