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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: Eighteen Flowers for Grandma
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WEBSITE: https://alisongoldberg.com/
CITY: Cambridge
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COUNTRY: United States
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RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born ca. 1975; children.
EDUCATION:Tufts University, bachelor’s degree; Cornell University, master’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Activist, community supporter, and writer. Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, organizer; has worked for nonprofit economic and social justice organizations; freelance author of articles about activism and charity; wrote a blog about activism in children’s literature. Board member, Food Research and Action Center.
MEMBER:Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, London Writers’ Salon.
AWARDS:Children’s Africana Book Award, African Studies Association, 2022, for Bottle Tops.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals.
SIDELIGHTS
[open new]Alison Goldberg is an author of heartfelt, creative, and reverential children’s books. One of her favorite childhood playthings was buttons because a grandmother worked at a garment factory in New York City and brought home discards, which Goldberg strung into necklaces and glued into collages. Goldberg’s grandmother Eva was herself fond of making art and encouraged her granddaughter. Goldberg told Jewish Books for Kids … and More!, “When I was a child, I would spend hours in her kitchen drawing with pastels, sewing fabric scraps, or painting. She gave me an easel and my first set of oil paints.” Professional creative inspiration came from a visit to her school by Norman Bridwell, creator of the “Clifford the Big Red Dog” books. The young Goldberg drew fan art and sent him a homemade Clifford book, and moreover she recognized that writing children’s books was a legitimate job people could have.
At Tufts University Goldberg studied art history and anthropology, and she earned a master’s in regional planning from Cornell University. One of her earliest jobs was organizing for the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, where a promotional illustration of children surrounded by food and immersed in books caught her eye. Goldberg told KidLit411: “This art helped raise support for our work and was created by Tomie dePaola! Even though I didn’t attempt to write children’s books until years later, I think this planted in me the idea that it’s possible to connect art to the issues I care about.”
Goldberg’s career revolved around work for economic justice organizations, where she relished chances to write pamphlets, articles, grant proposals, and the like. She conducted research and dozens of interviews to cowrite a resource guide on philanthropy and social change for teens published in the mid-aughts. Meanwhile, living in the Boston area, around 2002 she discovered the writing center Grub Street and saw an opportunity to nurture her creative side. She took classes and joined critique groups, and in 2012, taking inspiration from her recently born children, she devoted herself to writing picture books. Five years later, after crafting a series of manuscripts, she was able to publish her debut, I Love You for Miles and Miles, appealing to children who like trains and trucks.
Asked by interviewer Vivian Kirkfield about her impetus as an author, Goldberg related: “Often what I choose to write about is connected to my desire to share stories with children that further social justice. I love writing about the topics that grab me and don’t let go—whether it’s the actions of inspiring activists, the art of creative individuals, or the journeys of fictional characters.”
In I Love You for Miles and Miles, a mother bear compares her love to the work of a tractor, the pull of a tugboat, and many other vehicular feats as little bear plays along. With the metaphors setting up a “mix of tenderness and action” in every scene, a Publishers Weekly reviewer affirmed that the verse text’s “repeating structure and gentle reassurances … cast a cozy, restful spell.”
Goldberg learned about the subject of her next book when she spent a college semester studying art in Ghana in 1995. At the Artist’s Alliance Gallery in Accra was a wood sculpture by El Anatsui, a found-object artist who makes sculptures out of broken utensils, bottle tops, and other everyday ephemera. About the import of his life and work, Goldberg told 24 Carrots: “El Anatsui’s artistic journey holds many lessons about how an artist can seek out their creative voice. He works with a material that’s close at hand and that evokes his history and environment. He has experimented over decades and is still finding new ways to make art. Artistic journeys are lifelong ones.”
Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui opens with El Anatsui’s artmaking childhood in the Gold Coast, which achieved independence as Ghana when he was a teenager. With no other artists in his town, he was self-driven and primed for originality. Feeling liberated in concert with the historic moment, El Anatsui started experimenting with different media and techniques, eventually gaining fame with fabric-like bottle-top sculptures and other found-object creations that have been displayed in museums worldwide. Horn Book reviewer Megan Dowd Lambert affirmed that Goldberg writes “stirringly” of the defining moments in El Anatsui’s life in this “fascinating” introduction. In Booklist, Henrietta Verma hailed Bottle Tops as a “striking … excellent biography.”
Goldberg’s next book was inspired by her grandmother Eva, who finally earned a college degree at age seventy-eight. Eighteen Flowers for Grandma finds young Sadie aiming to repay the necklace Grandma gave her for kindergarten graduation with a gift for Grandma’s college graduation. Grandma explained that the number eighteen is lucky in Jewish culture, representing chai, the word for “life,” and they love making art together, so Sadie wants to craft eighteen flowers for her. She tries different methods—dandelion pressing, cardboard cutting, crayon—but not until she dwells on Grandma’s delight in flowers’ universal nature does she light on the perfect idea. Jesse White’s illustrations take inspiration from Jewish paper-cutting folk art. A Kirkus Reviews contributor declared that the inclusion of Ashkenazi Jewish culture, like dancing the hora to klezmer music, “imbues this straightforward story with depth.” In School Library Journal, Jan Aldrich Solow remarked that Goldberg’s “exceedingly quiet picture book that lightly touches on Jewish traditions … will fill a need for stories of perseverance.” The Kirkus Reviews writer praised Eighteen Flowers for Grandma as a “gentle tale of intergenerational bonding that will appeal to budding artists.”[close new]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 15, 2022, Henrietta Verma, review of Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui, p. 39.
