III. ON A PERSONAL NOTE

Undoubtedly, you love many children’s books, both classics and contemporary. Please cite three favorites. What makes each unforgettable?

Three favorites in a particular, but meaningless order:

1) King Dork by Frank Portman, which pole vaults over its unapologetic slowness, thanks to its equally unapologetic, incredibly consistent, as-honest-as-being-dumped-by-the-cool-girl voice (courtesy of the book’s hero, Tom Henderson).

2) The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, because it was such a good idea to write The Jungle Book set in a graveyard that even a totally wonky execution of the story would have been exhilarating to read, and then Gaiman nailed it.

3) FraidyZoo by Thyra Heder, a picture book so good that you could literally bulldoze a playground and leave a copy in the rubble, and the kids who came upon it would have more fun than they’ve ever had.

How does meeting writers at workshops (or elsewhere in person) affect you, your perspective, your work? What do you enjoy about participating in writers’ events?

Meeting writers is as important as meeting readers, which is as important as meeting editors, which is as important as meeting booksellers, which is even more important than finishing this sentence. If you don’t steadily remind yourself of the real humans behind every part of the publishing process, you lose perspective and intuition (and warmth, for that matter) in no time, and it becomes only a business, when it’s also part of an art form, and part of human nature (at least the storytelling aspect of publishing is).

We face a pretty steady risk of becoming so self-serious in our profession that we forget what the end game is… someone (in the case of children’s book publishing, often an adorable little kid!) with a book in their hands, getting more electricity in their brain and a faster heartbeat because of whatever words are in front of them. Refreshing that perspective makes me a better agent, and the added perspective I get from meeting writers at a workshop does, too… it makes me a more patient and more curious and more hopeful reader.

What would you like writers to know about you, the individual who scrutinizes (and may reject) their literary labor of love?

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