The National Book Award is one of the nation’s highest honors for aspiring writers. The winning book is engraved with the National Book Award emblem, and the author receives a cash prize. Sally Lundgren’s first bell English 8AA class had the opportunity to interview Kenneth Cadow, a finalist in the young literature category for 2023.
In addition to being an award-winning writer, Cadow is also the co-principal of Oxbow High School in Vermont.
“He [Cadow] was focused on answering our questions and not bragging about his award,” Brennan Riggs, a student in Lundgren’s class, said.
The class did extensive preparation for the interview, such as adjusting their schedule by two weeks to craft quality questions, making sure everything was in line before the big day.
“We came up with discussion questions before the interview,” Riggs said. “There were questions that we should ask and then there were questions [that] we could ask if we wanted to.”
Lundgren reached out to Cadow to see if he would be interested in an interview, granting the class the opportunity to speak to him. Prior to the interview, the class read his book Gather, which tells the story of a young Vermont teen who is forced to completely upend his life in order to keep his family afloat. Cadow often draws from his own experiences to set the scenes of his books.
“He lives in a cabin in the woods,” Riggs said. “He is in nature a lot as well, which made the setting far more descriptive.”
In addition to completing an ample amount of work in preparation for the interview, the class also did follow-up assignments to reflect on their discussion.
“We had to write a conclusion about it [the interview],” Riggs said. “We also had to write a self-reflection about how well we thought we prepared for it.”
Overall, Lundrgen and her class believe the experience was extremely beneficial, as students were able to converse with a writer who had won one of the most prestigious titles in American literature. Along with enhancing their reading of the book, the experience also provided valuable insight into what it is like to be a successful author.
“We were all very excited and happy to speak to him,” Riggs said. “It was cool to be able to talk to the author of a book we read in class and discuss our ideas about it.”