'Fiction with a life of its own'

 

“One of the things that writing has taught me is that fiction has a life of its own. Fictional places are sometimes more real than the view from our bedroom window. Fictional people can sometimes become as close to us as our loved ones.” – Joanne Harris

  

Born in England on this date in 1964, Harris's novel Chocolat won literary acclaim and adaptation into an Oscar nominated film starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench and Johnny Depp.  Her nearly three dozen books – both fiction and nonfiction – have won numerous awards and been published in more than 50 countries.   

 

Harris started writing in elementary school and had stories published while still in high school.  Her early novels often focused on mysticism, literary ghost stories and magic.  But since Chocolat’s success, she's branched into a wide range of genres, including several books of short stories, a couple of cookbooks, fantasies based on Norse mythology, and several psychological thrillers.  

 

Her latest novels are 2023's Broken Light and Maiden, Mother, Crone, and she is a frequent contributor of travel articles and articles on literary themes to newspapers and magazines around the globe.  She’s also made a name for herself as a literary judge for a number of major writing awards.    In 2020 she wrote Ten Things About Writing, a well-received self-help book for writers. 

“I like literature that you respond to in some way,” she said.  “You laugh, you cry, you turn the light on - that's great, it's eliciting a response by proxy.  If you can actually get someone to sit on the edge of their seat and feel nervous if there's a knock at the door, then you've done something pretty terrific as a writer.”