Inspiring Author Visit: Dusti Bowling’s Connection to her Readers

By grade 9 Multimedia Journalism class 

“It’s my real name (…) my mom has red hair. She thought she was going to have (…) a red headed boy (…) she would name him Rusty,” said author Dusti Bowling.  

When hearing the name “Dusti Bowling”, most people might be curious about its origins. As she explained, the name stems from “Rusty”, the name Bowling’s mother was going to name the son she thought she was going to have. This anecdote was only one of many Bowling shared during her visit to MIS. 

First of all, who even is Dusti Bowling? Bowling is an Arizonian children’s author for middle grades five through seven, who visited MIS from 6^th September to 9^th September. She was invited by the school librarian, Ms. Clower, aiming to share her inspiring works with the students. Bowling presented to Junior and Middle school. She was also interviewed by the grade 9 and 10 Journalism classes and offered a writers’ workshop for senior school students to help motivate and improve their writing skills. 

“We really liked meeting her. She gave us a lot of advice and it was just very fun in general,” a grade 7 student said. 

Dusti Bowling connects to her audience through her personal life and experiences by referring to her childhood and by using Arizona as a setting in all her books.

“I didn’t have books about kids growing up with parents who were addicted to drugs and alcohol, which was my experience,” Bowling said.  

Dusti Bowling uses a lot of personal connections and experiences in her books. This makes her books more meaningful and create a special connection with her audience, she said. She often said that when she grew up, she didn’t have any books representing her life, which is all she wanted. She hopes that her books are like a savior for the tough times kids go through, to help them overcome them with something fun and positive. Bowling’s books are like a guide to how to overcome hard scenarios but interpreted as fun stories.   

“Like if you have some like, troubles there or experiences, you could take it as a place in the character,” said a student.“ She taught us how to create a vivid setting by using personal experiences for the characters’ development. 

Dusti Bowling uses a unique writing process, that is extremely organized. 

“I usually know my story from beginning to end when I start writing it. (…) Like I’ll have outlined it all, have done a ton of research,” Bowling said. 

Bowling starts with collecting ideas for her books, then briefly summarizes her story with plenty of details. Since her works are situated in real life, she researches a lot for her writing to be accurate. Bowling works fast on her first drafts, some taking three months, or even only six weeks! She uses a distinctive method when planning her writing. Bowling does this by using her phone as a note keeping device, so that at any time she has a moment of inspiration, she can write down the idea immediately. 

Dusti Bowling spent her childhood and adult life in Arizona and considers it her home. But, according to Bowling, Arizona doesn’t have sufficient novels that accurately illustrate her home state. Hence, she is determined to set all her books there and show a different side to the state than some may think.  

“I spent most of my life in Arizona and I love the sand desert (…) And even to this day, it’s very, very hard to find books that in Arizona, especially books that portray it in an accurate play,” said Bowling. 

Every student we interviewed said that they thoroughly enjoyed Bowling’s visit.  In her presentation, Bowling talked a little bit about her background and family life, her books and reasons for writing them, and gave advice to any aspiring authors in her audience.  

The sixth and seventh graders shared the consensus that meeting her was exciting, and they learned a lot of new things about the behind-the-scenes of being an author. 

“She also talked about places where she can come down and just like look at and then write notes on, that she uses for the book she’s writing (….) Well, like for example, her strategy is she just goes out in the desert and look just for like stuff – that’s how she made Aven actually,” a grade 6 student said. 

This experience was different for the 5^th graders who are reading one of Dusti Bowling’s books leading up to her visit. “Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus”, along with being Bowling’s first published book, is also one of her most well-known and awarded. The book centers around Aven Green, a 13-year-old girl without arms, and Connor, a boy with Tourette’s Syndrome, as they navigate the ups and downs of middle school, their friendship, and their disabilities – all while trying to solve a mystery in the Western Theme Park Aven’s parents own.  

“She also told us why she wrote her story – she wrote it because at the time there was no other books with people without arms as the main character – and she wanted them to feel seen and accepted,” a grade 5 student said. 

The students in all grade levels said they felt excited to learn about the author who created one of their favourite characters, happy to be able to listen to her presentation, and grateful for just being able to meet her overall.