Elisha Cooper's meditation on the Life Cycle of a Book

Author/Illustrator Elisha Cooper's essay in Publisher's Weekly, "The Life Cycle of a Book" is thoughtful and poignant, and inspires all of us who create content for children to consider what's the life cycle of our creative projects...

Here are a few quotes from the piece:

"And though no writer, especially one describing the writing process in a Publishers Weekly essay, should be trusted entirely, the idea for my book Big Cat, Little Cat was conceived in minutes, and those minutes remain a mystery to me, and I was there."

"If a book’s conception is a mystery, I find its making to be the opposite. At least, the painting of a book. There’s a straightforward physicality to it. Paint, brush, paper. Using one’s hands. Taking an idea and nurturing it, teaching it to walk and talk. The happiness of raising a child, without the confusion."

"My idea, my meditation on my daughters’ grief, the paintings that had covered the walls around my desk, now belonged to someone else. My book was no longer my book, not quite, and knowing this was both sad and right. Humbling. It had become another person’s story, or room, a space in which they could dream or draw comfort. Their mystery." 

Elisha's essay is well-worth reading.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee