Interview: The Night Wanderer – Drew Hayden Taylor

Last week, this very nervous and starstruck interviewer had the pleasure of talking to Drew Hayden Taylor — the very smart, very funny, very charming author of The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel, the KOJB Book Club selection for February. Drew Taylor is an Ojibway man from Curve Lake First Nation and is an extraordinarily prolific writer, having written a number of critically-acclaimed plays and essays.  His first novel, The Night Wanderer, is story of a teenage girl named Tiffany Hunter living in the fictional Otter Lake Reserve; her family takes in a boarder from Europe who happens to be an Anishinaabe vampire returning to his homeland. It’s a great story for any young adult, especially teens going through tough times or feeling like they’re trapped, and even not-so-young adults!

The Night Wanderer is published in paperback by Annick Press and is available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book World, and Target.

Listen to our KOJB Book Club interview with the delightful Drew Taylor here: 2012-02 Taylor Night Wanderer

BONUS! Drew Taylor’s play, Raven Stole the Sun, is coming to Minnesota. New Native Theatre presents Toronto’s Red Sky Performance‘s touring production of Raven Stole the Sun with performances March 23-25, 2012, at the Stepping Stone Theatre in St. Paul. Tickets are $7 each, and the show is for families and people of all ages. Learn more at New Native Theatre’s Raven Stole the Sun webpage. To purchase tickets online, please visit this link.

And if you’re looking for more vampire tales to satisfy your bloodlust booklust:

• Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) – Considered the classic of vampire novels and written in an epistolic format (journals and letters relate the events of the story), this is the book people tend to think of when they think vampires. The book holds up very well over time, even if some might consider it pretty “tame” by today’s standards. The reading style is a little more demanding than most contemporary popular literature but well worth any extra effort!
• Stephen King‘s ‘Salem’s Lot (1975) – Stephen King took his turn spinning a vampire yarn, and the book is a pop culture classic. Written for adults but usually well-received by teens who are moving beyond the typical aimed-at-YA (young adult, for those not hip with the youths) books.
• Anne Rice‘s Vampire Chronicles series – The series is largely credited for “bringing sexy back” to vampires and spawned two popular movies, Interview with a Vampire (1994) and Queen of the Damned (2002). Might not be appropriate for all readers (anyone squeamish with R-rated sex and violence) but a much-beloved series by many vampire aficionados.

1. Interview with the Vampire (1976)
2. The Vampire Lestat (1985)
3. The Queen of the Damned (1988)
4. The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
5. Memnoch the Devil (1995)
6. The Vampire Armand (1998)
7. Merrick (2000)
8. Blood and Gold (2001)
9. Blackwood Farm (2002)
10. Blood Canticle (2003)

• Laurell K. Hamilton‘s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series – A fun, fast-paced, super-steamy supernatural series – darker than Southern Vampire Mysteries, lighter than Vampire Chronicles. Might not be appropriate for most teens or sensitive or socially-conservative readers (think R+ as a rating for sex and violence, if such a category existed).

1. Guilty Pleasures (1993)
2. The Laughing Corpse (1994)
3. Circus of the Damned (1995)
4. The Lunatic Cafe (1996)
5. Bloody Bones (1996)
6. The Killing Dance (1997)
7. Burnt Offerings (1998)
8. Blue Moon (1998)
9. Obsidian Butterfly (2000)
10. Narcissus in Chains (2001)
11. Cerulean Sins (2003)
12. Incubus Dreams (2004)
13. Micah (2006)
14. Danse Macabre (2006)
15. The Harlequin (2007)
16. Blood Noir (2008)
17. Skin Trade (2009)
18. Flirt (2010)
19. Bullet (2010)
20. Hit List (2011)
21. Kiss the Dead (2012)

• Charlaine Harris‘ Southern Vampire Mysteries / Sookie Stackhouse series – Basis for the HBO television series True Blood, these books are fun, quick reads that are superficially lighthearted in spots and darkly satirical in others. Aimed more at the twentysomething-plus set, the books will still find avid fans in mature teens. The main character Sookie Stackhouse is a remarkably sympathetic character for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.

1. Dead Until Dark (2001)
2. Living Dead in Dallas (2002)
3. Club Dead (2003)
4. Dead to the World (2004)
5. Dead as a Doornail (2005)
6. Definitely Dead (2006)
7. All Together Dead (2007)
8. From Dead to Worse (2008)
9. Dead and Gone (2009)
10. Dead in the Family (2010)
11. Dead Reckoning (2011)
12. Deadlocked (2012)

• Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight series - Lots of people from teens to “twi-moms” are smitten with this supernatural soap opera of a series which has been made into a series of equally-popular movies.

1. Twilight (2005)
2. New Moon (2006)
3. Eclipse (2007)
4. Breaking Dawn (2008)

• Cynthia Leitich Smith‘s Tantalize series – Aimed at teens but likely to appeal more broadly, this set of books creates a dark, rich fantasy twist on a realistic world, much in the vein of the Southern Vampire Mysteries but more appropriate for younger readers. Cool fact: the author is a Muscogee Creek Nation citizen.

1. Tantalize (2007)
2. Eternal (2009)
3. Blessed (2011)
4. Diabolical (2012)

Did we miss any vampire novels you love? Have a supernatural series you are dying to share (wordplay intended)? Or do you just want to go all fangirl/fanboy overThe Night Wanderer by the fantastic Mr. Drew Hayden Taylor? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.

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