Featured Interview With Nina de Beurs
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in New Zealand to a dutch father and Maori mother. I was raised in a small town in New Zealand and am currently living in Auckland City while I study Sociology and Politics at University. I have a family dog called Taylor Swift and she's currently living with my parents on the Great Barrier Island.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I realized my fascination with books at the age of nine. I remember my childhood best friend really liked the Jacqueline Wilson novels and one day she loaned me one of her Tracy Beaker novels. I was hooked with reading from then on, and by the age of eleven I had an entire Jacqueline Wilson collection.
I started writing when I was nine. I used to always write short stories and scripts for fun. However, they weren't any good and I merely saw writing as a hobby. But when I was around fourteen, I started writing more and I started to think about it more seriously.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors to read are Jodi Picoult, Fleur Beale, Gillian Flynn, and Becky Albertalli. That's a hard question because a lot of people inspire me. Jodi Picoult is my number one writing inspiration, but my real life experiences are the biggest inspirations for me. My other inspirations are my mum, my nanny, and my dad.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Broken follows Matariki from childhood to teenage hood as he struggles to understand his identity in an unforgiving New Zealand community that constantly pre-defines people. He’s a lanky soft-spoken kid who isn’t violent or sporty, and that is why he struggles to fit in. In order to be considered a ‘real man’ in his community you have to be aggressive, ‘macho’, and hard-skinned. This is further complicated by his strong feelings for his best friend, and the powerful influence of toxic masculinity which causes his friend to drift away from him as soon as he realizes that his manhood could be put to question.
This novel took me a little over six months to write. It was inspired by one of my best friends who happens to be gay. He wanted me to write about hyper masculinity in New Zealand as it isn't something that is talked about a lot – he wanted to see something similar to his story.
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