News
Hello, friends. The year is almost done, and it’s been an eventful one. The last few months included moving out of my little old house beneath the castle in Germany (goodbye, house 🥲), sending my piano to Switzerland, running back and forth between Germany and Switzerland eight thousand times for work, and then at last flying to Mexico, where I will be for a bit. I’m now ensconced in the mountains and the sun and am going to tell you about all the things that have happened since the last newsletter.
News
As some of you know, a few years ago I joined the board of AUTILLUS - the Swiss society of authors and illustrators for young people. This year, I got to oversee the process of rebranding the association, which has existed for almost 30 years now. I’m really happy with how it turned out. Huge thanks to our agency, The Weather, for all of their great work and patience as we wrangled this project into shape. (To be clear, I didn’t illustrate this or design it. Basically, I just said yes or no to many things and tried to find solutions to many problems.)
If you’re interested in Swiss literature for young people, here’s what you can do:
Check out our new website and sign up for quarterly newsletter
Follow us on socials
If you’re a professional writer or illustrator for young people living in Switzerland, become a member!
If you’re a teacher, publisher, or bookseller seeking artists or illustrators for projects, events, or workshops, use our portfolio function to contact the perfect collaborator.
You’ll find all of the above here:
The third year of the “Extramundana” had its performance at “Zürich liest”. It was a great evening, full of writers reading fantastical things until deep into the night. I also got to do an illustration for it, which was very fun. Thank you, JULL, for organizing this.
(Unrelated to the above: I got an absolutely thrilling bit of illustration news that I can’t share yet, but scream. Scream, scream. Still screaming.
The Secret Life of Hidden Places was Amazon’s Wanderlust Book Club pick for September. It also sold in translation to Japan. Hurray!
We had our finale of Storytelling Schweiz, an initiative organized by us at Autillus and conceptualized by the great storyteller, Jyoti Guptara. The concept was to encourage young people to develop their voices and confidence in speaking by telling their stories out loud. It involved tips from authors and illustrators all over Switzerland, as well as school visits and workshops that reached over 1,000 young people in Switzerland. The final part of the initiative was a competition where young people could send in their recorded stories and win many prizes. It was a wonderful event, and great to see the effects of the initiative in real time. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to the sponsors!
More infos here:
Art Round-up
Here is some of the art I’ve done over the past few months. I’m finally starting to settle into a style that I can work with, which has been fun. The style = lots of swirly trees, smudgy textures, pops of color, MOONS. I love moons. Here are all of the above:
That last picture is for my US publisher Greenwillow Book’s 50th birthday! They’re the best. I wish them the happiest of celebrations, and congratulations.
And that’s all! I hope everyone has a lovely holiday season and a great new year. Thank you all for following along here, and I’ll see you all in a few months!