Writing With a Broken Tusk
Writing With a Broken Tusk began in 2006 as a blog about overlapping geographies, personal and real-world, and writing books for children. Since March 2024, Jen Breach (writer, VCFA graduate, and former student) has helped me curate and manage guest posts and Process Talk pieces on this blog.
The blog name refers to the mythical pact between the poet Vyaasa and the Hindu elephant headed god Ganesha who was his scribe during the composition of the epic narrative, the Mahabharata. It also refers to my second published book, edited by the generous and brilliant Diantha Thorpe of Linnet Books/The Shoe String Press, published in 1996, acquired and republished by August House, now part of Reading Is Fundamental, and still miraculously in print.
Posts on this site reflect personal opinion and commentary protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Process Talk: Sandra Nickel on The True Ugly Duckling
Hans Christian Andersen’s stories were part of my childhood writing life. It was a weirdly magical intersection that I’ve written about over the years. When I was invited to write text for Nasrin Khosravi’s glorious Thumbelina art, it felt like a circle completing. What’s even more gratifying is that this circle keeps expanding.
Sandra Nickel was a student at VCFA when I taught there, and she’s just written a picture book biography of Andersen that delves into his life, his creative impulses, and the many ways that story transformed “a poor shoemaker’s son. who was tall and skinny.” The True Ugly Duckling: How Hans Christian Andersen Became a Swan is a picture book with many layers of story and cut-paper art, at once delicate and wildly fanciful, by Calvin Nicholls. Here’s my conversation with Sandra Nickel about her picture book tribute to a man whose immortal stories and sometimes melancholy life continue to intrigue and inspire.