Horn Book, May-June, 2022, Megan Dowd Lambert, review of Bottle Tops, p. 163.
Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2024, review of Eighteen Flowers for Grandma.
Publishers Weekly, October 16, 2017, review of I Love You for Miles and Miles, p. 65.
School Library Journal, July, 2024, Jan Aldrich Solow, review of Eighteen Flowers for Grandma, p. 55.
ONLINE
24 Carrot Writing, http://www.24carrotwriting.com/ (May 22, 2022), Kelly Carey, “Exploring the Art of Research with Author Alison Goldberg.”
Alison Goldberg website, https://alisongoldberg.com (January 31, 2025).
Jewish Books For Kids … and More!, https://jewishbooksforkids.com/ (August 25, 2024), author interview.
KidLit411, https://www.kidlit411.com/ (December 15, 2017), “Author Spotlight: Alison Goldberg.”
Lee & Low Books website, https://www.leeandlow.com/blog/ (May 18, 2022), Alison Goldberg, “Art from the Everyday.”
Vivian Kirkfield website, https://viviankirkfield.com/ (December 9, 2017), “Alison Goldberg: Will Write for Cookies.”
Writers’ Rumpus, https://writersrumpus.com/ (March 14, 2017), Carol Gordon Ekster, “Meet Alison Goldberg, #kidlit Picture Book Debut Author.”
I’m the author of Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon (Lee & Low Books, 2022), a winner of the Children’s Africana Book Award and a Booklist Editors’ Choice for Youth, I Love You for Miles and Miles, illustrated by Mike Yamada (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), and two forthcoming picture books: Eighteen Flowers for Grandma: A Gift of Chai, illustrated by Jesse White (Red Comet Press, 2024) and The Remembering Candle, illustrated by Selina Alko (Barefoot Books, 2025).
Before becoming a children’s writer, I worked for economic justice organizations and co-wrote the resource guide, Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation (Soft Skull Press, 2007). My articles about giving, activism, and economic justice have been published in magazines and journals. I’ve also blogged about activism in children’s literature. I studied art history and anthropology at Tufts University and received a master’s degree in regional planning from Cornell University.
These days, I love researching everything from marine life to contemporary art for my books. I’m a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Grub Street, and the London Writers’ Salon.
In addition to writing, I offer critique services for picture book creators.
Meet Alison Goldberg, #kidlit Picture Book Debut Author
March 14, 2017 Carol Gordon Ekster Interviews - Authors & Illustrators 27 comments
CAROL GORDON EKSTER: Alison, you are not new to writing. You have another publication with a beautiful mission, Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation, Soft Skull Press, 2006. final-cctfp-book-cover-jpg-completeHow did you venture into picture books? Is your debut picture book, I Love You For Miles and Miles, coming out December 2017 with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, your first attempt at this genre?
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ALISON GOLDBERG: For several years, I worked for non-profit organizations focused on economic justice. Writing campaign materials, articles, and grant proposals was part of the job. Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy grew out of this work and gave me the chance to see an idea through to publication.
At the same time, I’ve always loved creative writing. About fifteen years ago I was lucky to find Grub Street, a wonderful writing center in Boston where I took a variety of classes and connected with a critique group. In 2012, after my kids were born, I started writing picture books. The pairing of text and image, the possibility of verse, and the opportunity to write for children made this genre feel ideal. I Love You for Miles and Miles was my sixth or seventh attempt at a picture book.
CGE: Can you tell us the story behind the story for I Love You For Miles and Miles?
AG: I am drawn to biographies so my first few picture book manuscripts were non-fiction, focused on creative individuals who created change in their fields. Meanwhile, I realized I was deep in a different sort of research project with my own kids.
At the time, they were ages three and five and enthralled with trucks and trains. Together, we gazed at construction sites, rode trains, and learned about the greatest street sweeper in the world. Immersed, I started to understand what vehicles meant to my kids: powerful, large, and mysterious characters full of metaphor.
The bedtime game, “How much do you love me?” turned into a comparison of the size, strength, and length of all things that go. After many nights of coming up with these examples for my own children, I thought this could be a fun take on a love book.
big-rig-page_miles-and-miles
CGE: Can you tell us about your journey into writing and how and when you got your agent?
AG: After I started working on picture books, I realized I wanted to pursue publication. Up until then, my creative writing was something I just did on the side for fun. So I took more classes, went to an SCBWI conference, and started a new critique group with people I met at these events.
I began blogging about activism in children’s literature. This felt like a way to bridge what I had been doing with what I wanted to be doing and to seek out people with similar interests. The writers I interviewed were so generous, sharing their stories and offering advice.
After submitting a manuscript to a few slush piles and not hearing back, I decided to research agents. It was June 2013 and I found a request on Manuscript Wish List (on Twitter) that described my project. The agent wanted nonfiction picture books introducing “little-known info on a historic figure or event that caused change.”
I queried the agent who posted it, Kathleen Rushall, now at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency. She encouraged me to send her another picture book. But since I was so new to the process, I didn’t have another one ready to send. So I got to work, and after a few months I shared a second manuscript with her. Again, she liked it, but wanted to see another. To make a long story short, eight months later I sent Kathleen a fourth manuscript–a love book for kids who love trucks and trains–and she offered me representation the next day.
Now I encourage all querying picture book writers to have at least three manuscripts ready to send!
CGE: And as a retired fourth grade teacher, I loved reading on your website that you vividly remember your introduction to the editing process when you were in fourth grade. In guiding others who aspire to become authors, what else do you think has helped you to become the published author you are today?
AG: Finding critique partners has been so important to my writing. For the past four years, I’ve met monthly with a picture book group.
Also, I revise a lot. I find that each project comes with its own process and set of challenges. The more I practice writing, the more tools I have to find my way in.
CGE: What does the future hold for Alison Goldberg?
In the short term, I’m excited to share I Love You for Miles and Miles with schools and libraries and families! I’m continuing to work on several picture books as well as a middle grade novel. And I’m keeping my eyes open to new book ideas—especially the one my kids bring to me.
Alison is generously giving away a copy of her beautifully written, I Love You for Miles and Miles, illustrated by Mike Yamada. Click this link to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.
Alison Goldberg: Will Write for Cookies PLUS Giveaway
Posted on December 9, 2017
WILL WRITE FOR COOKIES
Plate of Cookies
INSIGHT – INSPIRATION – INFORMATION
FOR WRITERS
TODAY’S GUEST
Alison Goldberg headshot small
ALISON GOLDBERG
Our guest today is a debut picture book author this year–and I was thrilled to meet her when I joined Picture the Books 2017, a group dedicated to authors and illustrators whose books are launching this year.
Alison Goldberg is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Before becoming a children’s book author, Alison worked for economic justice organizations and wrote a resource guide about social change philanthropy. These days, she blogs about activism in children’s literature and loves researching everything from marine life to contemporary art for her books. Alison is also a board member of the Food Research and Action Center, an organization committed to ending hunger in the United States. Learn more at http://www.alisongoldberg.com.
ME: Welcome, Alison! I’m thrilled you stopped by to chat with us.
ME: Who were your favorite authors/illustrators when you were a child?
ALISON: When I was in elementary school, Norman Bridwell visited my school. For months after, I drew fan art and even sent him a Clifford book that I made. I think this was the first time I understood that becoming a children’s author was an actual job that someone could do, so my love of his books was connected to that experience.
Clifford fan art
This is the Clifford book I sent to Norman Bridwell after he visited my school.
Other favorite picture book creators from childhood include Maurice Sendak, Leo Lionni, Margaret Wise Brown, and Ezra Jack Keats.
ME: What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started writing?
ALISON: I wish I knew what close friends and collaborators I would find in the children’s writing community! This knowledge would have inspired me in those early days when it felt like a big risk to change fields, when I was solely focused on learning about writing picture books and novels, and when I did not know if any of my stories could possibly ever become books. Then I would have known that through all of the ups and downs in this journey there would be such kind and generous book creators to share it with.
ME: Where do you like to write – inside, outside, special room, laptop, pen and paper?
ALISON: All of the above. I like to write at my desk, while taking walks, at the library, in coffee shops, at the beach, in playgrounds, and on trains. The more I write, the more I realize writing isn’t something that’s easily shut off, so I’ve become comfortable with jotting down notes—whether on computer, phone, or on paper–wherever I am.
ME: When do you write – early morning, late in the day, middle of the night, on schedule, as the muse strikes?
ALISON: It depends on the project. Some picture book drafts arrive in a burst that last anywhere from an hour to a few days and at any time of day. In those instances, I just go with it (and sometimes forget to pull dinner together for my kids until the very last minute!).
But when it comes to revision—especially for longer projects like the middle grade novel I’m working on—I prefer more scheduled, daytime writing sessions and setting concrete goals.
Often what I choose to write about is connected to my desire to share stories with children that further social justice. I love writing about the topics that grab me and don’t let go—whether it’s the actions of inspiring activists, the art of creative individuals, or the journeys of fictional characters. When this happens I work on figuring out what makes the topic feel so meaningful and then how to introduce it to kids.
And sometimes the process works the other way around, like in the case of I Love You for Miles and Miles. My kids were the ones hooked on trucks and trains, and I needed to understand their magic!
big rig page_Miles and Miles
ME: Also, if you have any thoughts or advice for aspiring writers, please share. As well as anything else you want to talk about that parents, educators, writers, librarians might want to hear.
ALISON: For writers: Don’t worry about the market. Or, understand the market, and then let go of its expectations. Write the books of your heart. If something grabs hold of you and won’t let go you’ll bring a passion to that subject that will come through on the page. Carrying that story to publication will likely take years, so make sure it’s truly a story you want to tell.
ME: Oh my goodness…that is awesome advice, Alison. We really have got to love our subject and story because when you get to the 45th revision, you want to still enjoy reading it! Thank you so much, dear friend! I know everyone is going to remember this, for sure!
CARRYING A STORY TO PUBLICATION WILL LIKELY TAKE YEARS, SO MAKE SURE IT’S TRULY A STORY YOU WANT TO TELL!
And to give you energy along the journey, why not try this delicious treat that doubles as a dinner for Alison and her family.
Cinnamon French Toast & Bananas
Recipe: Cinnamon French Toast & Bananas (for 2)
I am a huge fan of chocolate chip cookies, but here I thought I’d share a quick and easy recipe for writers like me who sometimes get caught up in writing, forget about dinner, and need to pull food together in a flash. This treat doubles as supper! My kids eat a lot of French Toast ☺
4 slices of bread (I like to use sourdough, ciabatta, or challah, but any bread will work.)
