At the Editor’s Desk: Author Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Insights on Relishing Joy are a Revelation
Remarkably Bright Creatures Author To Visit Champaign for the “Great Authors at the Library” Series on Oct. 9
By Laura Weisskopf Bleill
Four years after writing Marcellus the octopus to life on the pages of her debut novel “Remarkably Bright Creatures,” novelist Shelby Van Pelt has not grown weary of talking about him.
She isn’t in any hurry “to move on” to the next thing. Rather, she revels in the pure joy that her book has brought so many.
“I’m aware that not every author gets to do this, or certainly gets to do it for as long as I get to do it after my book is out,” she said during a casual Zoom conversation. “I know this won’t last forever, so it’s just fun to take advantage of it while it’s going.”
Remarkably Bright Creatures isn’t just any book. It is a unicorn in the publishing world, striking a chord with adult readers across the lifespan. It’s sold two million copies worldwide; its paperback edition was only released in April, almost three years after its initial publication in 2022.
On Thursday, Oct. 9, Van Pelt will speak at the Champaign Public Library as part of its Great Authors at the Library series, which brings New York Times bestselling authors to town.
The event is free and open to the public; space is limited. Doors will open at 6:30 pm at the Main Library. Books will be available for purchase and a book signing will follow Van Pelt’s presentation.
Remarkably Bright Creatures centers around a 70-year-old widow, Tova, who spends her nights working at a small-town aquarium on the coast of Washington. There, she befriends Marcellus, a wickedly funny and whip smart giant Pacific octopus. The two alternate narrating the story.
We learn about Tova’s enduring grief over her son’s mysterious death as a teenager, and Marcellus’ own struggles facing his mortality.
Van Pelt remains just as captivated with her book as her readers, which isn’t to say she predicted that it would be such a runaway success. Afterall, when she was writing Remarkably Bright Creatures, she truly believed that no one would read it – other than perhaps her husband and writing group.
“When I was writing Remarkably Bright Creatures, I didn’t really think anyone would read it when I would come up upon something that was a little bit ridiculous,” she related. “When you’re writing a book with a sentient octopus as the narrator, there’s a lot of things that are a little bit ridiculous.”
Remarkably Bright Creatures is what I like to call a “big warm hug” book, a sub-genre of literary fiction. These novels sweep up their readers and envelop them in kindness and love, friendship and reflection. Typically, there’s a heavy dose of community with a side of found family and a touch of sorrow. They often feature multiple generations of characters finding their way around and to each other.
Van Pelt was just as warm and down to earth as her novel when we spoke last month online. Although she was dialing in from her home office in a Chicago suburb and I was at mine in Champaign, it felt like we could have been having coffee in real life, two moms connecting over family, career and a shared love of books.
Her children, now 9 and 11, were 3 and 5 when she finished her manuscript and started sending it to agents.
A couple of years ago, her son declared at dinner one night that he wanted to be a author when he grew up.
“And we’re like, oh, you don’t really like writing, you don’t really like reading, so, where’s this coming from?” she recalled. And he continued: “All you do is just write a book. Then people start sending you money.”
That made his parents laugh, and Van Pelt recalled “adjusting his expectations” to make sure he understood her story was one of persistence with more than a pinch of luck. Remarkably Bright Creatures is one of those rare books “buoyed by bookseller love and word-of-mouth recommendations” wrote the New York Times in 2023.
The kids don’t remember a time when their mom wasn’t a published author, and her traveling to Champaign for a book appearance is just another business trip, she said.
A major theme in Remarkably Bright Creatures is what home means. In many ways, the book is a love letter to the Pacific Northwest – and small town aquariums.
Before she turned to writing, Van Pelt was a consultant who moved frequently in those early career days. She has now lived in Illinois longer than anywhere else in her adult life.
“When I started writing this book, it felt very natural to me to try to reconnect to home, to where I felt like my roots were strongest, which is where I grew up,” said Van Pelt, a Washington state native. “It also happens to be my favorite part of the country, maybe my favorite place in the world. It’s so beautiful, it’s so special … it’s almost hard to describe to people who haven’t been there.”
It’s a pang that may resonate with so many here in Champaign-Urbana.
She’s excited to come to Champaign for the first time, a college town that is highly invested in science, just down the interstate from her.
She has singlehandedly done more to advance the popularity of octopuses – and yes, that’s the preferred plural term – than anyone else since Finding Nemo.
“An octopus narrator isn’t necessarily going to turn someone into an environmental warrior overnight. But if it makes a few people care a little bit more, and have a little bit more awareness and empathy, I think that’s really cool.
“But I like coming places where the community is already on board with that.”
Van Pelt said she is hopeful that she can talk about the launch date for the Netflix movie based on the book. Last spring, Van Pelt spent time on set in the Pacific Northwest, calling it “the most surreal week of my life.”
The movie version features living legend and Academy Award winner Sally Field as Tova. Co-star Lewis Pullman recently played the male lead in another literary adaptation, Apple TV’s Lessons in Chemistry miniseries.
“Seeing Sally Field do that portrayal, it’s almost like seeing a little piece of my grandmother (who passed away in 2017) come back to life,” she said.
Van Pelt hasn’t publicly announced anything about her next book, still in progress. She readily admits to having started and cast aside several projects. With expectations over the moon, she openly discusses that she is in a very different place now than she was when she was writing Remarkably Bright Creatures.
“The authors I’ve met who have published multiple books, they all say that their second book was their hardest, almost with sympathy,” Van Pelt told me.
Although I put Remarkably Bright Creatures back on my bookshelf months ago, I’m still learning lessons from it and from its author.
Take time to soak in the moments of happiness, and what brings you joy. There’s no need to rush out and move on to the next thing so quickly.
And if you’re lucky, you’ll be in the audience to hear this message yourself.
Laura Weisskopf Bleill is the mom-in-chief of Chambanamoms.com. She rediscovered her love of reading during the pandemic and now averages around 70 books per year. She spends way too much time on Goodreads.