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. The blog name refers to the mythical pact made between the poet Vyaasa and the Hindu elephant headed god Ganesha who was his scribe during the composition of 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 and still miraculously in print.
Since March 2024, Jen Breach (writer, VCFA graduate, and former student) has helped me manage guest posts and Process Talk pieces on this blog. They have lined up and conducted author/illustrator interviews and invited and coordinated guest posts. That support has helped me get through weeks when I’ve been in edit-copyedit-proofing mode, and it’s also introduced me to writers and books I might not have found otherwise. Our overlapping interests have led to posts for which I might not have had the time or attention-span. It’s the beauty of shared circles.
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.