Minnesota
BOOKS: A Conversation With Author V.E. Schwab
Victoria (V.E.) Schwab is a #1 New York Times best-selling fantasy author of more than 20 books. In this interview with a Minnesota high school student, she shares her thoughts on how to handle the trials of creativity in a time when creative pursuits, especially by women, are diminished.
V.E. Schwab photo by Jenna Maurice
It is practically in the adolescent development rulebook for teenagers to have idols. For me, V.E. Schwab is one of those idols. I fell in love with her writing in middle school, when I read City of Ghosts. Schwab has a talent for making it feel as though the words you are reading were written just for you — like an intimate bedtime story. When I had the opportunity to interview her for the Minnesota Women’s Press, when Schwab was visiting Minneapolis, I wanted to hear what advice she had for aspiring female creatives (like myself).
Schwab is candid. At 37, she has had a successful career since selling her debut novel to Disney during college. . She told me that, like it or not, she has become a brand and it can be a struggle to adjust to the weight of social expectations that go along with that brand.
She was honest about the self-doubt that she faces, despite the success. “My self criticism gets really loud, really fast,” says Schwab. “My perfectionism is so steep that Addie LaRue almost didn’t get written because …I got to a fork in the road and I had to decide between [wanting to execute] a perfect idea and [executing what I considered] an imperfect reality.”
Perfectionism and being your own worst critic is tricky to navigate, she admits.. “‘If it can’t be perfect, it’s not worth doing at all’ is the worst mantra that you can have in anything — in sports, in arts. It’s not going to carry you. So I have to make peace. I have to remind myself that it’s not about writing the best book possible” — meaning, it is not about perfection, but about creating a piece of work you are proud of that executes a concept you were inspired to share.
We talked about dealing with criticism as well. She indicated that feedback is not supposed to be about your emotional response to it — positive or negative — but whose voices you value.
She explains that by weighing feedback equally from a wider audience, rather than close peers, criticism loses some of its power.
Schwab points out the variety of subjectivity in creative fields. Art will always be loved by some and not liked by others. To make something that is universally loved is not possible, and misses the point of creation in the first place. “Once you’ve had the privilege of receiving messages from people for whom your book was everything, it is very easy to let go of the people for whom it wasn’t.”
Schwab had to find the balance between “making art just to make art” and making art sustainable. She denounces the idea that if you engage in both business and art, you are less of an artist. She also rejects the nobility of the starving artist, and the prerequisite of depression or being a mad genius that she says are not necessary for creating good art. “The starving artist is a fun little concept we use in fiction, and it’s hell in reality,” she says.
Schwab says planning is immensely important to her writing process. She creates intricate outlines before writing a novel. These intensive planning periods take about a year per novel). She says it helps her work through all the kinks in a work before starting in earnest to write.
What I learned from our conversation is that, rather than trying plot holes when you’re already knee deep in the creative process, it helps her to work through all the hard stuff first. After that, you can fully commit to the flow of sentences, brush strokes, and chords.
The difficulty of creativity, Schwab adds, stems from our own minds. A key to working through anything, she suggests, is to cut tasks up into small chunks. “[Writing] is so consuming, it can be hard to realize that it’s actually just about putting words on paper. [My advice is to] make the work as small as possible. I sit down and think, ‘I’m writing this scene, I’m writing this page, I’m writing this chapter.’ Do whatever you need to do to make the work doable.”
Amelia Busse is a junior at Jefferson High School in Bloomington.
Excerpt
V.E. Schwab’s upcoming book, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (on sale by Tor Books June 10, 2025) has been described as “Equal parts satisfying and unsettling … it’s really about hunger and rage and grief and our soul-deep need for connection.” The novel features three young women — from Santo Domingo de la Calzada in 1532, London in 1837, and Boston in 2019 — “their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth.”
From page 282: “Standing there, halfway down the steps, the hope goes right out of Alice’s sails, because it’s obvious that this is another dead end. It’s a coffee shop — she can smell the beans roasting from the street — and she wants to sit down on the stop and cry, but she can’t even do that now without creating a scene. She should probably just turn around and walk the two miles back to campus, but she can’t bring herself to do it. Her legs are stuck, not the way they were back in the graveyard, but leaden, as if they’ve simply lost the will to listen to her. Maybe it’s the fact she’s come this far, and she has no other leads, or that this place feels familiar in a simple, human way, a nod to the girl she was before, the one who constantly found refuge in café corners, fingers curled around a mug of tea, or the fact she can still hear the music, spilling softly through the door.”
Details: veschwab.com
With family by his side, Dennis “Bud” Peterson went to be with the Lord on the morning of June 1, 2026.
He was born at Drake, North Dakota on April 2, 1932 in the home of his parents Nick and Helen Peterson. The family moved to Duluth at the beginning of World War II.
After graduation from Duluth Central High School Bud served in the US Army in Korea during the Korean War, and received an Honorable Discharge with the rank of Sergeant. He used his GI Bill benefits to attend UMD receiving an Associate Degree, and also earned his Commercial Instrument Pilot rating.
Bud was a longtime employee of St. Louis County retiring as Supervisor of Roads and Bridges. In retirement he served as Boiler Engineer and a do it all repairman for Duluth Gospel Tabernacle. He generously devoted his time and talents as a consummate do it yourself repairman to all of his family.
Dennis is preceded in death by his parents, Nick & Helen Peterson; brother, Robert Peterson; sister, June (Don) Kruger; and infant brother and sister, James and Delores Peterson.
He is survived by his sister, Carol (Eli) Miletich; and numerous nieces and nephews all of whom he loved dearly.
