A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest was the winner in the New Adult category of the 2021 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author C.P. Mangel.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest; August 2019
What’s the book’s first line?
The house looks like a chunk of melting butter, the way it slouches against the woods behind it.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest is the story of a sensitive biracial fifteen-year-old girl whose universal yearning for identity and belonging reflects the searing inhumanity of legalized segregation and heart-breaking obstacles both historical and tragically present in contemporary society.
What inspired you to write the book?
I wrote this coming-of-age story for my children, to help them understand our shared cultural histories of social injustice, courage, resilience and ingenuity. I am so honored my book has won in the New Adult Category for the 2021 IndieReader Discovery Awards.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character?
Asa Horace’s voracious appetite for books, and her fury over being denied entrance to the town’s segregated public library on the basis of her race.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
W.H. Auden has written: “Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and me only.” I hope someone will feel I wrote this book as homage to them. I am grateful to every person who reads my book.
Is this the first you’ve written?
This is my debut novel, published shortly before my sixtieth birthday.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which author Carson McCullers published at the age of 23. In her novel, McCullers presents unique, diverse and memorable characters, and a surpassing vision of our shared humanity.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
From poets Emily Dickinson, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Hayden and Anthony Hecht, I learn new modes of poetic expression. From Toni Morrison, I learn how to tell stories of suffering and injustice.