Conversations with Julia Keller
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I was born with the sound of a railroad whistle in my ears, the mountains at my back, and the river at my feet. ~ Julia Keller
It was one of those sleepy watercolor mornings: budding leaves and Japanese Cherry, brushstrokes of pale green and watered silk. A perfect rainy day to linger over good coffee and conversation with a gifted writer at Huntington’s River and Rail Bakery. I carried two steaming mugs and a plate of lemon and cranberry-orange scones to a corner table. Julia Keller and I talked about growing up in Huntington, our love of West Virginia, Ray Bradbury, James Dean, and the power of a good story. I discovered that her love affair with stories began when her mother read The Hobbit aloud to Julia and her sisters. “Without stories, there is no world,” she tells me, and I know she’s right.
“You’re my first Pulitzer Prize winner,” the shop owner calls, walking up to our table. “I bet she is,” I say, still awestruck myself.
Julia Keller was born and raised in Huntington and divides her time between the bustling city of Chicago and a lakeside cottage in Ohio. She loves being West Virginian, and her roots run deep. Her great-grandfather was a coal miner, and his son worked in a factory that made ice cream, and his son—her father—was a mathematics professor at Marshall University. A few weeks after our meeting, she made a tough 
decision to leave her job as cultural critic at the Chicago Tribune to teach at Ohio University and write more novels.
Although she penciled her mysteries in spiral-bound notebooks at the age of 10, exciting job opportunities in other genres lured her away from home. Julia won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for “A Wicked Wind Takes Aim,” a three-part narrative series about a deadly tornado that rocked the small town of Utica, Illinois. She is the author of a nonfiction book called Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It (Viking, 2009). Now she returns to her first love, writing mysteries. In her finely crafted and suspenseful debut murder mystery, A Killing in the Hills (Minotaur Books, 2012), the protagonist, Belfa “Bell” Elkins comes back to Appalachia and confronts the tragic toll of rampant prescription drug abuse and, ultimately, her own harrowing past.
WV LIVING – Where was that photo taken of you on the porch steps?
Julia Keller – That was when we lived on Jefferson Avenue in the west end of Huntington. I have very strong memories there because I was obsessed with cowboys. I built a little jail out of cardboard in my room, and I was the sheriff. I remember writing to the tooth fairy when my tooth came out: “I want a pair of cowboy boots and a pair of guns.” I have that specific memory of writing the letter and making a loop-de-loop curl with the “s” on the end of guns. I think I’m about four and a half in that photo, and I’m wearing red tennis shoes, a red plaid shirt, and blue glasses.
WVL – Tell me about growing up in Huntington.
JK – My grandfather owned many homes in the area so we would rent from him. We lived on Jefferson Avenue, Norway Avenue, and across the river for a time in Proctorville. Wherever my grandfather would buy a new home, my father would fix it up. He was a math professor, but he also loved working with his hands. Sometimes he would come home from teaching at Marshall, and my mother would walk in after a hard day at work to discover that he had knocked out the back wall and added a second bathroom or something. One time our bathtub and toilet were sitting in the yard, and he came running out of the house and said, “Now, nobody get upset. I’ll have it all put back by tonight.” Well, three months later...
WVL – You often give a nod to Huntington in your essays or speeches.
JK – Yes. That’s kind of a new thing for me. I used to get kidded a lot about being from West Virginia. Early in Chicago, one fellow came up to me and said, “Is it true you’re from West Virginia?” I said, “Yes.” And he asked, “Are you sure?” Then he said, “All I know is that you are doing wonders for the reputation of that state.” Which, when you think about it, is not a compliment at all. People would never make a joke about someone’s race or ethnicity. I used to be quite defensive about it, but not now. I’ve gone in the other direction and wear it proudly.
WVL – Do you remember where your favorite books were when you were a child?
JK – I have intense memories—very vivid—of the old Gallaher Library, of walking in the back among the tall shelves and gleaming wood tables, and I’m right where my favorite books were and one book called The Forgotten Door. Science fiction, adventure, and mysteries have always been a big part of my life. We did go occasionally to the library in downtown Huntington, the beautiful Andrew Carnegie one. In Waukegan, Illinois, where Ray Bradbury grew up, there’s another beautiful Carnegie library. It’s just waiting for someone with $7 or $8 million to come and restore it—make it a Ray Bradbury museum.
