Well hi everyone,<\/p>\n
I’m not even going to look at the last time I blogged. Probably before the Anthropocene era. But I did want to tell you about my new poetry picture book MoonFish <\/em>of which I’m rather proud.<\/em> It came out in March with Ford Street (and has already been reprinted a couple of times which is exciting.) The book came about when I approached Paul Collins from Ford Street in September of last year and asked him whether he’d be interested in publishing my new poetry collection for kids. Errr… he said, poetry’s a hard game. I know I said. We talked a bit about who we might approach for the illustrations and then a couple of weeks later, Paul floated an idea the idea of having multiple illustrators and making it a picture book. I gulped,\u00a0 thinking I wasn’t really picture book material but then thought well why not? So Paul sent round the poems to some of Australia’s best-known illustrators and quite a number of them agreed to provide illustrations. By November we’d gathered most of the material. Then things had to move fast. I was on retreat, somewhat out of contact and Paul let me know he needed a title, a blurb, and various other things by… well tomorrow. The phone rang hot between myself and Nicola my wife who is also a poet. And somehow (with wonderful input from her) we came to\u00a0 the title MoonFish <\/em>based on one of the best illustrations in the book, the lovely moon and fish by Lucia Masciullo. The subtitle too, ‘Poems to make you laugh and think’. <\/em>I did the various blurbs and sent it all off. When I got home I then wrote a brand new poem The MoonFish<\/em> especially to fit the poem. I also wrote new poems for the Shaun Tan artwork. Not the way things usually happen I’m sure, but it was a challenge and I enjoyed it. Then the cover had to be worked out and Grant Gittus, the designer did a great job on that, working closely with Paul on the various iterations. Grant has also, I think you’ll agree done a fabulous job with the typography and layout and made every poem and illustration combo really sing. MoonFish<\/em> is a book you want to hold in your hands and so far kids seem to really enjoy the poems and quickly find their favourites. Which I hope they repeat over and over. Cheese Rap<\/em> for instance. So there we are. And I should say the book can be ordered on my website. So I look forward to signing some for you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well hi everyone, I’m not even going to look at the last time I blogged. Probably before the Anthropocene era. But I did want to tell you about my new poetry picture book MoonFish of which I’m rather proud. It … Continue reading