At Bud’s request, his family will be holding a private funeral service. Arrangements by Dougherty Funeral Home 218-727-3555.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services is reexamining over 5,000 Medicaid service providers across the state in an effort to combat fraud.
The federal government said it would pull $2 billion in annual Medicaid funding from Minnesota in January if the state didn’t make changes.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services set out to revalidate thousands of providers in programs deemed high risk for fraud by asking providers to submit verification paperwork and making unannounced site visits. The deadline passed on Sunday.
The latest data, published on May 27, shows 1,009 providers approved, 1,151 disenrolled and over 3,000 providers with pending applications.
Paige Berland and Camille Heyman run Minnesota Behavioral Specialists, providing autism care to children through two locations in the metro area. The women say that after submitting their paperwork, they received letters from DHS with determinations for both locations: the Bloomington center was terminated and the Eagan office was approved.
“It doesn’t make sense, everything is the same minus the location,” Berland said. “So why was one approved and one wasn’t approved?”
The termination letter said the Bloomington center was denied because they failed to disclose a managing employee during a site visit. Berland disputes that and said she already submitted an appeal.
“We were told to keep running, keep continuing as we are while we go through this process,” she said. “It just means that we don’t have the money coming in.”
Josh Berg with Accessible Space says they’re also in limbo. Berg said they offer integrated community supports, which means caretakers provide in-unit assistance for people with spinal cord injuries and disabilities.
“Most of the folks that we support are wheelchair-bound,” Berg said. “Helping with meals, helping with medications, helping them just live their lives.”
Berg said that of the seven locations where people are housed, the Department of Human Services terminated five and approved two. He believes the timeline to conduct this revalidation process was too aggressive. He said Accessible Space has also submitted an appeal.
“We’re not able to bill for services, we’re not able to start new services for anybody or change any of the supports that they receive,” he said.
Both Berg and Berland say they agree fraud needs to be dealt with, but they hope Minnesotans who truly need services aren’t left without the services they need.
“Not just the clients rely on services, but the families do too, so we can’t stop services; that’s not an option on our plate,” Berland said. “We want to continue to provide these services; they are medically necessary.”
The Minnesota Department of Human Services said a disenrollment letter could be sent for a few reasons, including failure to submit revalidation application after two notification attempts, failure to provide all requested documents within the required timeframe and failure to meet the criteria required during an on-site visit.
A spokesperson for the Department of Human Services said it’s currently in the process of compiling data from the thousands of applications, but didn’t say when the department would share those final numbers.
Social media slams Netflix’s Kevin Hart roast
Some online users shared their reactions to jokes told about George Floyd and Charlie Kirk at Netflix’s “The Roast of Kevin Hart.”
The Minnesota Republican Party is distancing itself from a moment of silence held for Derek Chauvin during its state convention, saying the gesture was not part of leadership planning, not included in the official program, and should not be interpreted as a party position.
GOP officials said in a Monday, June 1 Facebook post that the recognition of the former Minneapolis police officer, who was convicted in the killing of George Floyd in 2020, emerged from a spontaneous delegate motion on the convention floor and was not initiated or endorsed by leadership.
The controversy quickly escalated after state leaders, civil rights attorneys and Democratic lawmakers condemned the action, describing it as deeply harmful to Floyd’s family and inconsistent with accountability under the law.
The moment of silence took place during the party’s annual gathering in Duluth on May 30 and comes just days after the sixth anniversary of Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, an event that reshaped national debates over policing and racial justice.
Republican Party of Minnesota says gesture was not leadership action
In a statement, the Republican Party of Minnesota said the recognition of Derek Chauvin originated as a delegate request during floor proceedings at the convention in Duluth and was handled under standard rules of order.
Party officials emphasized that convention leadership, including chair Danny Nadeau, did not propose the motion. The statement said leadership’s role was procedural only, and that presiding over the motion did not reflect agreement with or endorsement of its subject matter.
Officials reiterated that the convention agenda itself did not include any planned recognition of Chauvin and said the episode should not be interpreted as a leadership-driven decision or policy stance.
Minnesota attorney general calls action ‘profound cruelty’
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who led the prosecution of Chauvin, sharply criticized the gesture, calling it an “act of profound cruelty” toward the Floyd family.
Ellison said the timing, so close to the anniversary of Floyd’s death, compounded the harm.
He said honoring Chauvin “dishonors the memory of George Floyd and wounds his loved ones all over again,” and called it “disturbing” to recognize someone convicted of violating his oath as a police officer.
Ellison also said the action was “disrespectful” to law enforcement officers who serve honorably, and reaffirmed that courts had already upheld Chauvin’s conviction through multiple appeals.
Broader backlash and political fallout
Democratic state Rep. Jamie Long called the moment of silence “disgusting,” arguing that Republicans chose to honor a convicted murderer rather than victims of violence or service members.
The gesture also drew criticism from civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, who represented George Floyd’s family in its civil case after his death. The attorneys called the moment of silence immoral and demanded a retraction and apology, saying it disrespected both the Floyd family and the broader public record of Chauvin’s conviction.
Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, when Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer, knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Chauvin was later convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and sentenced to 22½ years in state prison.
The killing sparked global protests and became a defining moment in the Black Lives Matter movement and debates over policing in the United States.
Chauvin’s conviction has been upheld through multiple appeals, including a denial by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023, and he is serving his sentence in federal custody.
Party officials say despite the controversy, their focus remains on candidate endorsements and upcoming elections, not the floor action that triggered the backlash.
Reporter Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@usatodayco.com, or on X @athompsonUSAT.
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