2 eggs
1/3 cup of milk
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. vanilla (optional)
Butter for the pan
Banana slices
Maple syrup, honey, jam, applesauce, or any other topping you like
INSTRUCTIONS:
Beat eggs with milk, cinnamon, and vanilla in a wide, shallow bowl. Dip the bread into the mixture until the bread is coated on both sides. Heat up a frying pan over medium heat, melt butter, and then cook the French Toast, flipping to cook both sides. Once done, serve with banana slices (or another fruit) and topping of choice.
Enjoy!
Thank you again, Alison. I know I will definitely enjoy this…French Toast used to be one of my childhood favorites.
Dear friends, thank you for spending your precious time with us. Please don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway of a copy of I LOVE YOU FOR MILES AND MILES.
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And, with the holidays just around the corner, if you want to give a wonderful gift to your favorite authors, please remember to leave book reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and other review sites. For more information or to purchase I LOVE YOUR FOR MILES AND MILES, please go to the author’s book page or indie-bound.
Have a safe and happy weekend.
And if you are in the writing mood, why not enter Susanna Hill’s Holiday Contest!
Author Spotlight: Alison Goldberg
Dec. 15, 2017
Today we welcome picture book author Alison Goldberg and her new book, I LOVE YOUFOR MILES AND MILES, illustrated by Mike Yamada (Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BFYR), which releases on Dec. 26.
Be sure to enter to win a copy!
Tell us about your background and how you came to write for children.
Like many writers, my love of writing began as a child. I wrote poems and stories, created neighborhood newspapers, and made up plays with friends.
After college I knew I wanted to focus on economic justice issues, and for several years I worked for non-profit organizations. But I always sought out opportunities to write whenever I could—whether articles, reports, or program materials. I also took workshops in fiction and poetry and joined critique groups.
One of my very first jobs was as an organizer for the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger. At the time, the campaign materials included a unique image of children reading while surrounded by food. This art helped raise support for our work and was created by Tomie dePaola! Even though I didn’t attempt to write children’s books until years later, I think this planted in me the idea that it’s possible to connect art to the issues I care about.
Once my kids were born, I became immersed in picture books. The pairing of text and image and the possibility of verse made them feel like the perfect form. Eventually, I decided to make the leap and focus on becoming a children’s author, along with a commitment to connecting my stories to social and economic justice whenever I could.
Congrats on your debut picture book, I LOVE YOU FOR MILES AND MILES. Tell us about it and what inspired it.
Thank you! When my children were in preschool they adored vehicles. We stopped at construction sites, traveled to a tractor parade, and even watched an instructional video for a very sophisticated European street sweeper. Many of our afternoons involved truck and train play. We studied all of the vehicle books we could get our hands on. And together, we stood on the same train bridge I visited when I was a kid, waiting for the MBTA to pass underneath. On lucky days the conductor gave a honk and a wave.
At bedtime, the game “How much do you love me?” turned into a comparison of our love to the size and strength of vehicles. After many nights of coming up with these examples for my own kids, I thought this could be a fun take on a love book.
And when I found out that my first picture book would be published—a love book for children–I knew I had to use this opportunity to raise support for the Campaign to End Childhood Hunger!
You've also written a YA book on philanthropy and social change, CREATING CHANGE THROUGH FAMILY PHILANTHROPY: THE NEXT GENERATION. Tell us about this book. How did you transition from writing to teens to pre-schoolers?
CREATING CHANGE is a resource guide about philanthropy that grew out of my organizing work. I co-wrote this book with a colleague and it required dozens of interviews, research, and translating program materials into book form.
Even though the language and purpose of CREATING CHANGE is very different from my picture book, seeing a project like this through from start to finish helped give me some of the tools I needed to write for kids.
In my experience, whether it’s a few hundred words or a few hundred pages, writing for publication comes down to persistence and revision.
What projects are you working on now?
In addition to picture books, I’m working on the fourth draft of a middle grade novel. This story takes place in the ocean so I’m enjoying learning a lot about sea creatures.
What advice would you give to aspiring picture book authors?
When you go to classes, conferences, or book events, don’t be shy about approaching people. Find writers who are at a similar stage in their journey and build a writing community. This is the network of people you can lean on for advice, form critique groups with, celebrate with when you get good news, call when you get disappointing news, and cheer on through all the ups and downs.
What is something most people don't know about you?
I love paper mache! It’s such a flexible material for all kinds of sculpture. This month, my daughter’s fourth grade teacher assigned a family book project based on Kate DiCamillo’s THE TIGER RISING. Our family got a little carried away… My daughter’s paper mache tiger is eight feet long.
Where can people find you online?
My website is www.alisongoldberg.com and I’m on Twitter @alisongoldberg.
Watch my book trailer at http://alisongoldberg.com/books/i-love-you-for-miles-and-miles/ and here:
Alison Goldberg is the author of I Love You for Miles and Miles, illustrated by Mike Yamada (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017). Before becoming a children’s writer, Alison worked for economic justice organizations and wrote the resource guide, Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation (Soft Skull Press, 2007). These days, she blogs about activism in children’s literature and loves researching everything from marine life to contemporary art for her books. Alison is also a board member of the Food Research and Action Center. Learn more at www.alisongoldberg.com or on Twitter @alisongoldberg.
