Bookreporter Talks To... Amanda Peters

Amanda Peters joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her breakout hit debut novel, THE BERRY PICKERS, which is a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Amanda, who is a mixed-race of Mi’kmaq and European ancestry, was born and raised in Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. She explains how a trip with her father to Maine to see the actual site of the blueberry picking that is depicted in the book spurred the story. As he walked her through the fields and showed her the cabin where he and his family had lived during picking season, the story came to her.
Amanda had the opening line very quickly, and from there she wrote the book over a period of four years. For a long time, it was just in the voice of Joe, but she later saw that to have Norma’s story told would bring something else to the novel. She shares how writing THE BERRY PICKERS has brought her closer to her Mi’kmaq roots and her very pleasant surprise at how the book has resonated so well with American readers. Plus, she discusses what she is working on now and offers a look ahead beyond that.
Book discussed in this episode:
THE BERRY PICKERS by Amanda Peters www.bookreporter.com/reviews/...
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Art Credit: Tom Fitzgerald
Edited by Jordan Redd Productions

[@paulahamlin6998]

As a lifetime lover of words, especially, but also books, I have never once had a book come to an end and then verbally cried out
" NOooooo !!".
Your engrossing novel(s) had me in tears, laughing aloud, then angry right along with the characters. Thank you for spending four long years producing this volume that will stick in my mind forever. As I child I was convinced that I was an adopted American Indian somehow and actually ducked down to the floorboards of our car when we drove through Cherokee, NC so they wouldn't reclaim me back!!😂

[@connieprince9718]

Loved this book, I grew up in Central Florida where Strawberry and Citrus pickers would migrate each winter. Gave me new perspective on those orange blossom memories.

[@Lydia-Richardson]

I loved this book.