Welcome to my sixth interview for my [belated] Taiwanese American Heritage Week series!

About the Books

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• Title: Amah Faraway
• Author: Margaret Chiu Greanias
• Illustrator: Tracy Subisak
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books
• Release Date: January 25th, 2022
• Genre: Picturebook, Fiction

Synopsis

A delightful story of a child’s visit to a grandmother and home far away, and of how families connect and love across distance, language, and cultures.

Kylie is nervous about visiting her grandmother-her Amah-who lives SO FAR AWAY.

When she and Mama finally go to Taipei, Kylie is shy with Amah. Even though they have spent time together in video chats, those aren’t the same as real life. And in Taiwan, Kylie is at first uncomfortable with the less-familiar language, customs, culture, and food.

However, after she is invited by Amah-Lái kàn kàn! Come see!-to play and splash in the hot springs (which aren’t that different from the pools at home), Kylie begins to see this place through her grandmother’s eyes and sees a new side of the things that used to scare her.

Soon, Kylie is leading her Amah-Come see! Lái kàn kàn!-back through all her favorite parts of this place and having SO MUCH FUN! And when it is time to go home, the video chats will be extra special until they can visit faraway again.

Backmatter includes author and illustrator notes and a guide to some of the places and foods explored in Taiwan.

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Interview with Tracy Subisak

Q: I saw that you studied industrial design in school, which I imagine is a pretty different world from children’s literature. Are there any skills or experiences from that time that you’ve found helpful now that you’re working as a children’s book author/illustrator?

A: Industrial design is such a different world! Luckily, there was a lot of drawing and storyboarding in all of my industrial design jobs, so I drew all the time and not only did I learn how to draw any product I could imagine, but I also drew a lot of people using those products in different scenarios. That skillset ended up translating really well into children’s book illustrations, since they’re made up of an entire world, set of characters, and scenarios.

Q: I love your illustration style and the use of line, shape and color in a way that feels a bit understated yet so textured and intimate and expressive. Can you share some specific artists or artistic styles or movements that have inspired your work and what about them appeals to you?

A: Oh my, I love Jillian Tamaki and Ping Zhu’s works! Their work shows a technical understanding and connection to the brush/tool that I’ve always looked up to – it gives them the freedom to express beyond their technical understanding. I also read a lot of comics growing up, so I naturally lean on using line a lot… I’ve been challenging myself to use more shapes and textures, and only use line where necessary in the story. Selective use of line is something that I learned from looking at a lot of storyboards for film, where storyboard artists use line (or the lack of) to articulate where the eye should travel in the story! I think I would always love to be a spectacular artist like Tamaki or Zhu – above all, I’d love to always keep the focus on the story.

Q: Jenny Mei is Sad was your first picture book as both author and illustrator. How did taking on the role of author-illustrator differ from the work of illustration in general?

A: Since I’m responsible for both the written and visual story, I’m more invested in making sure the words tell the story that the illustrations aren’t, and vice versa. I can easily change a word or sentence as needed to fit the story better to my illustrations. When I am illustrating someone else’s manuscript, I just focus on how well I can tell a visual story, adding details that might enhance and deepen the story to complement the original manuscript. 

Q: Jenny Mei is Sad tackles the subject of sadness and depression for a young audience that may not have the words to articulate their feelings. What kinds of artistic strategies did you employ to make the emotions and messages of the story accessible to a younger audience?

A: I reckon the main strategy was to show the many ways that sadness can form within us – it can be so confusing, even for adults, to know what one is going through when really sad things are happening. Sadness can sometimes manifest into anger. Sadness can be hard to admit or say out-loud. Sadness can be hard to notice. Those are just some of the ways sadness is felt, and there are people that understand and will still be there for you no matter what.

Q: In Amah Faraway, there are lots of Taiwanese places and foods depicted. Did you use reference photos or make a research trip, or was it all drawn from memory/imagination?

A: The places and foods depicted are a culmination of all of my experiences in Taiwan! I was lucky to have lived in Taiwan (and at one point I lived in a night market!), and to have visited my Waipo (that’s Chinese for grandma on my mom’s side), and to have traveled around Taiwan with my mom and my friends and family! From visiting Wulai hot springs for the first time to eating at various banquets to climbing up Elephant Mountain to view Taipei 101, there were a lot of visual memories in my head.

I definitely used some photo reference though.