Art from the Everyday: A Guest Post by Alison Goldberg
On: May 18, 2022 By: Lee & Low Books
In this guest post, author Alison Goldberg explores how found objects can reveal their stories when turned into art, just as El Anatsui’s sculptures reveal the stories of the objects that they are made from. Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui will be published on June 14, 2022 and is available for preorder.
When I was a child, I loved to play with a tray of buttons. A rainbow of tiny plastic domes, these buttons reminded me of those candies that come on strips of paper. I strung them into necklaces and glued them into collages. They were given to me by my grandmother. They had been discarded from the garment factory where she worked in New York City, and she brought them home for me.
Buttons are ordinary, everyday objects, and these buttons had been thrown away. As a child, they caught my attention but I didn’t consider their significance. I still have a few—bright blue, green, and yellow—and when I reflect on them now, I see them in a different light. I wonder about their stories.
My new picture book, Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon, is a biography of the acclaimed artist, El Anatsui. He was born in Ghana and now lives in Nigeria. He makes sculptures with materials from his environment, including broken cooking utensils, old printer plates, bottle tops, and other objects that have passed through human hands. El Anatsui encourages artists to work with “whatever their environment throws up.” He considers the stories that objects hold, and in bottle tops, he sees a strong reference to the history of Africa. Bottles like the ones these tops sealed were first introduced to Africa by Europeans. Through his art, El Anatsui transforms this material to tell stories about history and culture and the environment. He says the material itself carries a charge: “If you touch something, you leave a charge on it and anybody else touching it connects with you, in a way.”
El Anatsui’s innovative sculptures challenge viewers to consider layers of meaning, including the stories of the media itself. His work demonstrates how powerful it can be when artists use the ordinary things around them to make art.
Now when I look at the buttons from my grandmother, I’m inspired to dig deeper. I wonder if I could construct something from them that reveals their stories. Stories about women like my grandmother who worked in the garment industry in New York City, whose hands these buttons passed through. About how clothing was made during the last century and how that changed. About plastic and waste. I wonder if these buttons could share a story about my grandmother, who worked in a garment factory for decades but knitted her own dresses by hand.
Whether we look to buttons or food wrappers or shoelaces or magazine pages or fabric scraps or packaging material or old crayons or aluminum cans, discarded objects can evoke stories, and those stories can be worthwhile to explore in art-making. In the back of Bottle Tops is a sculpture activity using the foil tops from fruit and yogurt cups and other food containers. This activity can be done by a family or classroom and with a small or large group. It is intended as a warm-up, to prompt questions about which objects hold meaning for each to us, and how we can transform those objects into art that carries and shares our stories. I hope it is a jumping-off point for making art from the everyday.
Pre-order your copy of Bottle Tops:
IndieBound
Bookshop
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
. . . or wherever you order your favorite books!
Alison Goldberg is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the author of I Love You for Miles and Miles. She blogs about activism in children’s literature and loves researching everything from marine life to contemporary art for her books. Alison first learned about El Anatsui’s work while studying art in Ghana in 1995 and has sought opportunities to see his sculptures ever since. You can visit her online at alisongoldberg.com.
Exploring the Art of Research with Author Alison Goldberg
5/22/2022
0 Comments
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Guest Interview by Kelly Carey
24 Carrot Writing is excited to again welcome author Alison Goldberg to the blog! In 2018, Alison joined us a year after her debut picture book, I Love You for Miles and Miles, illustrated by Mike Yamada (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017) had launched. Using all she had learned during that launch, Alison wrote the fabulous guest post, Goals For Promoting Your Debut Picture Book. We are thrilled to have Alison back as she prepares to launch Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon (Lee & Low Books, 2022). This time we are chatting about research!
Welcome back Alison!
Your first picture book, I Love You for Miles and Miles is a heartfelt lyrical ode to the power of love using vehicle metaphors. Your new book, Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui, is a powerful biography. What did you find surprisingly similar and unexpectedly different about working on both books?
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There are at least two parts of the writing process that I replicated across both books, and that I go through for all of my projects. This aspect of my process is reassuring to realize when it can sometimes feel like each book involves learning how to write all over again!
The first is research. While I Love You for Miles and Miles is a sparse love poem, it was built on a foundation of information-gathering. I read truck catalogues, rode on cranes and trains, and observed construction sites. I wanted to find specific details that could convey the size and strength of vehicles in love metaphors. And I needed to know which truck is actually the biggest. (The dump truck!)
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Of course, as a nonfiction biography, Bottle Tops hinged on research and required a much deeper dive. I read and watched everything I could find about El Anatsui’s art and life. Whether I’m writing a nonfiction picture book, a concept board book, or a middle grade fantasy, research underpins my work.
The second necessary step in my writing process is finding the rhythm of a story. I think each book has its own unique sound. I wanted I Love You for Miles and Miles to be gentle and rolling, like a train lullaby, so the verse grew from there.
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Meeting with Editor Kandace Coston at Lee & Low Books
For Bottle Tops, I spent a lot of time listening to videos of El Anatsui’s talks. He has a very poetic way of describing his work, and I incorporated his specific descriptions—for example, the “language” of the marks made by a chainsaw, or how a new pot made from an old pot “acquires the strength” of the old pot. I paid close attention to how he characterizes his work and included several quotes from him in the book. My aim was to assemble these phrases into story beats and structure the story around them.
