CanvasRebel-“Meet John Copenhaver“
INTERVIEWS
We recently connected with John Copenhaver and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, John thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?
A writer or artist of any sort, if they’re being true to themselves, create from a very personal place. It’s not always evident on the surface of the final product, but it needs to be there for that story or painting or piece of music to work. It’s why crowdsourced ideas or AI-generated BS will always fail as good art. Trust me.
20 Questions-“20 Questions with John Copenhaver”
by Jeffrey Davies
20 Questions is a Q&A interview series with authors, musicians, and everyone in between, celebrating experiences both shared and individual in the messy game of being human.
“Writing, for me, is about chasing ghosts and peeling off masks. I have Hanna-Barbera to thank for that.” John Copenhaver’s debut novel Dodging and Burning won the 2019 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. The Savage Kind, his second novel, won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ Mystery and was a finalist for Left Coast Crime’s Best Historical Mystery. He is also a co-founder of Queer Crime Writers and an at-large board member of Mystery Writers of America.
JMWW - “Who’s Afraid of Queer Crime?: An interview with John Copenhaver, author of Hall of Mirrors”
by Wendy Besel Hahn
John Copenhaver won the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery for Dodging and Burning and the Lambda Literary Award for Best Mystery for The Savage Kind. He is a co-founder of Queer Crime Writers, a board member of Mystery Writers of America, and co-hosts the House of Mystery Radio Show. He teaches in the University of Nebraska Omaha’s Low-Residency MFA program and at VCU. His new novel, Hall of Mirrors, is the sequel to The Savage Kind.
Wendy Besel Hahn: Hall of Mirrors has garnered great attention in the two months since its release on June 4. I’ve loved seeing the novel on so many must read lists and round ups. What feedback are you getting about the book being the second in the Nightingale trilogy? Did folks love Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson so much that they tuned in for the second installment or did they, like me, come to Hall of Mirrors before reading The Savage Kind?
Out Front Magazine- “Interview: Author John Copenhaver Talks Writing Crime, Teaching, and Queer Representation in Historical Fiction”
by Gable Meade
I sat down with John Copenhaver to chat over Zoom about his latest book, Hall of Mirrors, and picked his brain on his experiences as a queer author in the writing industry, his philosophy on blending historical accuracy and creative storytelling, how he approaches teaching writing, and where he sees crime fiction heading in the next decade as more LGBTQ+ writers and writers of color have their voices heard in the genre.
John Copenhaver is an award-winning author and educator from Virginia. He teaches writing at Virginia Commonwealth University and is a faculty mentor at the University of Nebraska Omaha’s creative writing MFA program. In addition to cohosting the House of Mystery Radio Show, he has three historical fiction crime/mystery novels published, with his debut novel Dodging and Burning winning the 2019 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. His current project is a crime/mystery trilogy about Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson, a young lesbian couple that solve mysteries in different decades of the mid-20th century. The first installment, The Savage Kind, won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ Mystery and its sequel, Hall of Mirrors, was released this June and has already received praise from People, Today, and more.
(Read More).
Historical Novel Society-“Reflections of Identity & History: Kristen McQuinn Discusses Hall of Mirrors with John Copenhaver”
by Kristen McQuinn
The 1950s were a complex time, filled with political intrigue and deep social and moral imbalances. This is the tumultuous backdrop for John Copenhaver’s latest novel, Hall of Mirrors (Pegasus Crime, 2024), a thoughtful reflection of identity, politics, and the human experience.
Copenhaver set Hall of Mirrors in the McCarthy era, following the timeline established in his previous post-WWII novel, The Savage Kind (Pegasus Crime, 2021), featuring the same main characters, Judy and Philippa. Copenhaver explains that he had more to tell about their story and wanted to follow them in their growth from teenagers to young women. He says that the McCarthy era was “a particularly difficult time to be an independent-minded woman, especially if you’re queer and, in Judy’s case, mixed race.”
Fresh Fiction-“The Pursuit of an Old Enemy Leads to a Serial Killer Protected by Powerful Governmental Forces”
by John Copenhaver
In 1954, mystery novelist Lionel Kane witnesses his DC apartment engulfed in flames with his lover and writing partner, Roger Raymond, inside. Police declare it a suicide, but he refuses to believe Roger was suicidal. Weeks earlier, Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson—the tenacious heroines from The Savage Kind—attend a lecture by Roger and, being eager fans, befriend him. He has just been fired from the State Department, another victim of the government-sanctioned anti-gay crusade spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Little do the women know, but their pursuit of their old enemy, Adrian Bogdan, a serial killer protected by powerful governmental forces, has led to Roger’s dismissal. Has their persistence brought deadly forces to the team behind their beloved books?
