We’re looking forward to introducing you to Scott Semegran. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Scott, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
My 2024 novel, The Codger and the Sparrow, recently won the Discovery Prize for Fiction in the Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards. The WLT “introduced the Discovery Prize to recognize one outstanding book in each category published by independent presses, university presses, and/or self-published authors… for its fresh voice, inventive story, or some other element that made it stand out.” So for this, I’m very proud!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m an award-winning writer of ten books. My latest book, Starman After Midnight, is a quirky novel-in-stories about two beer-drinking neighbors who team-up to track down a mysterious late-night interloper terrorizing their middle-class neighborhood. My nine previous books include The Codger and the Sparrow (Discovery Prize winner for Fiction in the 2024 Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards), The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island (first-place winner for Middle-Grade/Young Adult fiction in the 2021 Writer’s Digest Book Awards), and To Squeeze a Prairie Dog (winner of the 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Gold Medal for Humor and winner of the 2019 Texas Author Project for Adult Fiction). I live in Austin, Texas with my wife.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My mother noticed my creative side when I was a boy and encouraged me into adulthood to follow my creative urges and pursuits, whether attempting to be a cartoonist or a fiction writer. I would eventually do both at the professional level as an adult.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Every year as a fiction writer, there is at least one moment where I want to give up. There is so much rejection. I often tell people that being a writer who puts work out into the world is like being punched in the stomach by 19 different people, then being hugged by the twentieth. Being a writer who publishes their work is a tough business. I’ve developed a thick skin for criticism and rejection.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My wife, my kids, my friends, and my writing. And cookies. I LOVE cookies. Call me cookie monster.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
That the best thing about being a writer is the writing part.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://scottsemegran.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/scott_semegran
- Other: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scottsemegran.com
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@scott_semegran
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/scottsemegran
Substack: https://scottsemegran.substack.com/welcome
Image Credits
Photo of Scott Semegran by Jeff Loftin
