Death & Co by Luke Zhang is shortlisted for the 2023 Author of Tomorrow, 12-15 Category. 

Death & Co: Dan stumbled out of his previous life and right into another nine-to-five grind. But this time, his job is reaping the souls of the deceased and his coworkers are even more hopeless. Dan is just a reaper like any other, but that doesn’t make him insignificant. Far from it. Because for the first time in eternity, a reaper has a dream.

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An Interview with Luke: 

WNSF: What is your favourite book?

Luke: I don’t have any defined favourite, but Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, Randall Munroe’s What If?, and everything written by Rick Riordan are all must haves for very different reasons.

WNSF: Who is your favourite author? Or one who has inspired you and why?

Luke: C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien both inspire me, partly because of their extensive world-building and partly because of their sincere, long-lasting friendship/rivalry. They built off of one another to improve, and I think that kind of resourcefulness is very admirable.

WNSF: What is your favourite subject at school?

Luke: Rather predictably, I enjoy English because I get to write. I feel like math really fell off once they added letters to it, so if someone does the reverse and I have to do algebra to write an essay, I will scream.

WNSF: What does ‘adventure writing’ mean to you? Why did you choose to try your hand at an adventure story?

Luke: Adventure stories are stories in which a series of exceptional events take place, so every good story is arguably an adventure story. Most of the time, my writing process is just imagining something that would make a good adventure story, then writing that story. This was one of those times.

WNSF: If you could ask an author anything, what would you want to know?

Luke: I’d ask if they’re getting enough water and sleep, and if they need to talk about anything. Writing is hard, and authors are only human.

WNSF: Who would you consider one of your heroes and why? 

Luke: Charles Best and Frederick Banting, the co-inventors of insulin, sold the patent to the University of Toronto for $1 because they wanted it to be as widely accessible as possible. That is a heroic action if I’ve ever seen one.

WNSF: What is the most adventurous thing you would like to do, or place you would like to visit and why?

Luke: As long as I can remember, deep water has always made me deeply uncomfortable. That’s exactly why I want to explore the deepest reaches of the ocean and discover what lurks beneath. It’s not really an adventure if you’re completely comfortable with it.

WNSF: Where do you find inspiration for your stories? 

Luke: My idea-making process comprises of a horrific amalgamation of wacky anecdotal fiction and old blog posts, all melted into the cauldron of a hyperactive imagination. A bit bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, but it works.

WNSF: If you could time travel, where would you go and why?

Luke: Don’t you mean when? But in all seriousness, I would at least pay a visit to the city of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia circa 1750 BCE. Not for the culture of an ancient river valley civilisation, though I’m sure that’s all very interesting, but to see one particular copper merchant by the name of Ea-nāṣir, recipient of the oldest recorded customer complaint in history.

WNSF: What three words would you use to describe your story?

Luke: Hope after death.