A Writer's Journey

Ben Mikaelsen's path to becoming a writer was not easy. While he enjoyed telling stories as a child, he did not receive a formal education in his native Bolivia until the fourth grade. Mikaelsen had significant struggles with his academic work, and was heavily bullied because he did not look like other students. His struggles in school continued when his family relocated to Minnesota at the end of his sixth grade year. “I began to think something was wrong with me,” he told seventh grade students on Monday.

Even as he encountered adversity, he enjoyed creating stories. “I always had ideas in my head,” he said. He also acknowledged that he became an “angry young man,” and warned students about the effects of bullying—both for the bully, and the person being bullied.

In college, Mikaelsen was able to excel in writing through the support of a professor who recognized his talent for storytelling and helped him overcome his difficulties with the mechanics of the English language. Today, he is the author of nine novels, and is currently finishing a manuscript for his first sci-fi novel. Latin's entire seventh grade class read the award-winning Touching Spirit Bear.

During his visit, Mikaelsen held a writing workshop for two seventh grade classes, ate lunch with students in the Middle School Book Club, and spoke to all seventh graders about "becoming the author of your life." He encouraged Latin students that they, too, could achieve their dreams through hard work, and emphasized to them the importance of being themselves.

Mikaelsen lives near Bozeman, Montana, with a 750-pound bear, Buffy, that he adopted and has raised for over 20 years. Learn more about Mikaelsen at www.benmikaelsen.com.