Lance Avery Morgan
Author’s New Book, “They Will Tell You The World Is Yours: On Little Rebellions and Finding Your Way” Soars High
They will tell you the world is yours—but only a writer like Anna Mitchael can convince you to believe it. With a voice as wise as it is wry, and a knack for turning the ordinary into the almost mythic, Anna Mitchael doesn’t just write books—she builds little universes where humor has depth, heartbreak has humor, and personal truth is the most valuable currency of all. Her latest offering, They Will Tell You the World Is Yours: On Little Rebellions and Finding Your Way, out May 20th to much anticipation, is part memoir, part manifesto, and entirely Mitchael: sharp, soulful, and surprisingly funny in the places you might least expect it.
Waco resident Mitchael is the sort of writer who could wax poetic about a gas station coffee and somehow make you cry, laugh, and call your mother—possibly all at once. She writes with the tone of your wisest, wildest friend—the one who knows how to gut a fish, pick a perfect cantaloupe, and deliver an emotional gut punch in a single, deceptively breezy sentence.
But don’t let the approachable charm of this busy author, wife, and mother fool you. Beneath the easy rhythm of her words lies a well-worn path of hard-won insight. They Will Tell You the World Is Yours reads like a beautifully folded letter from someone who’s been there in life—through the messy middles, the quiet miracles, and the roaring doubts—and came back with the audacity to hope anyway.
This is not just a book. It’s a companion, a compass, a conversation you didn’t know you needed. And Mitchael? She’s the kind of author who doesn’t hand you a map—she reminds you you’ve been holding one all along, and she’s been reminding readers as the successful author of her previous books, Copygirl and Don’t Call Me Ma’am.
So, how did a small-town Texas lady with a big-city sensibility and a radar for realness become one of the clearest, kindest voices in contemporary literature? As Anna Mitchael herself might say: “It’s a long story. And lucky you—it comes with footnotes, punchlines, and the occasional revelation,” as she shares her stylish insight with our Lance Avery Morgan.
The best career advice I’ve received is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Thicken up your skin.
Three qualities that got me where I am today are…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Curiosity. Stubbornness. Blinders.
Easiest career decision I ever made is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Following what I love.
Due to my ongoing involvement with writing, I have found that…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Success can be measured in a million different ways. If I go by other people’s measurements, I have trouble sleeping at night. I know I’m reaching for the right things when I’ve got peace.
My new novel, They Will Tell You The World Is Yours, was an experience that…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Has felt out of my hands from the beginning. There are things you write where you feel very in charge of the process, you can manage and plan it just like you want. From the first vignette I wrote for this book, it felt like it had its own life, and I was just putting it down. Maybe doing a little light shaping.
When writing, my ideas are most likely created by my influences of…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Things that are either breaking or strengthening my heart.
Writing, like life, is chock-full of wonder because…
ANNA MITCHAEL: You think you’ve learned a lesson right until it comes back around again, and you realize you’ve got to go deeper and do more work. The process isn’t always good, but when you look back, you see those are the points where you are really most alive and you’re really inside the essence of who you are made to be.
What is influencing me right now is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: My husband. He works in the outdoors and when I get too burrowed in my life that happens in and through computers and words I often find myself falling into him, trying to shift into his way of walking in the world that is also paced like nature—its a more open and fluid perspective that brings me back to center.
How I made my first dollar…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Washing windows. My grandmother lived in East Texas and had these huge picture windows in her living room that showed pine trees in every direction. She’d have me wash those windows for a quarter each, and I would take my earnings to the gas station and buy a Coke-flavored Icee.
First music I bought was…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Thinking Brooks & Dunn. But maybe Vanilla Ice. I guess that’s embarrassing in retrospect, but I memorized every lyric to those Vanilla Ice songs, and I very clearly remember sitting in a junior high gym in a Houston suburb waiting for a volleyball game to start and going through all the songs word for word with my friends. I’d never give that memory up.
Last thing I binge/marathon watched…
ANNA MITCHAEL: White Lotus. I was late to the game, but now I’m on pace.
Book that left a lasting impression on me…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Self-help by Lorrie Moore. I read the short stories 22 years ago and used a quote I love in the introduction to my new book. I open up that book, and it immediately takes me back to being single and living in Manhattan. When books can trap a time and place like that for us, it’s just magic.
On that note, my favorite fiction character is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Harriet the Spy. I actually ate tomato sandwiches for many years because of Harriet. Now I’ve given you Coke-flavored Icees, Vanilla Ice, and tomato sandwiches. I can’t decide if it’s an incomplete picture of my childhood or an absolutely perfect one.
If I lived in a foreign city it would be…
ANNA MITCHAEL: I’m not picky. If the chance came along for my husband or me to work in a foreign city and it seemed like a good adventure for everyone, we’d probably jump on it.
What everyone should try in their lifetime is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: The ocean.
If I could compete in an Olympic sport, or create one, it would be…
ANNA MITCHAEL: I want to be on Snoop Dogg’s team, professional spectator.
If I weren’t doing what I do, I would be a…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Teacher
A celebrity I would prank phone call, and what I would ask them is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Matthew McConaughey. I thought Greenlights was such a good book, and I am so curious if he really wrote it all by himself. So, I’d probably pretend to be his literary agent and say something like, “I’m getting more questions about whether you really wrote the book,” and wait for him to be like, “Tell those Aggies to quit asking—I wrote it, dammit.” Then I’d know he really did write it, and I would have to accept that some people really do have it all.
My hidden talent that most people might not guess is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Small talk. I come across as more of a typical, introverted writer, but if you get me going I can chat with the best of ‘em.
If I had a superpower, I’d want it to be…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Pizza-making.
A simple way to get people to laugh is easy. Just…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Put words to what everyone is feeling but no one is saying.
A phrase I might overuse would be…
ANNA MITCHAEL: “Actually.” It’s a word, not a phrase, but when I realized all three of my kids were overusing it, I had to face the source.
My motto? Easy. It is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Life is as good as we believe it to be.
Favorite scent these days is (because)…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Flowers, because it’s summer.
My style icon is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: My grandmother
My personal style signifier is…
ANNA MITCHAEL: My hair is usually as wild and curly as I can get it to be.
The classic designer I wish was still designing today would be…
ANNA MITCHAEL: I love patterned shirts and dresses. Anytime I find vintage along those lines, it’s an automatic yes.
The last meal that truly impressed me was…
ANNA MITCHAEL: In Waco, we have a serious sushi shortage. Every time we are out of town and I get a good sushi meal, it thrills me.
In my fridge, you will always find…
ANNA MITCHAEL: Cheese.
My perfect day would end…
ANNA MITCHAEL: With a hike.
The title of my autobiography will likely be…
They Will Tell You She’s Six Feet Under. I don’t know what that means exactly, but it’s got reality with a streak of relentless hope, and that feels very true to my writing.
