J.L. Powers holds master's degrees in African History from State University of New York-Albany and Stanford and won a Fulbright scholarship to study Zulu in South Africa. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and teaches writing at Skyline Community College. In her second YA novel, This Thing Called the Future (Cinco Puntos Press/Consortium, May 2011), she explores a contemporary shantytown in modern South Africa, mixing romance, tribal wisdom and witchcraft through the eyes of 14-year-old Khosi.
On your nightstand now:
Several pairs of dirty socks, a battery-operated baby monitor and a teensy-tiny flashlight for reading late at night when my husband is sleeping. But I'm sure what you really want to know about is the stack of books I'm dipping into at the moment:
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman; Last Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance by Peter Stark; Hunting in Harlem: A Novel by Mat Johnson; Las Vegas Noir, edited by Jarret Keene and Todd James Pierce; Curing Their Ills: Colonial Power and African Illness by Megan Vaughan; Murder in Vein: A Fang-in-Cheek Mystery by Sue Ann Jaffarian; The Covenant by James Michener.
Favorite book when you were a child:
My all-time favorite book was Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I discovered that book when I was 11, the year I started to write seriously, and throughout my teens, I wrote many novels that paid homage to that book and bore similar titles like Haley of Hollybrook Farm or Janet of Juniper Lane Mansion.
Your top five authors:
I get all hot and bothered for books by Benjamin Alire Saenz. From the continent of Africa, I love both Alexandra Fuller and Chinua Achebe. I still adore the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. And right now, a fan of Joe Meno.
Book you've faked reading:
When I was in first grade, I "participated" in a read-a-thon for Multiple Sclerosis. I forgot to read any books and panicked at the last minute. I went to the bookshelves and added a ton of titles. My mother kept saying, "Really? Are you sure you read INSERT ABSURD TITLE FOR 6-YEAR-OLD TO READ HERE (example: Henry Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body)?" The crazy thing is that my mother, who can't tell a lie to save her life, signed off on it! I contributed enough money to the MS fund to earn a little prize, some little Christmas ornament thingy. For years to come, it reminded me of the lie I told in service to sick people.
Book you are an evangelist for:
Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz. I've read it 15 times, I swear, and I always cry in the exact same spot. Hands down, that is my favorite all-time novel, and my favorite young adult novel to boot. It deals with timeless issues that are just as salient in the late '60s, when the book is set, as they are now.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Sadly, I have never bought a book for the cover. I have to confess, I never notice covers, not if they are at least semi-decent. I only notice bad covers. I could probably list the titles of a few books I have NOT bought because of the cover, but I won't.
Book that changed your life:
When I was nine, I read Tramp for the Lord by Corrie ten Boom, in which a demon-possessed man disrupts a church service she's leading, and the church deacons cast demons out of him. I come from a very religious family and my family's belief system underscored the reality of demons and their ability to possess a human soul. So reading that tore a big deep dark hole in my imagination and all the monsters came pouring forth. For probably two years, I was sweat-soaking-skin terrified that Satan was coming to get me as soon as night fell. At some point, I found a solution to the fear. I would hold on--barely--until my parents went to bed. Then I would huddle in the hallway or my closet, reading books that let me escape my reality, until I was so exhausted that I could finally sleep, usually around 2 or 3 in the morning. So it was one book that scared me to pieces but it was also a whole ton of books that saved me from going over the brink. That is probably why I'm a writer today.
Favorite line from a book:
I've always been fond of a mysterious line from L.M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon: "No one with a thousand ancestors is free." There are a lot of profound implications and truths in that statement.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
God: A Biography by Jack Miles. I love the way he humanizes the God of the Old Testament, revealing him as always one step behind humans, scratching his head, and wondering, "How the hell do I respond to that?" whenever humans figure out some new way to misbehave.