Meet Morgan DeVivo

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Morgan DeVivo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Morgan, so great to have you sharing your thoughts and wisdom with our readers and so let’s jump right into one of our favorite topics – empathy. We think a lack of empathy is at the heart of so many issues the world is struggling with and so our hope is to contribute to an environment that fosters the development of empathy. Along those lines, we’d love to hear your thoughts around where your empathy comes from?

Just living, really. That’s all it took to be empathetic, and I believe that’s all it takes. Not simply existing, but living: to do everything and nothing all at once—peeling potatoes at the kitchen counter and finding great joy in that action, walking to nowhere with dreams of walking everywhere, smiling when something new and unexpected arises, or packing someone’s lunch because you love them. Cutting their sandwiches down the middle, into four small squares, diagonally, however they like them—and if you know how they like them, then you have learned to live. It’s simple intimacies like these that make empathy habitual. I’ve latched onto life so strongly that I can’t help but feel just as strongly toward the beautiful, the ugly, and the sacred occurrences of the everyday. I cherish, I observe, and I carry the weight of it all. It’s a blessing and a curse, I think. When you come to admire life, you also come to grieve it at times. Because to be empathetic also means to have lost and endured, to some extent. I know what it feels like to stand in a crowded room and still feel completely alone, to fear the uncertainty of the future, to withstand aches and pains—both physical and metaphysical—and to bond over nothing but misfortune. And that’s what makes me empathetic. And sometimes I look at the world and I think: How could you not be empathetic? With all of this—the joy and the laughter and the desperation and the shared fact that we’re all doing this together for the first time—truly, how could you not be empathetic? All you need to do is live.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My name is Morgan DeVivo. I’m 16 years old. And I am an author—a heartbreaking, bittersweet, yet glorious fate. To kill so mercilessly, bring forth life so gingerly, and wake up the next morning with nothing more than an ache in the wrists—that is what it means to be an author.

Sometimes I look around at my life and my stories and wonder how I got here. It all truly began with 40 Days, my first full length novel, about a girl who wakes up in a science facility and can’t remember who she is or where she came from. I wanted to write something spunky and strange, and that’s exactly what I ended up with. Then came Sun and Moon. Two forbidden lovers find themselves in the middle of a religious war, and all hell breaks loose. If there’s ever any question about who I am as a person, I can just point to that book. It is, quite literally, a tangible piece of me. In fact, it’s so intimate that I’m almost afraid for others to read it. That’s how sacred it feels to me. My beautiful strings of words aren’t just strings— they’re lifelines, pulsing and glittering with thousands of thoughts I could only dream of saying aloud. Everything I believe about love, lust, faith, duty, sacrifice, and passion is encapsulated in that one book. I hope readers find it just as inspiring and just as awe-strikingly beautiful as I intended it to be. That is my only goal.

Today, I’m in the process of writing the second book in the series, Blood and Bones. It’s a kind of case study about a girl named Iris of Mire, who has a strange and morbid fascination with blood. I want to make it dark and twisted, while also exploring the theme of what it means to be a good versus a bad person. It has been a delightful challenge to write so far, and I’m excited to see where the story ultimately takes me.

I’m very proud to be an author. I think it’s a wonderful gift to be able to portray things so devastatingly soul-crushing, yet so gently ripe, that readers can’t help but be pulled into the world on the page, feeling as if they, too, exist in many universes at once, frolicking through realities, fighting dragons here and sewing quilts there—while still making it home in time for dinner.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I’ve expressed my opinion on the three most important qualities for being a writer, and I’ll express it again: patience, openness to criticism, and dedication. Think of them like the gears in a sophisticated machine: without one, the entire system falls apart.

To be patient is to understand that such an intricate process takes time—planning, writing, editing, producing—whether that happens over two months or two years. If you simply detest the time it takes, then you will find it much harder to produce something truly heartfelt. Something truly worth reading.

Next, and this is for the perfectionists and the preachers of “I can do no wrong”: to be open to criticism is to understand that not everything you do is perfect. It might not even be good. I learned this the hard way, though in retrospect, there is no easy path to accepting criticism—only one that’s beaten and weary, and barred with construction. Constructiveness. And indeed, criticism should always be constructive, because a lack of it is no longer criticism but simply callousness. Criticism cultivates. Callousness kills. Criticism is the root. Callousness is the weed.

But all shall be null and void if not for the last and most important quality: dedication. To be dedicated is to really love what you do. To have an intense passion that cannot be substituted for aimless hobbies. If you feel as if you could do without it, then the dedication is not there. But if you yearn for it endlessly, envision it in your dreams, and run toward it in the eye of a fierce, raging storm, well, that is dedication through and through.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

This question is the hardest to answer. I fear death, so being reminded of its inevitability pains me. Honestly, I wish I had some wise, thought-provoking response, but all I have is my simple desire, and that is to enjoy life for all its tenderness, all its home-baked goods, all its green pastures, and those striking moments of peace and clarity amidst the endless fog. If I had ten years left, I’d just spend them enjoying myself in ways I know I would. I’m not one for big parties or grand escapades. Instead, I’d bake all the desserts I haven’t tried yet, drive 80 mph down that one road with my music blasting, start hugging people more often, learn how to crochet, get a cat, write an album, and do so much more that I can only dream of.

I once told my boyfriend, “Your life doesn’t have to be grand for it to be interesting.” And I still stand by that. “Living it up” doesn’t necessarily mean vacationing, partying, or traveling across the world. It can be as simple as having a conversation on the front porch, cradling a cup of ginger tea while the sun sets in the distance.

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