Kelly Barnhill, winner of the 2017 John Newbery Medal for “The Girl Who Drank the Moon,” shared lessons on storytelling, perseverance, and empathy during a visit to Buena Vista University.

Barnhill delivered a public lecture Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Siebens Forum, where she discussed how she began writing her 2022 novel “When Women Were Dragons,” the differences between writing for children and adults, and life after her brain injury in 2021. Earlier in the day, she met with students to talk about publishing and her path to becoming a writer.

“Art and reading opens us to one another, and makes us feel connected to one another,” Barnhill said. “I really do believe that reading is an act of radical empathy.”

Barnhill encouraged aspiring writers to be patient with themselves, noting that readers only see polished, revised work — not early drafts.

“You don’t have to be perfect right away,” she said. “It’s all a process. It’s a very dynamic process and it takes a long time and it’s OK that it takes a long time.”

Dr. Dixee Bartholomew-Feis, dean of the School of Liberal Arts, said she and Assistant Professor of Education Emma Reeve-Lobaugh had been working on a project to bring authors to campus when she read one of Barnhill’s books over the summer. 

“I sent Emma a text and said, ‘Have you seen this book?’” Bartholomew-Feis said. “She said, ‘I love this book.’ We just started talking and thought, ‘What if we asked her to come to BVU?’ We looked her up and saw she was in Minneapolis … We ended up very lucky to have her here with us.”

“Kelly Barnhill embodies the best of all the things we can learn,” she added. “Her creativity, her social conscience, her strength for women and all people — I think she’s a great role model.”

Jaime Pouliot, a freshman double majoring in political science and communications, said she attended the lecture to gain insight from a professional author.

“I was interested in learning a dedicated author’s standpoint on writing and hearing what she had to say about her passion,” Pouliot said.

Pouliot said Barnhill’s discussion of how readers at different ages respond to literature stood out most.

“The different perspectives she gave of different age levels of readers … stood out because of her deep understanding of how her readers react to her writing. I appreciated the depth she brought,” she said.

By the end of the night, attendees left Siebens Forum not only with writing advice, but with a clearer understanding of the patience and vulnerability behind published work.