Following a Path

"I am out with lanterns, looking for myself"

The Evergreens in Amherst, Massachusetts

World More Beautiful was released on August 6, on what would have been Barbara Cooney’s 107th birthday. I had a few events around the launch of the book, the first being a birthday celebration for Cooney at the Lawrence Library in Pepperell, Masschusetts, where she lived and worked for forty-two years.

Here’s the gorgeous facade of the library, alongside an detail from the pages of Miss Rumphius:

And here’s the inside of the library, both in real life and as represented in Miss Rumphius (note the taxidermied birds, a requirement for turn-of-the-century libraries!):

And here is a photo of Cooney and an original painting from Ox-Cart Man (both located in the children’s room), along with the literary landmark designation from the American Library Association:

I suppose my point in showing you all of this is to try to describe what it’s like, to love and work on something for a long time, and then have the opportunity to visit that place. I got to meet young readers discovering Barbara Cooney for the very first time. I also met parents, now grandparents, who still have collections of Barbara Cooney’s books sitting on their shelves, even though their children have grown into adults. It was a special moment, to hear stories about Cooney from those who remembered her, and to celebrate her with the community where she lived and worked.

Since I was in Massachusetts, I also stopped and signed copies at Lala Books in Lowell and the gift shop at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst. If you’re looking for a signed copy of World More Beautiful, they likely still have some in stock. Yay for independent bookstores!

Really, though, my Massachusetts trip meant an opportunity for a different sort of side trip— the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst. I’d visited once before, in the early 2000s, when the house was open for tours but not yet a museum. The house was fully restored during the pandemic, and now looks as it did when the Dickinsons lived there in the nineteenth century.

I walked down Main Street in Amherst on an early summer morning and arrived at the museum before it opened. A very nice person (named Emily) let me in and up the stairs and I spent a quiet hour in Emily Dickinson’s bedroom alone, writing in my notebook. What I wrote in that hour doesn’t really matter. I’m not working on anything about Emily Dickinson.¹ The time went by quickly. The writing was not really the point.

The point was, I think, to return to place that felt magical when I visited in 2001 and still feels magical now. It was to allow that time for myself, to trace back to another woman and writer who has been important to my life, to sit in her space and try and feel that stillness.

As the hour ended and I walked back down the stairs, I noticed the back door. It looked familiar. And then I remembered who else had been there, too:

Barbara Cooney, who illustrated Michael Bedard’s Emily.

The more I write (and the more I study other writers and artists) the more I realize that one project leads to another, unconsciously or otherwise. Our influences, the things that we love—- they are pathways, they are portals. They may be short, or long. Fast, or slow. But all of the time that we spend and how we spend it, all of the reading and writing and watching and noticing—- it goes it to the things we create. And then, if we’re lucky, we find another path, another portal. And we get to do it all over again.

Upcoming Events

September

• Saturday, September 7th: Bath Book Bash, 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM in Bath, Maine

• Saturday, September 21st: Bixby Memorial Free Library, 1:00-2:30 PM in Vergennes, Vermont

​November 2024

• Thursday, November 21st - Sunday, November 24th: NCTE Annual Convention in Boston, MA

  • "Beyond Biographies: Empowering Students to Access Their Own Creative Voice" - panel discussion with authors Nina Crews, Kari LaValle, Katherine Mazeika, and Nadia Salomon

  • ​"Centers of Heart and Hope: Using Picture Book Biographies to Advocate for Libraries" - panel discussion with authors Anika Aldamuy Denise, Pat Zietlow Miller, and NoNieqa Ramos

Books I’ve Read and Loved Recently (for Adults)

• Funny Story by Emily Henry

• The Postcard by Anne Berest

• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

Books I’ve Read and Loved Recently (Picture Books)

• Pigs Dig a Road by Carrie Finison and Brian Biggs

• Rivka’s Presents by Laurie Wallmark and Adelina Lirius

• Small Things Mended by Casey W. Robinson and Nancy Whitesides

*Please note that all books mentioned above contain affiliate links to Bookshop.org, a site that helps support local independent bookstores.

1. There is a wonderful picture book biography called On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson, written by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Becca Stadtlander.