Just a couple of scenes :

I was able to take my dad and brother’s family around Taipei back in 2019. Since we had a few little kiddos with us, we went to Daan Forest Park almost every day. It was such a nice reprieve in the bustling city, and the island of birds was so fun to watch!

One of my first memories of Taipei was, of course, going to the Shilin night market with my mom and dad. My dad was so overwhelmed by the smell of stinky tofu, so mom and I walked around and got as many snacks as we could. I remember being enamored with all the cute plushies and clothes and bags. It was important for me to include some of my favorite snacks like roasted yams and candied hawthorn in the book too.

Q: The picturebook as a medium is often described as a melding of and collaboration between word and image, but in the publishing industry, authors and illustrators typically have an editor as a liaison rather than working directly together. How much interaction did you have with Margaret Chiu Greanias for Amah Faraway, and how much creative freedom were you given to add details not explicitly referenced in the text of the story?

A: I had zero interaction with Margaret until after I finished all the final artwork for the book! It’s been super nice to do a bunch of events with her though, and she’s told me that it feels like I was on the journey with her when she looks at the illustrations for Amah Faraway.

I could say the same about how she wrote the book. It was insanely relatable for me, and our editor Sarah Shumway gave me a lot of creative license to bring my own experience into the illustrations, mainly giving input on any areas that affected the flow of the story.

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Add Jenny Mei Is Sad on Goodreads.

Purchase Jenny Mei Is Sad:

• Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316537713
• Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/9780316537711
• Books-A-Million – http://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780316537711
• Bookshop.org – https://bookshop.org/a/2344/9780316537711
• IndieBound – http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780316537711
• Indigo – https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/jenny-mei-is-sad/9780316537711-item.html
• Kinokuniya USA – https://united-states.kinokuniya.com/bw/9780316537711

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Thanks for reading this interview! If you’re enjoying my Taiwanese American Heritage Week posts, please consider donating to the victims fund for the Taiwanese American church community in Orange County that was attacked this weekend on May 15th by a gunman, or donating to Ren Kanoelani, a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), Taiwanese, and Japanese person who needs help with student loan debt and medical bills. Thanks!

Welcome to my fifth interview for my [belated] Taiwanese American Heritage Week series!

About the Book

• Title: Amah Faraway
• Author: Margaret Chiu Greanias
• Illustrator: Tracy Subisak
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books
• Release Date: January 25th, 2022
• Genre: Picturebook, Fiction

Synopsis

A delightful story of a child’s visit to a grandmother and home far away, and of how families connect and love across distance, language, and cultures.

Kylie is nervous about visiting her grandmother-her Amah-who lives SO FAR AWAY.

When she and Mama finally go to Taipei, Kylie is shy with Amah. Even though they have spent time together in video chats, those aren’t the same as real life. And in Taiwan, Kylie is at first uncomfortable with the less-familiar language, customs, culture, and food.

However, after she is invited by Amah-Lái kàn kàn! Come see!-to play and splash in the hot springs (which aren’t that different from the pools at home), Kylie begins to see this place through her grandmother’s eyes and sees a new side of the things that used to scare her.

Soon, Kylie is leading her Amah-Come see! Lái kàn kàn!-back through all her favorite parts of this place and having SO MUCH FUN! And when it is time to go home, the video chats will be extra special until they can visit faraway again.

Backmatter includes author and illustrator notes and a guide to some of the places and foods explored in Taiwan.

Interview with Margaret Chiu Greanias

Q: Your book Amah Faraway features several delicious Taiwanese dishes that made me hungry while reading it. What is your favorite Taiwanese food? (You can pick more than one if narrowing it down is hard.)

A: Fragrant and flaky scallion pancakes are yummy. I had an intense aversion to onions as a kid, but my mom would go easy on the scallions for me.

I also love dumplings–any kind of dumplings! My mom would usually make dumplings on the same days she made scallion pancakes. Pan-fried pork and napa cabbage dumplings with golden, crispy lace on the bottoms–mmm! They are the perfect all in one meal.

As an adult, I’ve discovered the deliciousness of buttery, tangy pineapple cakes! Unfortunately, I was a picky eater as a kid, so I missed out on enjoying them for 30 years.

Q: I noticed that there were parts of the book in Mandarin that weren’t translated (e.g. the song about the two tigers) while others were. How did you go about deciding what would be explained and translated and what would remain as is?

A: The Mandarin that wasn’t translated was added by Tracy Subisak, the illustrator for Amah Faraway. They are generally side conversations that complement the text and are wonderful Easter Eggs for those who can read Mandarin.

The Mandarin characters that are translated were part of the original story that I wrote. They fit in with the structure of the story–which is a kind of reverse poem. A reverse poem is one where the lines are read regularly from top to bottom but can also be read in reverse from bottom to top. The result is two poems with different meanings and often opposite tones.

In Amah Faraway, the reverse poem structure highlights the transformation the main character Kylie undergoes on her first trip to visit her Amah. The lines reverse at the mid-point of the story. Except for some changes to punctuation, the lines in the second half of the story are exactly the same as the lines in the first half–simply in reverse order. Changes in punctuation, words that have more than one meaning, context, and changes in perspective allow the first half and second half of the book to tell a complete story.

Q: What was your favorite part of writing Amah Faraway?

A: My favorite part of writing Amah Faraway was finding a way to impart different meanings using the same lines and words in the each half of the book and still tell a complete story. It took a lot of scribbling, experimentation, and reading my words aloud over and over again. But I love puzzles, and finding the right fit felt a lot like completing a puzzle. So satisfying!

Q: You mentioned elsewhere that you weren’t particularly good at English in school, but later you found your way to creative writing. What kinds of books and stories inspired you and/or made you feel that you could be an author? (Feel free to name specific titles, authors, and illustrators.)

A: The first book to inspire me was Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. This was the one that made me realize that I could play and have fun with language. As I continue to read and study the craft of writing picture books, I am continually discovering books that inspire me to evolve my writing:

• Wordplay: Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies by Jorge and Megan Lacera
• Lyrical language: Friends Are Friends, Forever by Dane Liu and illustrated by Lynn Scurfield, The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by Rafael Lopez, Eyes That Kiss In The Corners by Joanna Ho and illustrated by Dung Ho
• Delightful characters: One Word From Sophia by Jim Averbeck and illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail
• Packs an emotional punch: I Dream of Popo by Livia Blackburne and illustrated by Julia Kuo

Q: The structure of Amah Faraway is that of a reversible poem. While writing a reversible poem is already difficult, I imagine fitting it into the picture book format was also a challenge due to the page limit and the way picture books are structured with the two-page spreads and page turns affecting the reading experience. How did you go about blending the two forms?

A: It’s critical to account for the constraints of the picture book format when writing any picture book story. Picture books are generally 32 pages. This includes the end, copyright, and title pages. So we really have between 12 to 14-1/2 spreads to tell the whole story.

As part of my writing process, I create a picture book “dummy” where I break up the story by spread (https://taralazar.com/tag/picture-book-template/). Note that picture book authors generally leave illustration decisions including the page turns to the illustrator, editor, and art director. But this helps me determine some things:

• Whether I’ve used too many words for a page. For reverse poems, because the lines need to be able to be interpreted with new meaning on the reverse read, it turns out that spare is better. So, this actually helped me.
• Whether there are enough but not too many varied scenes to fill the book. Too many scenes would mean the story wouldn’t fit into the picture book format. Lack of variety in scenes would make the story less visually interesting. For writing the reverse poem, I chunked the story in a predetermined number of scenes to help make the writing process less intimidating. This also helped in fitting the story into the picture book format.

One thing that I never imagined was how the words and the line breaks that are critical to the reverse poem structure would be laid out on the page and how the illustrations would need to accommodate this. Not only did we have to maintain the line breaks, but the lines had to be placed so that the reader would read them in the right order.

I owe my editor at Bloomsbury, Sarah Shumway, a huge debt of gratitude for having the vision for how to fit my story into picture book format and helping to guide me through revisions to make it all possible. She even somehow made room for back matter.

Q: My understanding is that when the author isn’t also the illustrator for a picturebook, the author generally has little say in the final illustrations. Do you write your picturebooks with a rough idea of the pictures in mind? How do you feel about surrendering creative control when it comes to this aspect of the book?

A: I do write with an idea of the pictures. As I wrote in previously, this helps me figure out whether there are enough potential varied illustration possibilities to make up a picture book and to determine the pacing and page breaks of the story. And also, if I envision illustrations, I may be able to omit some text that the illustration would communicate. But my envisioning the illustrations doesn’t mean I tell the illustrator what to actually illustrate.

For Amah Faraway, I saw sketches at two points and was offered the opportunity to give feedback. But as an author, I try and tread lightly when it comes to illustrations. While it can be nerve-wracking to surrender creative control, I believe in the idea that an illustrator executing their own vision can add a lot of richness to the story. It’s like a song with harmony–it adds layers and deepens the song in a beautiful way.

As the illustrator for Amah Faraway, Tracy Subisak contributed so much richness to the book. She added beautiful end papers which can serve as a search and find for young readers as well as a tool for learning some Mandarin. She created a wonderful illustration under the dust jacket which sets up the story. She set the story in real locations around Taipei which hopefully will enable readers who have been to Taipei to connect to the story in a visual way. And as mentioned above, she added the conversations that were solely in Mandarin to complement the storyline and serve as an Easter Egg for Mandarin readers. I could go on and on. Tracy’s contributions helped make Amah Faraway a rich and layered piece with many potential points of connection for readers. Thank you, Tracy! 🙂

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Add Amah Faraway on Goodreads.

Order a copy of Amah Faraway with a signed bookplate and free print from Books of Wonder (while supplies last).

Purchase Amah Faraway from other sellers:

• Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Amah-Faraway-Margaret-Chiu-Greanias/dp/1547607211/
• Barnes & Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/amah-faraway-margaret-chiu-greanias/1139122857
• Books-A-Million – https://www.booksamillion.com/p/Amah-Faraway/Margaret-Chiu-Greanias/9781547607211?id=8526517511656
• Bookshop.org –
• https://bookshop.org/books/amah-faraway/9781547607211
• IndieBound – https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781547607211
• Indigo – https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/amah-faraway/9781547607211-item.html
• Kinokuniya USA – https://united-states.kinokuniya.com/bw/9781547607211

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Thanks for reading this interview! If you’re enjoying my Taiwanese American Heritage Week posts, please consider donating to the victims fund for the Taiwanese American church community in Orange County that was attacked this weekend on May 15th by a gunman, or donating to Ren Kanoelani, a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), Taiwanese, and Japanese person who needs help with student loan debt and medical bills. Thanks!

I meant to post my Taiwanese author interviews last week during Taiwanese American Heritage Week, but life got in the way. But better late than never, so here’s the first author interview out of eight.

About the Book

• Title: Let’s Do Everything and Nothing
• Author & Illustrator: Julia Kuo
• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (an Imprint of Macmillan)
• Release Date: March 22nd, 2022
• Genre/format: Picturebook, Fiction

Synopsis

Let’s Do Everything and Nothing is a lush and lyrical picture book from Julia Kuo celebrating special moments—big and small—shared with a child.

Will you climb a hill with me?
Dive into a lake with me?
Reach the starry sky with me,
and watch the clouds parade?

Love can feel as vast as a sky full of breathtaking clouds or as gentle as a sparkling, starlit night. It can scale the tallest mountains and reach the deepest depths of the sea.

Standing side by side with someone you love, the unimaginable can seem achievable.
But not every magical moment is extraordinary. Simply being together is the best journey of all.

Interview with Julia Kuo

Q: Last year I read and attended the book launch for I Dream of Popo, a picturebook about a Taiwanese American girl and her grandmother, written by Livia Blackburne and illustrated by you. I still remember the mouthwatering dishes in the book and wanted to ask what your favorite Taiwanese food is for Taiwanese American Heritage Week! (Feel free to list more than one.)

A: Ooh, what a fun question. I grew up eating the famous oya-jen (蚵仔煎) from Ning Xia Lu night market, so I’m a little spoiled. I would have to say I get the most excited to see ba-wan (肉圓), the steamed meat-filled potato starch snack! It’s sweet and savory and reminds me of rainy days in a simple cafe on Yang Ming Shan.

Q: Congratulations on your author-illustrator debut! Would you say your creative process in making Let’s Do Everything and Nothing was different from your previous projects working as illustrator only, and if so, how?

A: It’s pretty different! The most obvious answer is that the art and text can work more harmoniously together when I’m creating both of them in tandem, but there were many other differences I didn’t foresee.

As an illustrator, I am hired into the editorial pipeline with the expectation that I will find a successful artistic vision for the book. But as an author-illustrator, I need to sell both the art and the text from the very beginning. The artistic vision needs to be there as early as the dummy that I put together to show to my agent, who will then pitch it to editors. In this way there’s more upfront work and uncertainty, and that seems to be the payoff for having more creative control over the entire story.

