TOWAMENCIN- It is a rare occurrence when readers are given the opportunity to ask an author questions about a book he or she wrote. Last Wednesday, Alan Drew, author of Gardens of Water, visited NPHS during 9th period for a Q&A session about his novel. He was the second speaker in the Celebrate the Arts speaker series.

Mrs. Janet Kratz, English teacher at NPHS and organizer of the speaker series, met Drew at last year’s AAUW awards ceremony. With her mission to kindle students’ love for the arts in mind, Kratz opened the doors for students have a unique opportunity.

“I’ve been to book group to book group, but I’ve never been able to ask a question from the author. That’s not something I’ve ever done before,” explained Kratz.

Inspired by the devastating effects of the 1999 Marmara earthquake that occurred just four days after he arrived in Istanbul to teach English, Drew wrote a novel that explored the cultural divide between traditionalism and modernity. Set in Istanbul just before and after the earthquake, Gardens of Water follows the lives of Sinan, a devout Muslim father who desires to return to Kurdistan, and his daughter Irem, who dreams of breaking free from her domestic duties and future lifestyle.

Kratz, Mr. Todd Bauer, Principal of NPHS, and senior Ellie Griffiths enjoyed the many aspects of the novel.

“Not only was the book quite readable and entertaining, but I actually learned quite a bit about other religions and cultures,” Bauer said.

“I liked the political layers. It validated some of the things I read in the paper and brought them to life,” Kratz stated. “I liked that there were times when I was defending America and other times when I was cringing at some things we might have done.”

“For me, Gardens of Water is all about the characters. There seems to be something in every character that I can relate to… I can somehow see myself in a young girl and her family in a place that I have never traveled to and a culture that I have never experienced before,” Griffiths said.

“Even characters who did terrible things were not always terrible people at the core, and I think life’s like that. Life’s very ambiguous. It’s shades of gray. It’s not black and white,” Kratz said.

Kratz was stunned that a “middle aged white man” could “crawl into the head of a 15-year old.”

“I was fascinated with the characterization of Irem… There were feelings she describes that I remember having… It was very convincing,” Kratz said.

Drew’s writing journey began when he started writing poetry.

“It was very sappy, terrible stuff,” Drew admitted.

Although he knew he wanted to write a book at the age of nineteen, Drew was rejected by twelve writing workshops. At the age of 23, he gave up.

“I believed that [writers] had to either be a young genius writer or just not a writer,” Drew said.

After becoming a high school teacher and traveling to Istanbul, Drew decided to pursue his dream once again. After working on Gardens of Water for four years, Drew finally achieved his goal at the age of 38.

“I didn’t know how to be an author or how I was supposed to act,” Drew admitted.

Despite this, Drew realized what it really means to be a writer.

“Being a writer is sitting down and writing,” Drew said.

Drew gave advice to students aspiring to be writers.

“Read and write… Before I wrote a book I wrote thousands of pages of stuff… Most of it was terrible… Sometimes the bad stuff has to be written in order to get into the good stuff,” Drew said. “Carve out time to write.”

Griffiths was touched by Drew’s experiences.

“What I took away was a lot of insight into the process of writing a novel from someone who knows firsthand what it’s like to take on something like that. It was very helpful and inspiring,” Griffiths said.