Anika Fajardo
Anika Fajardo’s debut novel is The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore. She is also the award-winning author of Magical Realism for Non-Believers: A Memoir of Finding Family, and the middle-grade novels What If a Fish, which won the Minnesota Book Award, and Meet Me Halfway. Born in Colombia and raised in Minnesota, she currently lives with her family in Minneapolis.
Tell us about the featured book. What is it about, and why did you choose to write this story?
The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore is a novel about family. It begins with Dolores “Dorrie” Moore just after her last living relative has died. A deathbed promise sends her on the trip of a lifetime to her birthplace in Colombia. As she learns more about where she came from and who she is, she must decide if she should listen to the voices of her ancestors who follow her like a Greek chorus, or listen to her own heart. I wrote the book, which is my first novel for adult readers, as a way to explore the messages that women get both from their families and society as a whole and how we choose to respond.
Tell us a little about your writing process. What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book? What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
For The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore, I did a lot of research in advance because Dorrie is a cartographer, a field I knew very little about. As a former librarian, I’m very comfortable with research in books, but a bonus was getting to visit the now-defunct La Jolla Map Museum in California.
Are there any writers or authors who have influenced your writing? If not, who are some of your favorite writers?
This book was partly inspired by one of my recent favorites, a novel by Jaclyn Moriarty (the sister of the Australian Liane Moriarty, author of Big Little Lies and others). Jaclyn has primarily been a writer for children, but her adult novel, Gravity is the Thing, is a delightful story of a grieving woman, who is invited to join a class to learn how to fly (literarily, not in an airplane). It’s such an off-beat premise for a novel that explores profound issues of loss and adult coming of age.
Has a library or librarian impacted your life or your writing life?
I’m a former librarian, so I’m a huge library fan! I spent my childhood at the Hopkins Public Library, where there was a clawfoot tub carpeted with orange shag. I earned a master’s in library science in California and then worked at Carver County Library and at St. Catherine University for many years.
When you’re not writing, what do you like to do in your spare time?
Most of my time is spent at my computer in my office, but I also play classical piano and I love to cook (never bake) and practice Pilates.
Favorite place to visit in Minnesota?
My family inherited a cabin in northern Minnesota, where I love spending time, particularly in the winter (when there are fewer bugs). There is nothing better than sitting in front of a roaring fire looking out at the woods filled with snow.