WVL – I’m a huge fan of Ray Bradbury, and I’ve discovered you are, too.
JK – There’s a new book coming out in July called Shadow Show, and it was compiled by one of my friends, Sam Weller, who is Ray Bradbury’s biographer. He asked several of us, me and some very renowned authors, to write short stories in the tradition of Bradbury. His story “The Whole Town is Sleeping” was my inspiration, so I sat down and wrote a story called “Hayleigh’s Dad.” Some of the other writers in the book are Joe Hill, Margaret Atwood, and Neil Gaiman—major, major authors, and I’m so happy to be in that collection.
WVL – You said at the Ohio River Festival of Books that good writing is good writing no matter what the genre. In my opinion, it’s an outrage that Ray Bradbury hasn’t been awarded the Pulitzer or Nobel Prize.
JK – I completely agree. It’s unbelievable when you look at his great novels and short stories; he has changed America. I think he is the single-most imaginative genius of our generation. And, the generation before ours. And, possibly the generation after. He’s amazing. Whenever I get discouraged, I remember that people like Ray Bradbury and Harper Lee were once nobodies, typing on a manual typewriter in a cold room and striking over typos, and the world would have said, “Are you nuts? No one cares what you’re writing.” What made them go forward to do this? To have this vision, this push? Of course they were gifted, but after I read Bradbury’s biography, I had even more respect for him. All those amazing stories of his you read as a kid: “The Whole Town is Sleeping,” “All Summer in a Day.” Then when you get a little older you start reading The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, and you realize he is an incredible artist of profound philosophical depth.
If I were king of the world, Ray Bradbury would have the Nobel, and Irene McKinney (West Virginia’s former poet laureate) would have won three Pulitzers, but I’m not king of the world, and I always have to remember that there are other opinions.
WVL – Is your fondness for graphic novels influenced by your early love of comic books?
JK – I think so. I wrote a column once to explore my own psychology about why I like graphic novels: they force you to slow down—the illustrations and the words. You can’t skip through a graphic novel. My idea of heaven as a child was a stack of Superman comic books. I was obsessed with Superman. My closet was full—I had the best collection. Every week I knew the minute the new comic book came out at the drugstore.
WVL – I love Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, that magical ice castle with memory crystals and holograms.
JK – For a couple of years I did essays for NewsHour with Jim Lauer, and one of them was about the appeal of superheroes. Everyone has a theory, but mine was that it is about learning to be alone, learning to live with your special gift that draws you apart from your fellow citizens. When they talked about Superman wanting to be alone with his memories, he left everything. He left his family behind and amidst all the adventures, there’s this unutterable sadness. A superhero is only one—you are unique in the universe—so how do you deal with that? You don’t look like anyone else, and you never have that moment where you can talk with someone and say, “Okay, I can lift buildings, too.” It never happens.
WVL – Who were some of your real-life heroes?
JK – I read about great scientists like Marie Curie in grade school and that, for some reason, galvanized my imagination. I was really obsessed with science and having a chemistry set, beakers and flasks, and a laboratory. I saw myself as a science person rather than any kind of writerly person.
WVL – What about James Dean?
JK – Oh my god, I had this James Dean obsession when I was in school and wrote about him. I went to Fairmont, Indiana, talked to his family, and visited his grave. When I was going to Marshall that was the first piece I ever got published. It was the Nissan Student Travel Writing Contest, and I won first place and $1,000.
WVL – You split your time between Chicago and rural Ohio. That seems to be the best of both worlds.
JK – That’s the difference between sirens at night and horn honks, spring peepers, and crickets. That’s why I’m torn, and I’m at the point where I could move wherever I want, and I think to myself, now’s the time to decide what speaks to your soul. Where do you want to live? And for me, it would never be a big city. I have great close friends there, and they will argue with me about the diversity and the theater and the symphony, but a big city seems so impermanent.
