Today’s FIVE ON FRIDAY guest is award winning Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, poet and author of numerous books including the recently released The Floating Circus. You can visit Tracie at her website.
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When did you know that you first wanted to be a writer/illustrator?
5th grade, I think. Mrs. Sternberg really inspired me to write.
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What book or writer/artist do you feel influenced you the most?
Cynthia Rylant. The dialogue and characters in her books sound like my own family and friends here in Southwestern Ohio.
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What book or books are you currently reading or have recently read that you’d recommend to others?
Walls of Cartagena by Julia Durango
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If you could offer one piece of advice to aspiring writers (or illustrators), what would it be?
Read like a chef eats. Try to figure out what in the recipe of that book works.
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Can you share with us your next project or any information about the next book you’re working on?
Steady Hands: Poems about Work will be released from Clarion in February! It’s a collection of poems about people doing their jobs. The illustrations are AMAZING, and even though I’m completely biased it is also completely true. I’m chasing after a new historical fiction idea but it is much too tender a stage to talk about…
