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| photo: Karianne Flaathen | |
Edward Underhill grew up in Wisconsin suburbs, where he could not walk to anything, so he had to make up his own adventures. He studied music in college, spent several years living in very small apartments in New York, and currently resides in California with his partner and a talkative black cat. He is the author of the young adult novels Always the Almost and This Day Changes Everything. The In-Between Bookstore (Avon Books, January 24, 2025), his first book for adults, is a whimsical and healing novel about a trans man who moves back to his small hometown, a magical bookstore, and the questions "If you had one chance to talk to your younger self... would you? What would you say?"
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
A trans man walks into a magical bookstore, enters a time slip, and encounters his pre-transition, teenage self behind the register.
On your nightstand now:
At any given moment, I have a stack of books that is either about to topple off my nightstand or crush it under their combined weight. But I'll say currently on the top of the stack: I'll Have What He's Having by Adib Khorram (hugely fun so far), Ocean's Godori by Elaine U. Cho (ditto), A Constellation of Minor Bears by Jen Ferguson (she always writes with such nuance), and The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew (the premise is so cool!).
Favorite book when you were a child:
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I discovered it randomly at my local library because of the eye-catching and wonderfully bananas '80s cover--wizards and lightning bolts and a giant blue demon face. That book proceeded to basically live at my house. As soon as it was due, I'd return it and then go back to the library to check it out again the next day. I don't think this book is why I started writing my own stories, but it's absolutely the first book I remember trying to analyze (at age 12) to figure out why it was so damn good.
Your top five authors:
Honestly, the answer is constantly evolving, depending on what I've read recently and what new book has blown me away. But in terms of authors I return to again and again: Diana Wynne Jones, Kristin Cashore, Steven Rowley (Lily and the Octopus was the first time I saw a casually queer adult character in a novel that was not about how terrible it is to be queer), Adib Khorram (Darius the Great Is Not Okay and neither was I after reading that book), and Madeleine L'Engle.
Book you've faked reading:
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. I was supposed to read it in high school and I got so bored. I think I made it about halfway through before I gave up and checked out a movie version from the library. I suppose it was an early lesson in just how subjective books are, because I know it's counted as "great literature" but by the end of the movie, I just felt like I'd made the right call giving up on the book!
Book you're an evangelist for:
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. I'm picky about romance, but I adored this book. It's funny, voice-y, self-deprecating, and delivers an emotional wallop when you least expect it. I'm pleased to say I've converted many people to loving it, including my agent.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Absolutely, Positively Not by David LaRochelle. First queer book I bought, and I pulled it off the shelf solely because the cover looked like rainbow sherbet and the little "window" in the jacket made me laugh.
Book you hid from your parents:
I'm not sure I ever actively hid books from my parents! They weren't really nosy about what I read.
Book that changed your life:
Well, this question is just rude. You expect me to pick only one?! But a recent book that changed my life was Never Say You Can't Survive by Charlie Jane Anders. Part writing guide, part encouragement book, all about creating when the world feels like a hopeless dumpster fire. It was a valuable reminder that the stories we tell and the lives we live are completely intertwined, and neither is full without the other.
Favorite line from a book:
And that, the monster said, is not the truth at all. --A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.
First time I remember a single line just breaking me apart and healing me at the same time. I think about the power of that a lot when I write--that delivering an emotional gut punch is not just about the sentiment of what you're writing or the particular plot point, but about the specific words you choose, the simplicity of them, and literally where they fall in time and space (beginning of a paragraph, end of a section, near the beginning or end of a particular story arc, and so forth).
Five books you'll never part with:
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (my copy is literally disintegrating, but I love how brown the pages have become); This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (had no idea what was going on at first, was practically sobbing by the end); Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (entirely about healing from trauma, and the villain is dead the entire book); Pagan's Crusade by Catherine Jinks (had never encountered voice like that); and A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (felt like it was written for everyone who's constantly searching for something without knowing what it is).
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen. That book slapped. The combination of emotional and plot twists was so well done, I was alternately cackling and melting down while reading it.
Book that made you cry:
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. Just... oof.