Ask the Author: Levi Rogers
Answered Questions (6)
Levi Rogers
I got the idea for my novel, Utah! A Novel because I wanted to create a story set in Utah to show the true diversity and beauty inherent within the state that didn't play into stereotypes or caricatures of what the average person living outside of Utah might think. I lived in Utah for 8 years and found a surprisingly different sort of state than what my preconceived notions of it were. I wanted to write a sort of neo-Western, nature-based, Pre-apocalyptic thriller about people in a society set slightly in the future.
I wrote the majority of the novel between 2015-2019 when it felt like there was all this simmering tension beneath U.S. society--the threats of climate change, racial injustice, inequality--and to me it felt like no one was taking these threats seriously. We were arrogant. We kept thinking that we had done everything right and that we would not have to reckon with our past mistakes as a nation or with our threat of destruction for the future. And then of course, in 2020 it all bubbled up to the surface. And yet, some people are still in denial about very real things happening around them-climate change and systemic, racial injustice. I felt like a volcano was an accurate metaphor for both the tension beneath the surface of our thin veneer of society, and the aspects of nature that are out of our control. We can get so arrogant as humans. Natural disasters humble us.
Also, sometimes, on my darkest night, I think it would be best if a Supervolcano went off and destroyed us all.
I wrote the majority of the novel between 2015-2019 when it felt like there was all this simmering tension beneath U.S. society--the threats of climate change, racial injustice, inequality--and to me it felt like no one was taking these threats seriously. We were arrogant. We kept thinking that we had done everything right and that we would not have to reckon with our past mistakes as a nation or with our threat of destruction for the future. And then of course, in 2020 it all bubbled up to the surface. And yet, some people are still in denial about very real things happening around them-climate change and systemic, racial injustice. I felt like a volcano was an accurate metaphor for both the tension beneath the surface of our thin veneer of society, and the aspects of nature that are out of our control. We can get so arrogant as humans. Natural disasters humble us.
Also, sometimes, on my darkest night, I think it would be best if a Supervolcano went off and destroyed us all.
Levi Rogers
The Fame and Fortune. No, but seriously, it's the ability to get lost in creating a scene, a sentence, to dig into empathy for your characters, and how it all makes you see the world and the people in it in a different way.
Levi Rogers
I always have like, 4-5 projects I'm working on at any given time to avoid writer's block. That way, when I have to put something away or feel blocked on a certain project, I usually find an opening in another one.
Levi Rogers
Start immediately because writing takes YEARS.
Levi Rogers
I am currently working on a memoir about faith, depression, and belonging titled: All We Can Hope For in This Dark and Beautiful World.
Levi Rogers
Sometimes I'm often not inspired to write. But I sit down and something always happens.
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