M.T. Anderson's Keynote: The End of All Our Exploring: The Journey of Narrative, part 1

As Lin Oliver is saying in her introduction, M.T. Anderson is "one of the truly great geniuses of our century!"
She sums it up, the first time speaking at our conference, a man who
"creates books for thinking kids,"
M.T. Anderson!




M.T. Anderson has the room cracking up!

He loved books of fantasy, the romance of geography itself. So he always thought he'd live a life of adventure. But instead, he went to Canada.

That didn't work out so well - in fact, none of his early travels did. (You should hear the story of fighting some cats for the last chicken in the kingdom...)

He wanted someplace to experience the thrill of travel - so he decided to write a novel of fantastic adventures from the safety of his living room.

That's how he chose to write adventure novels about Delaware. Jasper Dash and the Flame Pits of Delaware and a new book coming out about a character trying to escape from Delaware... to New Jersey.

Now he's telling about the letter he got from the Governor of Delaware.

He even created an interactive fantasy map of Delaware. What a neat experiment in world building.

"I had a neat time and it cracked me the hell up!"

So funny!