(Read More).
Dead Darlings— "John Copenhaver Discusses his new McCarthy-Era Mystery, Hall of Mirrors"
by Carla Miriam Levy
Set in post-World-War-II Washington D.C., during the McCarthy era and the Lavender Scare, John Copenhaver’s Hall of Mirrors, is a fast-paced mystery that tells the story of a young lesbian couple, Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson, whose passion for each other is matched only by their obsession with catching a serial killer.
The pressure Philippa feels to live a conformist life drives her to leave Judy and become engaged to a man. But the two are drawn back together when teenage girls start turning up murdered in suburban communities outside Washington. They suspect that their nemesis from Copenhaver’s previous book, The Savage Kind, is the killer, but are baffled by the resistance they meet when they bring their suspicions to the authorities. Their investigations unearth a cover-up that reaches from the bedecked halls of Washington high society all the way to the F.B.I.
Dru’s Book Musings— "Judy and Philippa Answer All Your Questions"
by John Copenhaver
(Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson, trilogy characters from Hall of Mirrors, sit on stools on a neutral stage, Judy in a slim black dress and Philippa in a pink sweater set and slacks. Philippa holds a stack of index cards.)
—So, he’s given us question cards, Judy.
—John can be such a pain in the neck. Seriously. Always demanding we perform for him: “Run down the street! Climb the fire escape! Solve another crime! Creep into a vicious killer’s lair!” *Rolls eyes*
—Oh, it’s not that bad, is it?
—If you say so, Philippa. But he does push it sometimes.
—*Waves her away* Okay, okay, let’s answer the first question …
—Wait, who’s asking these questions?
—Fans, I think.
—John just probably wrote them himself. Such an egoist. Can’t help himself.
The Big Thrill— "Debut Spotlight: John Copenhaver"
by E. A. Aymar
For people who know John Copenhaver —either friends, students, or teachers, or fans of his work with Lambda Literary —DODGING AND BURNING is the book we’ve been waiting for him to write. The coming-of-age mystery set in the 1940s is the ideal culmination of his cultural, historical, and personal interests — and does the neat trick of giving those interests a tense, universal appeal.
I first met John at Fall for the Book at George Mason University. A graduate of that university’s MFA program, he has written a book that joins the ranks of other celebrated and award-winning crime fiction writers from that school, including Art Taylor, Tara Laskowski, and Laura Ellen Scott. I’ve since kept a close eye on his career, and was excited to have the chance to interview him about his debut thriller.
The Washington Blade— "QUEERY: John Copenhaver"
by Joey DiGuglielmo
Jay Greenwood is a gay, WWII photographer in love with a guy, Robbie, who is MIA in the Pacific. We learn of their story as Bunny Prescott, who’s in love with Jay, learns it along with Robbie’s kid sister, Ceola.
That’s the premise of “Dodging and Burning,” the debut novel from D.C.-based author John Copenhaver. It comes out Tuesday, March 6 in hardcover for $25.95 from Pegasus Crime.
Copenhaver, a 43-year-old Marion, Va., native who works by day as the 7-12 English Department chair at Flint Hill School, says finally seeing his book in print after four years of writing and another five to find an agent and publisher, is both an “exhilarating and terrifying” prospect.
Washington Independent Review of Books— "An Interview with John Copenhaver"
by Wendy Besel Hahn
"Dodging" and "burning” refer to techniques a photographer can use to manipulate his subjects’ appearance. In his debut novel by that same name, John Copenhaver beautifully renders the lives of four young people — Bunny Prescott, Jay Greenwood, Robbie Bliss, and Robbie’s kid sister, Ceola — through alternating lenses of photographs, letters, diary entries, notes, and other documents.
Set primarily in Royal Oak, Virginia, during WWII, the events in Dodging and Burningincorporate elements of mystery, war photography, sexual orientation, and loss of innocence into one exquisite frame, leaving the reader turning pages even once the final word appears.
Copenhaver and I recently sat down to talk about the book.