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Angie Thomas on The Hate U Give

by Shoshana Flax
Mar 07, 2017 | Filed in Authors & Illustrators
thomas_hate u giveIn our March/April 2017 issue, assistant editor Shoshana Flax asked author Angie Thomas about the timeliness of her important novel The Hate U Give. Read the full starred review.

Shoshana Flax: The book feels very, tragically up-to-the-minute. How far into the editorial process were you making changes based on current events?

Angie Thomas: I tried not to let current events influence the book too much — I wanted it to be its own story. However, as the deaths of unarmed black people continued to make headlines, my emotions definitely affected my writing. For instance, I was in my last round of edits when I heard about Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Their deaths had a profound impact on how I wrote the end of the book, and I tried to honor them as best I knew how.

Shoshana Flax

Shoshana Flax, associate editor of The Horn Book, Inc., is a former bookseller and holds an MFA in writing for children from Simmons University. She has served on the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and Sydney Taylor Book Award committees, and is serving on the 2025 Walter Dean Myers Award committee.

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