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I feel the urge to give a lot of backstory in the early chapters of my book. How can I keep readers interested as I fill them in on key details?

You’re asking the wrong question. This is like asking, “How can I keep people awake while I bore them?” The answer isn’t to distract them from the boring bits; the answer is to not bore them in the first place. The right question is, “How can I get my story moving without ever stopping the story to dump information on my reader?” In polite conversation, we fill everyone in on the details. We want the listeners to not be confused when we mention certain subjects. We want them to understand the context and background in order to facilitate efficient communication. But in fiction, the rules are different. Strong fiction is less like a good teacher and more like a fascinating conversation you’ve come in on halfway through. Books that start out with backstory (or any kind of “telling”) are like a boring lecturer giving a long, tedious lecture. The reader is leaning back in her chair, trying to stay awake while the author insists on telling her about things she doesn’t yet care about. Books that begin with showing, in which the reader finds clues and begins piecing together what’s happening and the reasons behind it, cause her to lean forward and engage. Which effect would you rather have on your reader? Imagine a movie that started with 15 minutes of black screen while the narrator filled the audience in on the history of the characters and story world. No one would stand for it. Yet that’s what novelists do to their readers when they begin with backstory. Or imagine a movie that begins with action but then goes to black for several minutes at a time to let the narrator explain everything. The audience would shout, “Get on with the story!” and then march out and demand their money back. Don’t treat your reader that way. Get on with the story. The irony of backstory is that, when you remove it, the reader “catches” enough information to understand the story anyway. When the author relaxes, having felt confident that she’s explained everything, she begins showing the story. Remove the obligatory explanation stuff and the showing that remains will be sufficient. You don’t need telling. For a great example of showing without explanation, watch the first 30 minutes of WALL-E. With almost no words spoken–and without any boring information dumps–you understand a lot of what’s happened. But the filmmakers didn’t stop the narrative to explain anything. Go, thou, and do likewise.