Are you busy? Read on to find out how Tasmania author and illustrator, Daniel Gray-Barnett, is juggling multiple projects and also finding time to collaborate and share his many ideas and talents.
Whenever someone asks me ‘How’s work?’, I tend to reply with the stock standard responses. Good. Busy. I’ve been busy. Very busy, but good.
It’s only when I actually sit down to actually look at what I’ve achieved over the past six months, that I realise how many plates have been spinning in the air and I ask myself, how?
The year kicked off with something wonderful. Come Over to My House (written by Sally Rippin & Eliza Hull, illustrated by myself) was voted in the Top 10 of The Guardian’s Best Australian Picture Books. It was an interesting voting process, to say the least, and it certainly started many valuable conversations about the value of voting for classic, legacy books (Mem Fox, I’m looking at you) or ensuring we support modern day book creators (such as myself). Certainly many of the books I grew up and loved as a child might no longer be loved or engaged with by the kids of today. I think the Top 10 was a good mix of beloved classics and newer titles and was topped by Magic Beach by Alison Lester – a winner that just about everyone could agree with.
Some of us modern book-creators used the experience to engage with our audiences by making videos set on ‘Storybook Survivor’, a fictional island where the picture book creators were vying to pass tasks and survive the voting process to the next day. I made a good friend with Andrea Rowe (author of Jetty Jumping) who has a very good sense of humour and entertained my jokes about Mem Fox’s luxury tent on the other side of the island.
The biggest project for me the past six months (and the past twelve months really) has been working on a middle-grade illustrated novel. In a bit of a career pivot, I’ve decided to shift into my writing. It’s something I’ve always been interested in but until now, haven’t found the right way to execute it. Working on children’s picture books has been the perfect way to enter the world of children’s literature and now that my audiences are getting older, working on middle-grade novels is the perfect way to continue engaging with them.
Plus, I just love reading them. They’re full of adventures, big questions and themes, friendship and imagination. Philip Pullman famously said in his Carnegie Medal acceptance speech, ‘There are some themes, some subjects, too large for adult fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children’s book.’ This captures so much of why I love reading children’s novels and why I feel so drawn to now work in middle-grade fiction.
My novel (working title Going to Underbed) is a portal fantasy adventure. When ten-year-old Kit discovers that his missing Gran's stories are real and unlocks a magical portal to another world, he must master forbidden powers and defeat a tyrannical general before he loses his family and his way home forever.
I’ve completed a first draft (thanks to a six month Write Your Novel course with the Australian Writers Centre) and am spending the rest of this year revising and editing my draft to ready for submission to publishers. I’m very excited about it. The ideas for these characters and world have been stewing in my head for a few years now and I’m so glad to get them out onto the page. Working on the course has taught me a lot about the writing process and given me a community of fellow writers who I can count as brothers and sisters in arms. The fellowship of a writing group has been invaluable in seeing this project come to life. I can’t imagine writing without them.
I have one picture book coming out in August this year called The Thing About Dads (written by Deborah Frenkel of The Truck Cat fame, published by Thames & Hudson). It’s a joyful hug of an ode to dads and what makes them so special. Working on this book has been particularly personal for me, as I’m now a parent to two young kids and could relate to many of the characters and scenarios I was illustrating. I also wanted to explore more with my art for this project, so the work is a little more experimental, playful and makes use of more mixed media than I usually do. I really love how it’s turned out. I’m excited about its release in a couple of months.
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| Illustrations from The Thing About Dads by Daniel Gray-Barnett |
I’m now working on the follow up book with the same team, called The Thing About Mums. We’ve just nailed down all the rough art and I’m about to tackle the coloured art in the next few months.
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| Sketch in preparation for The Thing About Mums by Daniel Gray-Barnett |
I’m also working on another picture book about a child with a non-binary parent, with Jess Horn (Bernie Thinks in Boxes) and the team at Hardie Grant. Here’s a few early character sketches.
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| Character sketches by Daniel Gray-Barnett |
In general, my illustration work is shifting more towards literary projects and I’ve been fortunate to work on some book covers. Stuck in the Middle by Anton Clifford-Motopi is about growing up a middle-child in a large, chaotic family and will be published by Allen & Unwin in August. A River I Must Be by Kate Foster is a moving verse novel that explores the authentic experience of autism and what it means to struggle with the pressure of masking.
In a lovely revisit to the world of Storybook Survivor, I was asked by the National Library of Australia to contribute to a book of letters which came out in May, called Postscript. A selection of remarkable letters from the library’s collection was chosen and passed on to a new set of writers as inspiration to write their own. There are letters from Jane Austen, Judith Wright and Henry Lawson, among others.
I was, funnily enough, given correspondence between Mem Fox and Morris Gleitzman who maintained a correspondence for decades. The letters I was given seek to entertain and poke fun at each other, and themselves. For me, it represented how important friendship and camaraderie are to creatives and how vital it is to have someone else who understands the isolation and challenges of working as a creative. Andrea Rowe is one such special friend. I wrote to Andrea about the challenges of what it takes to be a modern-day book creator and how she navigates juggling family life with creating. I wanted to note on the record that Andrea received a fruit basket after our Storybook Survivor ordeal. I did not.
Other projects I’m hoping to undertake this year are finally writing a sequel to Grandma Z, which I’ve been talking about for a while now. I’ve also been trying to increase my engagement and presence on social media. I’ve noticed many publishers are looking at this when they consider which authors/illustrators they work with. Though the work is always the most important thing, many publishing teams want to work with creators who have a voice, something to say and are comfortable engaging with their audiences outside of a book.
I’ve always been an advocate for children’s literature and those that create it, but my latest Instagram videos have been focusing on Writers Festivals. They seem to have struck a chord, especially with others who have also noticed that often Writers Festivals have a wonderful adult program but limited or absent events for children. My message is that thoughtful and inclusive children’s programming is not only valuable but vital, particularly anyone that cares about the future of literature and literary events.
Cultivating a love of reading and storytelling in children leads to adults who care about those same things; adults who read and buy books and attend writers’ festivals. Hopefully, adults who also create stories of their own.
It astounds me that people who work in adult literature don’t necessarily connect those dots. We not only need to include children’s literature workers and creators in these conversations of programming, but we need to ensure that events are created for, and to engage with, children. Ideally, both public and school events for a wide range of ages and access points. At the end of the day, if there aren’t children in the room and they aren’t being engaged with, it’s not children’s programming and there’s room for improvement.
So the next time someone asks me how work is going, I might actually have a better answer than 'busy'. Being a dad and making these books, hopefully for my kids to read one day, is a lot to juggle but it's meaningful work. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Here's to the rest of the year.
Daniel Gray-Barnett
Children’s Author and Illustrator
W: https://www.danielgraybarnett.com/
I: https://www.instagram.com/dgraybarnett/
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