Liz Garton Scanlon is the author of numerous award-winning picture books, including the Caldecott Honor ALL THE WORLD and the hilarious BOB, NOT BOB, which she co-authored with Audrey Vernick. Liz is also the author of the middle-grade novel THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER, with more to come for this age group. She’s known for her poetic writing style and delightful storytelling. Where does she find her ideas? We wanted to find out…
Booking Biz: What does your average day look like?
Liz: I’m a very early riser, and I start by taking a run around the lake with my dog and then coffee with cream and a banana. I’m a creature of habit. But after that, all bets are off. Sometimes I’m revising a novel or scribbling down ideas for a new picture book. Sometimes I’m emailing back and forth with my critique partner and collaborator. Sometimes I’m digging into my students’ work (I teach in the low-residency MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts).
All of this to say that my mornings, up until noon or two or so, are devoted to writerly things. Then I’ve got several hours still to manage email, social media, post office runs, travel planning, stuff like that. I might throw something in the slow cooker. Maybe go to yoga. Get out with my dog again.
Once my husband and daughter make it home, we’re apt to eat together and then play a game of Scrabble or something. My favorite nights are when they play music. I spend about 3 minutes bemoaning the fact that I’m not a musician and then the rest of the time thanking my lucky stars that they are.
The days I’m visiting with school kids or reading at a festival or teaching at a conference don’t fit this template at all, obviously. Those days are the happy, lucky wild cards in my life.
Booking Biz: When you’re not writing, what do you like to do best?
Liz: I have two nearly-adult daughters so whenever they’re free and game, I like to hang out with them. We love traveling as a family, and have been to places as far-flung as Panama, China, Tanzania together. But on a daily basis, I fill my off hours with hiking or yoga, coffee with friends, and good books.
Booking Biz: Where do you get the inspiration for your books?
Liz: I always tell students that you don’t have to go on a big adventure to get an idea — ideas come from the world right around us, and the world inside of us. And that’s true — between our ordinary lives and our imaginations, we all have enough material to massage into art. That said, I do seem to constantly revisit themes, most especially the goodness and wonder of the natural world.
My older books ALL THE WORLD and NOODLE & LOU and IN THE CANYON all come at this idea from different perspectives, and so do my newer ones ANOTHER WAY TO CLIMB A TREE and KATE, WHO TAMED THE WIND. And I’ve got more to come, including one about wolves (FULL MOON PUPS), one about a murmuration of starlings (ONE DARK BIRD) and one about
gardens (THANK YOU, GARDEN). I guess the wild world serves as my muse.
Booking Biz: Did you always want to write books for children, or was there another career you wished for as a child?
Liz: Well, originally I was going to be an actress with a horse farm. That was before I realized I’d rather do my art more stealthily, inside the pages of a book. I’d still pop for the horse farm, though, if I didn’t live smack in the middle of a city. When I was a girl, I’d wanted a horse forever, and one Christmas, my dad finally made my dreams come true with a 7-year-old quarter horse mare. After I’d thrown myself up on her back and fallen in love completely, the old rancher in charge told us she was with foal. “A two-for-one deal!” he said. My dad just shook his head. “What a good deal,” I kept saying as we drove home. “What a good, good deal…”
Booking Biz: If you ruled the world, what would it look like?
Liz: I think I’d be a little bit like Oprah, always pulling stuff out from underneath chairs to thrill and surprise people. “Everybody gets a puppy!” … “Everybody gets a trip to Alaska!” … “Everybody gets pie!” But I’d add things like, “OK, folks, reach under your seat to find… yes, that’s right… everybody gets health insurance! Everybody gets peace! Everybody gets justice!” We need a lot more of that kind of thing in our current kingdom. Oh, and of course, “Everybody gets lots and lots and lots of books!”
Booking Biz: Now that’s a world we can get behind. “Everybody gets stories!” Thank you, Liz.
Read more about Liz Garton Scanlon and her presentations on her speaker page.