Q&A with Amanda Peters, Author of “The Berry Pickers”

We are so excited to share a new Q&A with Amanda Peters, the incredible author of The Berry Pickers, which won the 2024 Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Fiction and the 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. Poignant and haunting, Peters’ debut follows a Mi’kmaq family who must cope with the unsolved disappearance of their youngest member, a four-year-old girl named Ruthie, who is unknowingly kidnapped and raised as “Norma” in a new family. Read more below about Amanda Peters and The Berry Pickers, and purchase your own copy in our store today. 

You’ve referred to The Berry Pickers as “the book you didn’t want to write.” What inspired you to share this story, and why did you feel that you were the right person to tell it?

This book was inspired by my father and his stories of working in the Maine berry fields in the 1960s and 1970s. He encouraged me to write about this but at first I didn’t think there was a fictional story to tell. He had a lot of great memories but I am a fiction writer. But we decided to go to the berry fields one weekend in August 2017 and the story came to me down there. I don’t know if I was the right person, I think the story chose me.

You dedicate your book to your father, thanking him for his stories. Similarly, in The Berry Pickers, family history is extremely important to the characters, especially Norma, as she is unknowingly transplanted into a new family where she constantly feels out of place. For both yourself and your characters, can you talk a bit about the importance of recognizing and celebrating these generational stories, as well as their impact on identity and belonging?

I think I related a little to Norma here. I am mixed race and I never truly understand where I belong. Writing this book has helped me with that, writing Norma has helped me. I think this is a reality for many of those who were ripped from their families and taken away and for the families left behind. But we need to remember that among this trauma, there is still love.

The alternating perspectives—which shift between Joe and Norma and their past and present—was such a powerful structure. Did you always intend to tell the story in this way? What drew you to this narration style?

Funny enough, the story was initially only meant to be Joe’s story and how he dealt with the disappearance of his sister. But after two or three chapters, I realized that Norma had to have her own story. So I started to write hers. I did have to stop and write all of Joe’s and then all of Norma’s because I was finding it difficult to keep to their respective voices. Once they were   done, I put them together like a puzzle. I think with a first person narrative, it can get monotonous so I’m glad I followed my creativity and allowed the story to be told from two characters.

The Berry Pickers, at its core, is about family, tackling complicated relationships and the lasting grief that comes from losing a loved one. Even after Norma uncovers the truth, she continues to feel a love and responsibility for her mother, which is an incredibly complex situation. What do you hope readers take away from The Berry Pickers about family relationships and struggles?

That’s a hard question. I think in Norma’s case, it’s hard to hate and blame those who are no longer with us. Perhaps if her parents had been alive or in their right mind when she finally found out, it would have been different. But she is wise enough to know that hating them when there is nothing she can do would only end up being emotionally draining to her. Best to move on and find those people who, instinctually, she knows are out there. I think family dynamics can be complex and add a kidnapping and paranoia (from Lenore) to that mix and it’s going to be even more daunting. I also think I wanted people to understand that Indigenous families love and love deeply.

As a professor, you are also a mentor. What advice would you give to aspiring young writers, especially those who feel hesitant to share their stories?

Keep going! I tell my students that if you want to write you need to be willing to embrace the rejections and equally embrace advice from peers. Your peers are probably your readers so they know what they want in a story. That being said, it is always important to  ensure that your voice isn’t lost. Everyone has a story and voice to tell that story so make sure you balance advice with your own judgement.

Ruthie’s kidnapping sadly reflects larger historical tragedies. How did you go about weaving this history into the characters’ lives and into the background of the story?

I don’t think that was necessarily intentional. It’s just a product of who I am and the world I have worked in for years. Unfortunately, these aspects of Indigenous life are not new. While I have never experienced any of this, I know people who have, and I have listened to their stories. And they are stories that need to be told even in a subtle way in fiction. I am a firm believer that reading fiction can create or enhance empathy. If this book can start a conversation or make people consider the history (and still a reality to those who survived) of residential schools and the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, then I consider that a very good thing.

The Berry Pickers is your debut, which is so exciting! Can you tell us a bit about your debut experience, and if you can, any future projects that you’re excited about?

I think I will forever live in the ‘pinch me’ phase. The book is doing far more than I ever anticipated. Winning the Barnes and Noble Discovery Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal of Excellence for Fiction, being shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Award and now being translated into eleven other languages. I’m just shocked. Pleased of course, but still so very surprised. I’m glad that the book is connecting with people. My short story collection, Waiting for the Long Night Moon, comes out here in Canada in August and in the US in January 2025 and I am working on a new manuscript but you never know where creatively will take you!