The biggest difference in writing the two books came in the final stages. With Bottle Tops, there were additional steps to ensure accuracy. I sent drafts to El Anatsui and his archivist, Amarachi Okafor, and worked closely with my editor, Kandace Coston, while incorporating revisions.
When did you first learn of El Anatsui’s art? What made you decide to write a picture book biography about him?
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The photos I took of Ancient Cloth Series in 1995
I’ve been inspired by El Anatsui’s work ever since I first saw one of his wood sculptures at the Artist’s Alliance Gallery in Accra, Ghana in 1995. I was a college student on a semester abroad and researching contemporary Ghanaian art. El Anatsui was living in Nigeria but his work was on display in the gallery, and it made a lasting impression on me.
Many years later when I started writing for children, I thought his bottle top sculptures were an ideal topic for a picture book. They are so visually appealing and have a tactile quality that invites viewers to look at how they’re made. Up close, you can see how the metal is folded and shaped and connected by wire. The sculptures’ massive size is exciting. Stepping back, they transform from individual pieces of metal into a flexible form resembling cloth.
In addition, El Anatsui’s artistic journey holds many lessons about how an artist can seek out their creative voice. He works with a material that’s close at hand and that evokes his history and environment. He has experimented over decades and is still finding new ways to make art. Artistic journeys are lifelong ones.
El Anatsui is an acclaimed contemporary artist, and picture books are an important form to introduce children to major cultural figures. During my research for Bottle Tops, I saw how few picture books about African artists are currently on our library and bookstore shelves. We need many more. Black Artists Shaping the World by Sharna Jackson is a wonderful new resource that includes profiles of several contemporary African artists, and I encourage readers to seek out this book too.
Can you tell us about the research you had to do for this book? What was your most effective research step? What did you stumble upon that was most exciting? What rabbit holes bore the most fruit? And which ones ate up the most unproductive time?
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If you can’t tell already, I love research—especially rabbit holes. It’s hard to say whether there were rabbit holes that ate up unproductive time because I think it’s important to pursue a number of ideas and dig deep. I don’t really know what’s going to show up in the narrative until I start writing, so I want to be immersed.
El Anatsui is a renowned artist and I was able to find many wonderful sources. While reading books and articles and watching videos, I searched for evocative images—the snapshots that could carry parts of the story. For example, when I learned that as a child, El Anatsui was fascinated with the forms of letters and copied the names he saw on doors before he could read, this felt like an important image to include to show his development as a visual thinker. Another image that stuck in my mind was how he assembled large sculptures by arranging patches on his studio floor while photographing the possibilities. I love Elizabeth Zunon’s gorgeous illustration of this moment—a bird’s-eye view on the creative process.
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Researching the sounds and feel of the story involved getting away from my desk. During a visit to an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, I remember hearing an artwork moving, so I included a line in the book about the jangle and rattle of the bottle tops. At home, I tore up bottle tops to bend and shape them myself, to feel their weight and pliability.
There was also the research I did in the years before writing this book, when I lived in Ghana during college and graduate school. I had the opportunity to visit some of the places that are important in El Anatsui’s biography—a coastal town near where he lived as a child, the university where he studied, and the National Cultural Centre where he learned about Ghanaian arts. I remember going to a town where Adinkra stamps are carved from gourds; Adinkra is an art form El Anatsui refers to. It is because of these experiences that I was able to envision this book.
At some point when writing a biography, you have to take that leap and reach out to the person you are writing about, or another close source. Once I had a polished manuscript, I contacted the October Gallery in London which represents his work, to see if they would put me in touch with El Anatsui. I’m so grateful that they made an introduction! The response from him was the most exciting part of the process--and also the most necessary for my decision about whether I would pursue this project.
Because El Anatsui is a contemporary artist, he continues to make new work, and during the time I was writing this book, additional sources became available too. I added quotes, but I’m glad I had focused on a specific time period. While his story continues, the book needed an arc. If I had left that open it would have been too tempting to include other work that he’s made since then.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Write about what doesn’t let you go.
Find your writing community to share and read works-in-progress, and to be a part of each other’s writing journey.
Please share with us any events where readers (and writers!) can meet you in the upcoming weeks!
I’m reading Bottle Tops at The Silver Unicorn in Acton, Massachusetts on June 11th at 11 am for an outdoor storytime.
I’ll join illustrator Elizabeth Zunon for an event at the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, New York on July 9th at 1:30 pm.
What is up next for you? And where can readers find you and your books?
In addition to picture books, I’m writing a middle grade Jewish historical fantasy inspired by Yiddish folktales. I’ve been thinking a lot about El Anatsui’s concept of drawing from the past to tell new stories, and applying it to my own history and culture. I’m finding many rabbit holes!
When I’m not deep in the research, you can find me online (and links for where to find my books) at www.alisongoldberg.com, Twitter @alisongoldberg, and Instagram at @alisongoldbergbooks.
Thanks so much for having me on 24 Carrot Writing!
Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui releases on June 14 and is available for preorder now.
