One of the rewards of teaching is watching students explore and develop during and after class. Azadeh Westergaard was in my class "Writing and Illustrating Children's Books" at The School of Visual Arts years ago, at that time pursuing illustration. Over the years she focused more and more on her writing and she makes her debut as an author with A LIFE ELECTRIC: the Story of Nikola Tesla illustrated by Júlia Sardà.
"An elegant and enlightening look at a man who brightened the whole world." - Booklist
Congratulations on getting off to an electric start!
What was your favorite part of working on this book?
Everything about this book project was exciting since it was my authorial debut. The research process was a true delight - I can really lose myself in the process and with a subject as brilliant and interesting as Nikola Tesla, it was hard to know when to stop. Since I was so deeply moved by Tesla as a person and by his life story — it was important to me to help shed light on what were considered his eccentricities from a different, more positive angle.
A research highlight was corresponding with the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade and receiving my requested items from their archives by email. Another highlight was receiving Julia Sarda’s beautiful and intricate sketches during the height of the pandemic and discussing them with my wonderful editor, Tamar Brazis. The drawings were quite polished and not at all rough, so it was extremely easy to visualize the finished piece… especially since I have long admired Julia's work on other picture books.
What were you like as a child?
I was an extremely shy child and very much in my own creative world. On any given afternoon I could be found drawing mushrooms, rainbows, and upside-down girls hanging from tree branches; writing in my treasured Hello Kitty journals with a pseudonym, or writing fantastical stories inspired by Roald Dahl.
One of my favorite memories of childhood is reading Pippi Longstocking on my favorite maple tree branch right next to our covered garage while my mom made dinner. I also adored anything by Shel Silverstein and memorized many of his poems, especially the one where the little girl pretends she's sick so that she doesn't have to go to school. A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends are one of only a few books that have traveled with me into adulthood and still have a special place on my bookshelves.
When/How did you decide you wanted to do children's books? Two books have been instrumental in my creative life. Ezra Jack Keats’ Snowy Day and Maira Kalman’s Ooo La La Max in Love. The former was one of the few picture books I had access to as an immigrant child in the 80’s and the illustrations resonated with me so deeply I remember staring at them for hours. And as for Maira Kalman, it’s because of her wildly imaginative and funny books that I fell in love with picture books as an adult and why I decided to pursue the field professionally. Her books quite simply blew my mind.
What was your path to publication? How did you find your agent?
I found my agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin of Birch Path Literary by researching agents on Publishers Marketplace. It’s a terrific resource in that you can search by authors, editors, and agents and get a sense of who is represented by whom, what kind of projects specific editors and agents are drawn to, the name of the books they’ve acquired and authors they’ve signed on. In my case, Alyssa was one of the first agents I reached out to (I am a big fan of many of her clients) and I consider myself extremely lucky that my manuscript resonated enough with her to offer representation.
Is there anything you learned back in class that has particularly stayed with you? The importance of making rough thumbnail sketches and picture book dummies. It’s my favorite part of the creative process when it comes to picture books.
What I also loved about your class was that you held a great space of creative possibility for each and everyone of your students. You nurtured our projects in a completely non-judgemental way and it was exciting to see so many classmates and workshop members go on to publish their books.
Do you have any special words of advice or encouragement for writers starting out now?
You have to take yourself seriously enough to start work on your projects, but not so seriously that you freeze up in the creative process. My new mantra is all about focusing on the fun. The minute I feel myself tensing up creatively, that’s my cue to take a breath and let go. For me the key is to loosen up and trust the creative process. First drafts will always be awful, but look closely and you’ll always find a little nugget of something interesting to hold on to and build upon.
And most importantly, listen to that still small voice in your head. It’s never, ever too late to either start or pick up on a path already started but halted. Take writing and art classes, join SCBWI, and consider fully immersing yourself in your creative path by completing a graduate program. I attended Vermont College of Fine Arts for my MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults and the experience was a major turning point in my writing life.
and for illustrator Júlia Sardà visit: juliasarda.com
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