Today we’d like to introduce you to Anika Fajardo.
Hi Anika, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, ever since I was a little girl. My family read aloud to me and I later became a voracious reader. But I never felt like being a writer was something I could actually do. I pursued a career in first teaching and then librarianship. It wasn’t until I moved back to Minneapolis in my late twenties that I began to take writing classes at the Loft Literary Center. With the support of the Loft’s Mentor Series, I began work on what eventually became my memoir Magical Realism for Non-Believers. But it would take over 9 years of writing and learning and submitting. During that time I was awarded several grants including a few from the Minnesota State Arts Board. I also began publishing in literary journals. When at first I couldn’t find a publisher for my memoir, I began writing a book for children, which would eventually become my debut middle-grade novel What If a Fish. A few different things coincided in 2018 to land me both an agent and a publisher (U of MN Press for my memoir and Simon & Schuster for my middle-grade). During the pandemic, I began teaching at Augsburg University’s MFA in Creative Writing program and began work on what would become my next middle-grade novel, Meet Me Halfway. In 2020, my debut memoir was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and in 2022, What If a Fish was awarded the Minnesota Book Award. My second novel was also a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award as well as several others. Now, I still teach graduate students as well as write full time and will release my debut novel for adult readers in September from Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The nine years between beginning my memoir/writing path and publications were long and painful. I had many close calls along the way, which almost made the rejections even more difficult. For example. the manuscript was a finalist for the Bakeless Literary Prize, but that year there were no books awarded the prize and was then discontinued.
I also had some disappointments and struggles during the pandemic. My memoir released in 2019, but I was still doing book events for it when everything shut down. My debut middle-grade novel was pushed back because of pandemic-related paper shortages and released to little fanfare during lock-down. Publishing was still feeling the effects of the pandemic when my second middle-grade novel released in 2022.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I was born in Colombia to an American mother and Colombian father. When I was a toddler, they divorced and I was raised in Minnesota by my mother, without any contact with Colombia or my father until adulthood. At the time of my childhood, Minnesota was over 90% white, and I felt out of place as a half=Colombian without any connection to that side of me. Because of this experience, all of my books center on family, identity, and place. All my books have something to do with mixed, blended, or separated families, and they all include aspects of Colombia. In addition to my memoir and two middle-grade novels, I also wrote the novelization of Encanto (another nod to Colombia). I never set out to be a half-Colombian/half-Minnesotan writer, but I believe that is definitely a niche. Although it seems specific, I’ve had lots of people with similar (but different) experiences connect with my work.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I’m thrilled to be publishing my debut novel because that’s what I always dreamed of doing. But I also feel a little more confident in the climate of publishing for adults rather than children due to the current politics in the US. Publishing is and will continue to be precarious in terms of career longevity. I’m just grateful to be where I am at the moment.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://anikafajardo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anikawriter/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anikawriter
- Other: https://anikafajardo.substack.com/
