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While many children ask for toys when shopping with their parents, Lamar Giles (B.S. ’01, MFA ’17) and his sister were more likely to request books. Buying books is expensive, though, so Giles’ mother introduced him to the library where he discovered an infinite world of possibilities. “Anything that struck my interest, a section of the library had something about it,” Giles said. Decades later, the Hopewell, Virginia, native has built a career with words.

Giles is the author of “Star Wars: Sanctuary,” “Ruin Road” and “The Getaway,” which has a television adaptation in the works through Don Cheadle’s This Radicle Act and Sony Pictures Television. He recently served as the inaugural writer-in-residence at William & Mary.

His writing is geared toward audiences who traditionally have not seen themselves represented in fiction. Giles cofounded the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books in 2014, and much of his focus at William & Mary revolved around archiving and sharing the work of Virginia’s women writers.

Monarch Magazine caught up with the two-time alum last fall to discuss “Star Wars,” libraries and his lifelong love for storytelling.

Describe what it was like being a student at Old Dominion University.

Being an undergraduate was probably one of the best experiences of my life. I made friends that I’m still friends with today. I met my wife. We often talk about the first time we met on campus, and how we never would’ve expected it to lead to a 23-year relationship with a 4-year-old running around that looks like us. That part is special.

Grad school was when I came back to get my MFA in creative writing. And, that’s after I sold two novels. I wanted to have a stronger foundation for the career I was pursuing. I’d gone from having a corporate day job for over a decade to being a fulltime artist, a novelist. And, I had some really great teachers — Sheri Reynolds, Janet Peery and all the rest of that department. I really did learn a lot that has still served me to this day.

What lessons from the University do you carry with you?

Meeting a professor like Sheri Reynolds, who had actually done the work that I wanted to do, had a bigger impression on me than just what we learned in books. Because I saw that Sheri was a regular person with a big personality, huge talent and an incredible way of encouraging students. That’s something I’ve tried to take with me as I moved on in my career, and eventually, I became a teacher who tried to pass on some of her lessons.

When you spoke at the University’s Literary Festival in 2017, you talked about having a realization that books come from people, not from on high.

I grew up in Hopewell, Virginia. It’s a blue-collar town. It’s factory workers. It’s soldiers, because we’re right next to the Army base. It’s teachers and firefighters. There were hardly any artists that I knew of growing up. So, the idea that someone could make a living from art, that these books I got from my library every week came from actual people felt ridiculous to me as a child — up until a teacher I had in elementary school made us compete in a writing contest. It gave me permission to write and create. It dawned on me then, “Oh, wait a minute. I can do this?”

How surreal is it to see a “Star Wars” book with your name on the cover?

Honestly, it almost still doesn’t feel real. I don’t remember a time when “Star Wars” wasn’t part of my life. It’s that big of a deal. To get the call to work on these characters that I grew up with, it’s the sort of thing that makes you feel like you made the right steps. You made the right decisions. You’ve done the right things in your career for this thing to come back full circle to something that once inspired you. You really can’t ask for more than to be able to contribute to one of your favorite fictional universes.

Is there anything you can tell us about the TV adaptation of “The Getaway?”

We have several writers working on it that used to work on HBO’s “Westworld.” So, it is really just top-tier talent that are pitching the project to a couple of studios. The story’s strong with the adjustments they’ve made to make it an episodic TV show. This team did stuff with the story I never thought of; if I had thought of it, I would’ve put it in the book. That’s how good they are. And, it just becomes a situation where you’re looking for someone to give you the green light. So, we’re 
going to keep our fingers crossed. I hope one day you’ll get to see that story on a screen somewhere.

Talk about being a writer-in-residence at William & Mary. (Giles’ term ended June 30.)

The opportunity came through William & Mary’s Swem Library. They were looking for a writer with strong ties to Virginia to help be an ambassador for the library and help promote the library as a research facility with some emphasis on Virginia’s women writers. I worked on several initiatives to put a spotlight on the special collections that William & Mary has.

A quote that stuck out to me in your residency announcement, and also appears in the novel “Ruin Road,” was, “The library can be one of the best schools in the world.” Can you expand on that?

As far back as I can remember, my mother was a factory worker, who didn’t want her kids to be factory workers. She would always tell us to work on our minds, because if we worked on our minds, when it was our time to go out and earn a living, at the very least, we could have air conditioning. Her version of working on our minds was that we read a lot. It started with anytime we’d go into a store. She knew kids were going to ask for toys and stuff. The deal she made was, “You won’t get toys unless it’s a special occasion, but you can always get a book.” That became very expensive, because me and my sister would always find a book to bring home. To keep from going broke, she said, “Okay, you know what? I’m going to take you to the library every week.” 

From there, I learned that I could touch on any subject I wanted. Anything that struck my interest, a section of the library had something about it. I didn’t have to wait for there to be a classroom situation where a teacher chose what we would discuss. If I wanted to learn something new, I could go to the library. For me, it meant the library was as good a school as any.