Candy Gourlay's YA novels “Tall Story” and “Bone Talk” were unlikely hits about Filipino teens facing unique struggles. This year’s “Wild Song” is the heart-wrenching story of Igorot youths shipped to America to be exhibited in the 1904 World’s Fair.

But before the fame and glory, she endured nine years of rejections. Gourlay talks to Howie about why she persisted, the struggles of an author of color in a White-dominated world, and how she started writing from a Filipina perspective.