Secret Garden Books in Seattle, WA interviewed YA author Zoe Hana Mikuta.
How did you find your way to being a young reader’s author?
I wrote my debut, Gearbreakers (YA sapphic sci-fi) in high school — I was writing what I was reading, and it felt natural to create characters who were my age.
In your writing process, how do you know when your ‘world building’ is done?
When I can walk through the world in my head! But, really, even when the final draft is done and the book is published, it’s hard not to think back to what I could’ve done differently. Don’t think that’s going to go away though 🙂
What was your favorite book when you were a YA reader?
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead; close second: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Who do you aspire to be compared to?
Shirley Jackson! She’s my absolute favorite author, and the way she writes madness and character internality is unmatched in its subtlety and effectiveness — I aspire to write eeriness as cleanly as she does.
What is a fun fact not written in your bio?
I make lots o’ soups.
Find Zoe Hana Mikuta’s books at Secret Garden and other independent bookstores.
