"Sometimes there is a painting that’s not finished and one sleeps on it, then looks at it in the morning and it finished by itself.” This guest post from Sophie Hoffer, which originally appeared on her Warm as Toast Substack, celebrates the incredible graphic designer, cartoonist, and illustrator André François.
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In this Q&A, Enchanted Lion interviews our very own Emilie Robert Wong about translating On All Fours—a delightful picture book by Gaëtan Dorémus following the lively adventures of a curious little bear cub as he sets out to explore the world on his own.
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In this guest blog post, Sirin Thada takes us behind the scenes into her art-making process illustrating The Purple One, A Story of Prince. From a child growing up in Minneapolis to the music icon we know and love today, discover how Sirin researched, sketched, and painted the life of the one and only Prince, through five key illustrations from the picture book. 💜🕊✨
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For many years, the celebrated Provensens lived at Maple Hill Farm in Dutchess County, New York. It is this home that they immortalized in picture books such as A Year at Maple Hill Farm, Our Animal Friends, and now… The Truth about Max! Max was a real-life cat with a larger-than-life personality: playful yet mysterious, friendly yet utterly his own. Earlier this fall, their daughter, Karen Provensen Mitchell, visited her childhood home, and in this guest blog post, you’re invited to discover the beautiful place that the Provensen family (and Max!) called home.
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Recently selected as one of the New York Times/New York Public Library’s Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2024, There’s a Ghost in the Garden is a gentle, probing picture book about the special relationship between a grandfather and his grandson, and the many traces, memories, and even ghosts with which we live. In this guest blog post, award-winning author Kyo Maclear and celebrated illustrator Katty Maurey take us behind the scenes, through their words and images, into how this evocative picture book was made.
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Written by Swedish author Sara Stridsberg and illustrated by Italian artist Beatrice Alemagna, We Go to the Park is a beautiful, lyrical meditation on going to the park to play—which extends into a reflection on life itself. In an interview with Enchanted Lion, translator B.J. Woodstein discusses bringing the openness and ambiguity of Stridsberg’s voice into English, what going to the park means to her personally, and why picture books are especially important to translate.
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Sara Lissa Paulson, the translator of Johnny, the Sea, and Me, writes a guest post the ELB blog to share how she found this Colombian coming-of-age middle-grade novel, why she connected so deeply with it, the fascinating facts about pirates woven into the story's magical realism, and more!
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In this Q&A, Enchanted Lion interviews Blexbolex, the award-winning French graphic artist and author-illustrator of The Magicians. He describes how he turns a tide of images and sensations into a book, how finding a narrative thread is like untangling a ball of yarn, what he learned about storytelling from video games, and more.
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Author Lee Juck and illustrator Kim Seung-youn are the creators behind One Day, a gentle, delicately illustrated meditation on loss and connection. In interviews with Enchanted Lion, they share how this picture book came to be, discussing the voice of childhood, making absence palpable, and their personal conception of what lies beyond death.
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In this interview, Enchanted Lion’s Aubrey Nolan talks with Monika Vaicenavičienė, author and illustrator of What Is A River?, a singular and visually striking picture book that explores the many meanings of a river: as a source of life, as a meeting place, as a source of magic and mystery. Their conversation follows the winding and flowing path which led Monika to create this book, her artistic practice and materials, and the ‘mapping’ of the book in its early stages, which created its unique narrative structure.
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