Writing With a Broken Tusk
Writing With a Broken Tusk began in 2006 as a blog about overlapping geographies, personal and real-world, and writing books for children. The blog name refers to the mythical pact made between the poet Vyaasa and the Hindu elephant headed god Ganesha who was his scribe during the composition of the Mahabharata. It also refers to my second published book, edited by the generous and brilliant Diantha Thorpe of Linnet Books/The Shoe String Press, published in 1996, acquired and republished by August House and still miraculously in print.
Since March, writer and former student Jen Breach has helped me manage guest posts and Process Talk pieces on this blog. They have lined up and conducted author/illustrator interviews and invited and coordinated guest posts. That support has helped me get through weeks when I’ve been in edit-copyedit-proofing mode, and it’s also introduced me to writers and books I might not have found otherwise. Our overlapping interests have led to posts for which I might not have had the time or attention-span. It’s the beauty of shared circles—Venn diagrams, anyone?
Lantana Publishing’s Ten-year Anniversary
I met Alice Curry years ago when I brainstormed with a group of talented writers and storytellers with the objective of designing a MOOC on Coursera with a focus on writing for children. It was a fascinating process. Among all the other ripples those early conversations generated was the remarkable growth of a publishing house under Alice’s leadership. This year Lantana Publishing celebrated its 10th birthday. Here’s my conversation with Alice about this uncommon milestone.
Guest Post: Monique Duncan on Centering Black Stories and Experiences in Children’s Literature
Once in a while, you come across a writer with a big idea—an idea in search of the words it needs for its telling. That was Monique Duncan when she took the picture book intensive semester with me at VCFA. She’d written that idea out, using a many words and plenty of compassion, all of it held aloft by a ton of historical research. Once in a while, you see a project like that settle into a pure, clear distillation of its early self. You see it combined with art that lifts the text so that the book becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Which is why I’m overjoyed to welcome Monique Duncan to this blog, as she writes about the history and personal experience that inspired her picture book, Freedom Braids, illustrated by Oboh Moses and published by Lantana Publishing.
