Book Culture

Avi — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 07:01:37 +0000

One of the crucial things that drive writers, I think, is the desire to be part of what I refer to as Book Culture. This is the universe of the book; writing, reading, making, publishing, book-selling, libraries, editing, design, marketing—and you can add much more to the list, I’m sure. If you were a very young reader, as I was, you grew up amidst various aspects of this world. I suppose I could start with the picture books my mother read to us nightly when kids, to the gift of a book (always) on birthday and Christmas, the local library. I decided to become a writer when I was a teen-ager. In a diary I kept when a high school senior (1955) there are long lists of the books I was reading. But there is also the title of a play I wrote which I listed between Ibsen’s Enemy of the People and Dylan Thomas‘ Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, with the parenthetical note (“That’s nice to put down.”) In other words, I was placing myself among great writers. Yes, a seventeen-year-old’s fantasy, but that was the world of which I wished to be a part. So when a friend sent me The National Endowment for the Humanities “Summer Booklist for Young Readers,” updated for the first time since 1988, it was fun to see, wedged between Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales and Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting, my book Poppy (illustrated by Brian Floca). Just as in 1955, it’s nice to be a part of that world.

Reading from my work

Avi — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 07:01:40 +0000

On June 26^th I will be at the Shenandoah University (Winchester, VA) 2012 Children’s Literature Conference. Along with other writers and illustrators we will focus on the conference theme, literature for boys. While I will take part in a couple of panel discussions, I will have a solo spot, doing what I most enjoy at conferences, reading from my work. Over the years I have delivered my share of formal speeches, but some years ago, I decided to do something more challenging, for me at least. I hired a professional theatre director and a voice teacher and asked them to work with me to put together and perform a program of readings, selections from my own writing. It’s a form of reader’s theatre, but in this case I am the only performer. I learned to adjust my writing, at times cutting and even rewriting, so as to make each episode dramatic, intense, and more suitable to an auditory experience. I learned learn how to respond to a live audience, to vary my voice, to create distinct characters, and but most of all to bring energetic life to my own words. I am not a natural performer, but for a performance to work, I need to throw myself into my words. When it is successful, it is deeply rewarding for me—as a writer. I get a response that is palpably there. As for the audience, they are entertained for an hour. We all—I hope— have a great time.

Avi Blog » children’s literature

Book Culture

Reading from my work