As part of our celebration of the 2021 Youth Media Awards, we will be featuring original interviews with 2021 honorees in the weeks ahead, and what better place to start than with Everything Sad is Untrue? This complicated and tender novel entered the world and immediately began making waves, ultimately being honored with the 2021 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellent in Young Adult Literature. Rumor has it that when the award committee called to share the news, Nayeri poured a bottle of champagne over his head! What a way to celebrate!

This interview comes from member-manager Sara Beth, who shared a conversation with 2021 Printz Award winner Daniel Nayeri a few weeks before the YMAs. It was originally published on her site, and she and Nayeri have agreed to republish it here.
Daniel Nayeri is no newcomer to the publishing world. His has been a trusted voice, both as an editor and a writer, for years. But the success of his latest novel (Everything Sad is Untrue) has launched him into the public eye, and we are all the better for his generosity, his kindness, and the beauty of his book. For this book, and for the time and energy he has granted to participate in this interview, I am grateful.
INTERVIEWER: Before we get into Everything Sad is Untrue, I’m curious about your work at Odd Dot. Can you describe your mission, and your path into publishing?
NAYERI: My path in publishing would require one of those modern hour-long TV drama series that marketing teams would describe as “sizzling!” and “pulls no punches!” I just need Dev Patel to gain some weight, break his nose a few times, and call me. But the short version is that I’ve been lucky enough to edit books in almost every category of publishing. Literary fiction, history, crime drama, pop nonfiction, memoir, coffee table books, fashion, cookbooks, YA novels, Sci-Fi Fantasy, middle grade, picture books, graphic novels, sticker books, novelty projects, and toys. They’re all completely different spaces, of course. But the core of making something, of being creative within the confines of a new format, genre, or market, is that each project is always a new delightful puzzle.
Continue reading An Interview with Printz Award Winner Daniel Nayeri