Interview with Alison Goldberg, author of EIGHTEEN FLOWERS FOR GRANDMA
August 25, 2024
Alison Goldberg’s picture book EIGHTEEN FLOWERS FOR GRANDMA (Red Comet Press, 2024), illustrated by Jesse White, is a sweet intergenerational story about Sadie, her grandma, and their shared love of art. When Sadie wants to make a gift for her grandma, readers experience the ups and downs of her artistic process, and the joy of creating just the right gift. EIGHTEEN FLOWERS FOR GRANDMA is a celebration of art and creativity, for all ages. I’m happy to chat with Alison to learn more about her story. Welcome, Alison!
In the story, EIGHTEEN FLOWERS FOR GRANDMA, Sadie and her grandma have arts days. Can you tell me a bit about what inspired this idea?
This book was inspired by my own grandmother, Eva, who loved to make art. When I was a child, I would spend hours in her kitchen drawing with pastels, sewing fabric scraps, or painting. She gave me an easel and my first set of oil paints. Years later, as I reflected on these times I made art with my grandmother, I realized that when someone sets the stage for a child’s creativity, it can be an expression of love. I wanted to evoke this feeling in the story through the close relationship between my characters and the ways they share art with each other during their art days.
Alison Golderg
Sadie wants to give her grandma a gift – and the process takes time and effort as she gets it right. What do you hope young readers take away from Sadie’s experience?
Sadie’s perseverance explores an aspect of creativity that I think about a lot as a writer. I find that often a story seed takes root long before it has all it needs to grow, and it can take time and effort to complete the process.
For example, this book began in 2019. I was at the Yiddish Book Center for the Tent Program for Children’s Literature when I had the idea to write a book about giving chai, the Jewish tradition symbolizing a gift of life. At the same time, I wanted to tell a story inspired by my grandmother Eva’s pursuit of her college degree at the age of seventy-eight. The more I thought about this project, the number of threads grew— a love of art, a close relationship between a granddaughter and grandmother, and the joy of lifelong learning. I drafted, and then I drafted again. After a few more attempts, I let it rest. When I returned to this story in 2022, I was able to give it a fresh look. I thought about how my grandmother loved to paint flowers, and then I found a quote by the artist Marc Chagall about what flowers meant to him. That’s when I understood the book’s theme—about how life and art can be intertwined.
Sadie wants to create a gift that truly reminds her of Grandma, but carrying out her artistic idea takes several tries, and patience. She experiments, and along the way has several creative inspirations drawn from the world around her. In the story, Grandma tells Sadie, “May our lives be filled with art and our art be filled with life.” This is what I hope young readers take away from Sadie’s experience. Allowing the time and space for inspirations-from-life to blossom can be at the heart of the creative process.
What were your thoughts when you first saw the illustrations by Jesse White?
The illustrations are so beautiful! I love the warmth of the characters, the Jewish papercut-inspired elements, the uniqueness of each spread, how Jesse rendered each art project, Sadie’s movement between scenes with family and friends and her art making… Jesse’s art is full of wonder.
The story incorporates Jewish life and symbols, including a Jewish wedding, a chai necklace, and more. Do you think art plays an important role in Jewish life?
When I set out to write a story about the milestone of a graduation, I thought about some of the art forms that I associate with happy occasions. Dancing the hora, klezmer music, and the symbolism of the chai necklace convey the joy I wanted to weave into the book. These art forms make me think about celebrating significant events with family and friends. Art can play an important role in life, and a wide variety of arts have been created in connection to Jewish holidays, traditions, and stories.
Thank you, Alison!
ALISON GOLDBERG is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the author of I Love You for Miles and Miles. She also wrote the award-winning nonfiction picture book Bottle Tops, a biography of the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui. Eighteen Flowers for Grandma was inspired by her own grandmother, who graduated from college at the age of seventy-eight. You can visit Alison online at alisongoldberg.com
Goldberg, Alison EIGHTEEN FLOWERS FOR GRANDMA Red Comet Press (Children's None) $19.99 9, 24 ISBN: 9781636551210
A child seeks the perfect gift for her grandmother's upcoming college graduation.
To mark Sadie's kindergarten graduation, Grandma gave her a necklace with the Hebrew word for life, transliterated as chai. Grandma explains that chai is represented by the number 18, which is considered lucky. Sadie hopes to repay the favor by giving Grandma a bouquet of 18 flowers for her own graduation. It's the perfect gift: The two of them enjoy making art together, and Grandma especially loves creating flowers. So Sadie tries out different methods to construct her bouquet--pressing dandelions, creating flowers using cardboard and crayon--but nothing feels right. After Grandma explains why she loves flowers so much (quoting Marc Chagall, she says, "They're life itself, in all its happy brilliance"), Sadie finds inspiration and makes the perfect bouquet. Jewish culture, specifically Ashkenazi traditions such as dancing the hora to klezmer music, imbues this straightforward story with depth. Inspired by Jewish paper-cutting folk art, White's illustrations are soft and cozy, dominated by mossy green and beige. Swoops and strokes of color make the story feel intimate, almost like an art project itself. Grandma has white hair and pale skin, Sadie has black hair and light brown skin, and supporting characters have a variety of skin tones and hair textures.
A gentle tale of intergenerational bonding that will appeal to budding artists. (glossary, Hebrew alphabet guide, author's note, photograph) (Picture book. 4-7)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Goldberg, Alison: EIGHTEEN FLOWERS FOR GRANDMA." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332900/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=cd1be342. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
GOLDBERG, Alison. Eighteen Flowers for Grandma. illus. by Jesse White. 52p. Abrams/Red Comet. Sept. 2024. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9781636551210.