I also discovered that it’s much lonelier to be an author-illustrator! I have truly loved being paired with the authors of my books. They write stories that I would never come up with in a million years. In this way, my creative freedom as an author-illustrator can sometimes feel surprisingly limited.

Q: I really love the color palette you chose for Let’s Do Everything and Nothing, with the oranges and yellows and the purples and blues. How did you decide on this color palette/ what about it appealed to you?

A: I wanted this book to tell a story through color as the mood shifts and scenes change. The story starts with sedated purplish blues which shift into a purer blue before we are introduced to vibrant new colors. We transition into a world of reds and pinks before settling into the warmth of yellows.

I would normally use bright, warm colors to convey excitement, and colder, darker hues for peacefulness. But I decided to flip things around a bit here. The blues are paired with the adventures; I love the blues of dawn, of alpine lakes and clear skies. And the comfort of home and rest to me is the glow of warm lighting, whether it’s the flickering of a fireplace or the golden windows of houses lit at night.

Q: As an illustrator your portfolio is pretty broad, encompassing different kinds of publications and audiences. What would you say is unique about children’s book illustration?

A: I love that a children’s book basically creates a gallery’s worth of illustrations. You’ll end up with anywhere from 16-32 illustrations, depending on if you’re using pages or spreads, that all make up one cohesive body of work. There’s something so satisfying about building out a visual language and adjusting elements from spread to spread to show nuance in emotion, tone, layout and style, all in order to tell a story.

Q: I’m currently studying children’s literature at Simmons University, and one of our core courses is dedicated exclusively to examining the picturebook as a medium due to its unique history and literary/artistic conventions (I’m not taking it until next semester though). What are your thoughts on the picturebook as a medium? What aspects do you think make for a great storytelling and reading experience? What elements challenge you as an author-illustrator?

A: Picture books are one of the first ways for a child to access a universe outside of their own immediate world. The variety of stories that can be found in picture books (not to mention storytelling styles) are portals not only to experiencing what is different, but also to better understanding oneself. I hope your class reads Rudine Sims Bishop’s seminal essay in which she talks about mirrors, windows and doors!

Since I’m only newly an author-illustrator, I am sometimes overwhelmed by the limitless potential of children’s books. I spend a lot of time thinking about what messages and stories are most important to me. I often imagine that each next book is my last, and if that’s all I get, what single story will I choose to tell?

Q: Let’s Do Everything and Nothing focuses on the bond between a little girl and her mother. How did you go about expressing the intimacy of this bond on the page?

A: Someone recently specifically requested a print of this page, and said it was for them the “memory that mothers have of holding their child, the warmth, the rise and fall of their breath, the touch of that small tender shoulder…” I wasn’t thinking about these individual elements so explicitly when I was drawing this spread, but I was looking to create a feeling of everyday closeness, calmness, and intimacy!

Q: What advice would you give to anyone who is thinking about writing and/or illustrating picturebooks?

A: My advice is to be prolific and make the books that you wish to be hired to make! Repetition will help with both illustration and writing. It took me many years to gain control over getting the illustration in my head out on paper. Now that I just started writing, I’m back to square one and I know that it’ll be years before I have a better handle on the process. If you keep at it, the practice will pay off. Also, no one knows what you’re capable of before you create it and put it out into the world for others to see! So really it’s a win-win to just start writing and illustrating your dream books right now.

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• Watch the launch party event hosted by University Book Store featuring Julia Kuo in conversation with Justina Chen.
• Add Let’s Do Everything and Nothing to your Goodreads shelf.
• Purchase a signed copy of Let’s Do Everything and Nothing from University Book Store.
• Purchase a copy of Let’s Do Everything and Nothing with a signed bookplate from Books of Wonder.

Purchase Let’s Do Everything and Nothing from another bookseller:

• Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250774349
• Barnes & Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/9781250774347
• Books-A-Million – http://www.booksamillion.com/product/9781250774347
• Bookshop.org – https://bookshop.org/a/3214/9781250774347
• IndieBound – http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781250774347
• Indigo – https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/lets-do-everything-and-nothing/9781250774347-item.html
• Kinokuniya USA – https://united-states.kinokuniya.com/bw/9781250774347
• Powells – http://www.powells.com/partner/33241/biblio/9781250774347