When Mystery and Mythology Collide

Author and illustrator Nasugraq Rainey Hopson shares the process of keeping her main character in the dark while introducing readers to a culturally significant mythology with her new middle-grade book, Eagle Drums.

- MICHAEL WOODSON

The act of writing is already a deeply personal endeavor. We sit at our desks or on our couches, at kitchen tables or back patios, and we pour out of us the stories we hope will resonate with readers. For young readers, they're often looking for answers to a world in which they're actively becoming themselves.

Being a kid, in many ways, is a mystery. How do you interpret how it feels to grow up, the changing dynamics within one's own family, the fear that accompanies adolescence and the unknown? For middle-grade authors, gaining a readers' trust is paramount. But how do you do that when the story's purpose is a mystery even to the main character? How do you introduce an origin of cultural significance? Nasugraq Rainey Hopson knows this first-hand and tackles it head-on with her latest middle-grade novel, combining fiction with mythology to broaden her readers' understanding of the world and help them through the ever-treacherous waters of growing up.

Hopson is a tribally enrolled Iñupiaq author and illustrator, born and raised in Alaska. She studied studio art at Cal Poly Humboldt, as well as philosophy and marine biology. With several careers to her name, including documentarian and schoolteacher, her focus has always been on reclaiming Indigenous culture and creativity. This she succeeds at in Eagle Drums.