Basalt Regional Library hosts award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi in conversation with Mitzi Rapkin

Last week, Mitzi Rapkin aired her 500th weekly podcast “First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing.” The literary podcast has been a labor of love for more than 11 years, and now, she’s beginning to take some interviews on the road.

On Sept. 12, she interviews award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi at Basalt Regional Library.

“Since COVID and staffing challenges, it has taken us a while to reboot. We’ve had small events with children’s authors — but not with someone of Paola’s caliber,” Library Director Amy Shipley said. “This is an opportunity to chat face to face with an author and share a moment together about books and reading.”

She was looking for ways to host more author talks when Rapkin reached out to her about interviewing Bacigalupi, author of “Navola,” a literary fantasy novel broadly modeled on Renaissance Florence and Venice, Italy.

He tackles issues of family dynamics and power struggles in creative ways, as he writes about finding one’s own power and voice within family and society, Rapkin said.

“I think it’s really interesting that it’s under the fantasy genre, but they’re all just allegories for how we live today,” she said, talking about how any genre of fiction can help readers view topics differently. “It’s a lesson in power dynamics that mirrors ancient Italy with a different language around it.”

Bacigalupi, an internationally bestselling author of speculative fiction, has won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, John W. Campbell, and Locus awards; won the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature; and has been a finalist for the National Book Award. His novels cross over to both young adults and adults, so she hopes the interview draws a wide age range — as well as a wide range of readers, even if they don’t usually read fantasy.

“I don’t read a lot of fantasy, (but this) fantasy is like the frosting, and I’m really here for the cake. I love the lessons it has to share about growing up and finding your place in the world when there’s political pressure and family pressure,” she said, talking about the main character, a very sensitive young man who faces tests of his own strength and will. “It doesn’t matter if that’s fantasy (or another genre). It’s just our human experience. And the fantasy can make it fun.”

She encourages people to come to the event “because we find in discussions that we’re just talking about things we grapple with every day — love, relationships, the meaning of life, our purpose.”

She first met Bacigalupi, who lives in Paonia, through mutual friends at a dinner party about 15 years ago and has wanted to talk with him ever since.

“First of all, he’s at the upper echelon of what he’s doing; he’s won lots of awards. I’m interested in diving into something new and having a conversation with someone so adept at (fantasy). And it brings an openness to people who don’t normally like, or read, fantasy,” she said. “It’s also interesting because sometimes I think fiction is all made up, so when I think about calling something fantasy, it’s just the clothes it’s dressed up in — it doesn’t have any less to show us.”

Some of her main questions for Bacigalupi revolve around how he built his fantasy world, how his trip to Italy informed it, and how he sustains the parameters of the world throughout the 576-page book. She’s also curious about how he overcame writers block.

Throughout her podcasts, Rapkin strives to provide conversations about books and writing that people won’t find elsewhere.

“I think that my goal, when I do interviews — it is a lofty goal to reach kind of a transcendent place in the conversation where I really listen and respond, and the person I’m interviewing isn’t just getting a list of questions. It can get to a spiritual realm about art and humanity,” she said, adding, “people in the audience contribute an energy and a positivity to the space I’m trying to create. Conversations have portals, and if we’re really listening, we can enter them, but if we’re not listening or conversing, we can miss them. … There’s something about having people witness and be present and participate that creates a kind of feeling in the room that makes you feel a bonding that I love.”

In addition to her live podcast at Basalt Regional Library, she will host live podcasts at TACAW for the first time on Nov. 12, Dec. 10, and Jan. 14. The Nov. 12 date features David Wroblewski, author of “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” and “Familiaris,” both of which made Oprah’s Book Club. She has yet to determine the two other authors.

She recorded last week’s episode live from London with Kaliane Bradley, author of “The Ministry of Time.” On Friday, she flew to Chicago (Her work at the airport allows her to fly standby) to do a live podcast at Printers Row Lit Fest with Elizabeth McKenzie, author of “The Dog of the North.” Earlier this year, she introduced a panel of fiction writers to Aspen Ideas: Climate.

“It was a whole different way to talk about climate change, and it was really well attended,” she said. “There’s so much that writing and fiction can teach us about how we live and about solving problems in the world.”