K-Gr 2--Sadie is determined to make a gift that is as sweet, creative, and filled with life as her grandmother is. Over their treasured weekly get-together to make art, Grandma explains how the Hebrew letters that spell chai add up to 18, a lucky number. Inspired, Sadie will make 18 of something to celebrate her grandmother's upcoming graduation from college. But what? A flower arrangement that Grandma admires at a cousin's wedding finally gives Sadie an idea that is "Grandma enough": a bouquet of 18 individual flowers crafted from all of her art supplies. The relationship between Sadie and her grandmother is warmly depicted as Grandma dispenses wisdom and gives Sadie her full attention. Sadie's efforts at gift-making are pretty creative, so it may be hard to understand her dissatisfaction with her first attempts, or why her ultimate gift is so much better. The gentle, rounded illustrations employ gray with a muted palette of pastel colors, sometimes with overhead perspectives or flurries of art supplies. VERDICT An exceedingly quiet picture book that lightly touches on Jewish traditions and will fill a need for stories of perseverance. --Jan Aldrich Solow
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Solow, Jan Aldrich. "GOLDBERG, Alison. Eighteen Flowers for Grandma." School Library Journal, vol. 70, no. 7, July 2024, p. 55. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A806586475/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e72c471e. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
Middle Readers
* Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui.
By Alison Goldberg. Illus. by Elizabeth Zunon.
May 2022. 32p. Lee 81 Low, $20.95 (9781620149669). Gr. 2-5.730.92.
When El Anatsui was a teenager, his home, a British colony, became the independent country of Ghana. "We could decide to do things on our own terms," comments the artist, with the shift reflected in his outside-the-box creativity and changing old materials into something new. This striking book, vividly illustrated in paint and cut-paper collage, showcases Anatsui's signature works: flowing tapestries made from deconstructed bottle tops. Goldberg describes the artist's early life and artistry and then focuses on how he executes his famous fabrics, which have been exhibited in museums worldwide. As well as learning about Anatsui's art, readers can gain here some important insights into the creative life--Goldberg emphasizes that Anatsui doesn't work alone; a team gets the bottle tops into their new forms. It is also instructive to learn that the artist (who reviewed Goldberg's text) isn't always sure how to proceed artistically or that the results will be popular. Best of all, readers will find out that nobody in this man's town was an artist, but he still found his way to success. Robust back matter includes source notes, citations for quotes, and an art activity. Use this excellent biography alongside Shelley Pearsall's The Seventh Most Important Thing (2016) in units on found-object art; it also deserves a place on public library shelves.--Henrietta Verma
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Verma, Henrietta. "Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 18, 15 May 2022, p. 39. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A704943062/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=780cc4cf. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui
by Alison Goldberg; illus. by Elizabeth Zunon
Primary, Intermediate Lee & Low 40 pp. g
5/22 978-1-62014-966-9 $20.95
This picture-book biography is a fascinating introduction to Ghanaian artist El Anatsui and his innovative artistic process. Early pages present Anatsui's childhood love of artmaking in the British colony of the Gold Coast. When he was a teenager, in 1957, his country achieved independence as the nation of Ghana, and Goldberg stirringly writes, "With this new freedom, he felt a shift." Anatsui's own words follow: "We could decide to do things on our own terms." Words and pictures guide readers to see how liberation on this national scale translated into Anatsui's artistic quest to freely express himself by experimenting with diverse media and developing new techniques. Zunon's (I Am Farmer, rev. 1/19; Grandpa Cacao, rev. 5/19) use of paint and cut-paper collage is particularly well suited to depicting Anatsui's life and artistry; it echoes his own evolving process of using found materials and assembling them in his artwork. Throughout, the illustrations' style is largely realistic, and shifts in visual perspective invite the reader to home in on pivotal moments. For example, when Anatsui finds a discarded bag of bottle tops at the side of the road, Zunon spotlights him holding one. The next spread eschews background detail to show Anatsui's hands manipulating the bottle tops as he develops a technique for creating the massive, fabric-like sculptures that brought him international acclaim. Back matter provides additional context and sources while inviting readers to get their own hands involved in creating art.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
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Lambert, Megan Dowd. "Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 98, no. 3, May-June 2022, p. 163. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A704090453/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=99ca08cf. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.
I Love You for Miles and Miles
Alison Goldberg, illus. by Mike Yamada. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-374-30443-0
Forget comparing thee to a summer's day--Goldberg's first children's book uses a truckload of vehicle metaphors to convey the heights and depths of a mother's love for her child. "My love for you is/ Tougher than the toughest tractor/ Planting crop after crop,/ Helping through mud and muck," reads one entry, in which Yamada (BadGuy) shows a mother bear standing protectively behind her overalls-clad child as they chug through a field while purple storm clouds gather. There's a mix of tenderness and action in nearly every scene, and Yamada sometimes creates space between the two bears in his cheery cartoons, letting the younger one pilot his own helicopter, jet, and tugboat in a way that hints at the push-and-pull between independence and intimacy. The repeating structure and gentle reassurances of Goldberg's verse cast a cozy, restful spell. Ages 2-6. Author's agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary. Illustrator's agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Agency. (Dec.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"I Love You for Miles and Miles." Publishers Weekly, vol. 264, no. 42, 16 Oct. 2017, p. 65. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A510652932/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3393be89. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.