Life & Arts

The Write Up: The Story Behind the StorytellersWhat does it mean to be a writer? What is the creative process? How do you publish your work? What inspires you to write? When did you become a writer?Each month screenwriter, novelist and performer Owen Egerton sits down with all sorts of writers—from playwrights to poets—to talk about their lives and careers.“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” — Ernest Hemingway“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” — Gustave Flaubert“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”― Jack KerouacSupport for The Write Up comes from Headwater’s School, providing a Montessori foundation leading to an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.

K.A. Holt on Zombies, Haiku and Combating Helicopter Parenting

KUT 90.5 | By Owen Egerton,

Rebecca McInroy

Published June 17, 2015 at 4:31 PM CDT

It’s a true pleasure to get to sit down with Holt on The Write Up and discuss her craft and career and how she balances daily life, deadlines and being a mother of three. Join us as we chat about the attraction of writing for a younger audience, her love for underdogs and preteen ne’er-do-wells, and the allure of poetry.

Her novel Mike Stellar: Nerves of Steel won praise from readers all over the nation. Her poetry shines in her collection Haiku Mama: Because 17 Syllables is All You Have Time to Read, written under the name Kari Anne Roy, is a collection of haikus hilariously bemoaning the struggles and joys of parenting.

In 2010 Holt combined the two genres and started writing middle grade novels in verse. Her first,Brains for Lunch (A Zombie Novel in Haiku?!), followed the misadventures of a preteen zombie dealing with all the romantic challenges of middle school while also being one of the living dead.

Rhyme Schemerfollows a middle school bully with a secret passion for poetry. In her forthcoming novel in verse, House Arrest, a young boy journals about his struggles through a year of probation and his younger brother’s health crisis.

Holt’s antiheroes pop with life (even the undead ones). She depicts the emotional and social pre-teen challenges of her young characters with pitch-perfect humor and riveting authenticity. She manages to avoid condescending to her readers or artificially endowing her middle grade characters with adult takes on the world. She nails the wildly turbulent thoughts and feelings of a 7^th grader – and does it in verse.

Holt has a knack for bringing poetry to surprising places. In 2013 Holt and fellow Austinites Jodi Egerton, Sean Petrie and David Fruchter took a love of vintage typewriters and public poetry and formed Typewriter Rodeo. The group can be found at music concerts, museum openings, and SXSW parties banging out spontaneous poems on old school typewriters.

Holt, again writing as Kari Anne Roy, is also a celebrated blogger known for fearlessly diving into difficult issues ranging from abortion legislation to CPS investigations. Her insights are supported by relentless honesty and a wry wit. More than one entry on her blog haikuoftheday.com has gone viral and emerged on the national scene.

K.A. Holt loves middle grade novels and poetry, and has a gift for both.