Kelly Link

Kelly Link (www.locusmag.com)

When you write an essay about a hero you always ask yourself how your hero would start the essay. Would they simply state their hero and talk about their accomplishments? Would they start with the typical, overused beginning of the dictionary's definition of a hero? Would they use a quote? Or an excerpt from a book? Out of all these choices, I think my hero would do something completely different.

My hero's name is Kelly Link. She was born in Miami, Florida and is a graduate from Columbia University. Her stories, including Magic for Beginners and the Specialist’s Hat, have won many awards. She and her husband manage Small Beer Press, a publisher of fantasy and fiction. Although she is a writer, Link has never written a novel, only collections of short stories, many of which have inspired many, including me.

I think, above all else, Kelly Link's stories deserve to be called groundbreaking. They range from a plethora of topics including a secret TV show, a village hidden in a handbag, and aliens that abduct an unsuspecting surfer. But I think the best thing about these stories is their way of making you so absorbed in them, you lose interest in whatever is going on around you from the first word, to the last sentence. The characters are so memorable, you cry when the story is over. And the plots are so creative, you feel like the author has written them inside of a dream.

So, why is Kelly Link my hero? It isn't just because her stories are amazing but the way she writes them. She has a way of making you feel like you are right there with the characters as they carry you on a magical, fantastic journey, something that not all writers can do. Her imaginative way of thinking puts an end to all rules and restrictions anyone has ever told you about writing. When you tell Kelly Link the impossible, she does it. When you ask her a question, she'll circle C when the only choices are A and B. And when I grow up, I want to choose C and write just like Kelly Link.

Illustration by Shaun Tan for Pretty Monsters (www.kellylink.net/shaun-tan)

I end with the words of Kelly Link in the story, Pretty Monsters. “You can't judge a book by its cover. Whether or not this story has a happy ending depends, of course, on who is reading it. Whether you are a wolf or a girl. A girl or a monster or both. Not everyone in this story gets a happy ending. Not everyone who reads this story feels the same way about how it ends. And if you go back and read it again, you may discover it isn't the story you read. Stories shift their shape.” ~Kelly Link