Content, Encounters, Inspiration – A German
Author/Illustrator in New York
by Sanne Dufft
by Sanne Dufft
I am back
from New York, where I had the opportunity to attend the SCBWI winter
conference. It was an inspiring and all in all wonderful experience.
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| © Sanne Dufft, 2018 |
Possibly – and hopefully – everyone who has ever been to an SCBWI conference knows the feeling. After the conference, you feel enriched and empowered, able to get wherever you want to get and reach whatever goal you want to reach.
Trying to
break down what it actually is that made it such a powerful experience, these
three words come to my mind: Content,
Encounters, Inspiration.
There was so much content:
Thanks to a
new structure, there were three two-hour intensives, in which we dove deep into
writing or illustrating techniques, or learned about the industry. I took part
in one intensive with a panel consisting of an art director (Patti Ann Harris) and two
author-illustrators (Marc Brown and Hilary Leung) (“Best Practices for Illustrators: From
Assignment to Bound Book”) outlining the process of a book coming to life.
In my
second intensive four art directors from four publishing houses (Cathy Goldsmith,
Patti Ann Harris, Cheryl Klein, Lilly Malcom and Donna Marc), generously shared what they look
for when they try to find an illustrator for a book. For this intensive, we had been given a
homework assignment. So that during the intensive the art directors looked at
the attendees’ illustrations, and let us know what they liked about the image,
what they found was strong in the image, or what they would ask the illustrator
to change if they were to use it in a book.
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| © Sanne Dufft, 2018 |
My last
intensive was led by the amazing Jane
Yolen, author of more than 300 books, who gave us an overall course about
picture book writing together with her daughter. There was also plenty of time
for our questions.
(At the
same time, there were other intensives: If you feel like looking them up, you
can find the program here: https://www.scbwi.org/event-19th-annual-scbwi-winter-conference-in-new-york-ny18/schedule/.)
There were so many wonderful encounters:
My strongest impression was that of so many people with a common passion for
pictures and stories for children, who know each other’s day to day struggles
as their own.
There were
people from all different stages of the path, from all over the world. There
were people whose books I love, or whose potential books I had the pleasure to
catch a glimpse of.
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| © Sanne Dufft, 2018 |
Then there
was the portfolio showcase, offering the possibility to look at hundreds of
portfolios – encountering art and in the art, the artist. How would this art look in a book? What kind
of book would I pick this art for if I were an art director? What touches and
inspires me – also: What do I not want in my own art? What would I do
differently?
And there was enough inspiration to fly:
I drew a
lot of inspiration from everything I have described so far. But then, in
addition to all this, there were several talks which were inspiring: On the first
night, at the festive Golden Kite Gala, Chelsea
Clinton gave a talk about what books and reading (and being read to) can
mean for children. There was Dan Santat
talking about his creative journey which led from his early work to his newer
books, in which he has found a voice as an illustrator and writer, which is
heartfelt and deep.
There was Jane Yolen, looking back on a long and impressively productive writing life, encouraging us to develop our creativity. And there was Angie Thomas, author of NY times bestseller ‘The Hate U Give’, showing us that it is actually possible to change the world – by changing a child’s or a teen’s world with a book.
There was Jane Yolen, looking back on a long and impressively productive writing life, encouraging us to develop our creativity. And there was Angie Thomas, author of NY times bestseller ‘The Hate U Give’, showing us that it is actually possible to change the world – by changing a child’s or a teen’s world with a book.
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| © Sanne Dufft, 2018 |
So, all you
wonderful SCBWI people, I’m incredibly grateful I could be there and can also
be part of an amazing RT team, who have put together and lead through this
event with incredible professionalism, warmth and humor.
In the
closing session, Lin asked the
audience: “Who’s going home to do their best work?“
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| © Sanne Dufft, 2018 |
I am
certainly inspired to try.
Sanne is the writer and illustrator of several picture books, published in several European countries and North America. She volunteers for SCBWI as illustrators' coordinator for our region and lives with her family in beautiful Tübingen.
