questions for joseph slate

QUESTIONS

Where do you get your ideas? All kinds of things give me ideas. I got the idea for Who is Coming to Our House? from singing a dumb song to a godchild, Cassidy Garhart. I had bought her a plush toy Mickey Mouse. The words who is coming to our house? were in my song. Her father called me later and said, "Darn, Joe, I can't get that song out of my head." Neither could I.

How about the Miss Bindergarten books? My niece was getting ready to teach one year, and my nephew was getting ready to go to kindergarten. I wondered if they were preparing in the same way. I wondered if they were nervous about that first day. I didn't want Christopher to worry. I wanted him to see how much fun it would be. Ashley Wolff, who did the pictures, was the one who decided to make Miss Bindergarten a border collie. I believe that also made kindergarten less scary, don't you agree?

Do you have many readers? Yes, the Miss Bindergarten books alone have sold about half a million copies (if you include book club sales). Since many of those were bought by libraries, I would guess that I have double that number in readers. If one included all my books, I guess a million readers might be a prudent estimate.

Who are your readers? Mostly youngsters under age 8, but with my new novel, all the way up to 16. We have to include adult readers too, as parents and teachers read to children. I hear from those parents now and then. Some of my books have been translated into other languages: Africaans, Japanese, German, and in all the English-speaking areas of the world. So I have readers in many countries. The Japanese are especially fond of Little Porcupine's Christmas, which was reissued in 2001 with a new cover by Felicia Bond. Canadians also like that book, especially handicapped children in Alberta, Canada. Germany has published Who is Coming to Our House? in a beautiful board-book edition.

How many books have you written? I have written many, many manuscripts, but only about 20 have been published thus far. Not too many, but for many years I wrote short stories, which have never been gathered up in book form, but have been published in magazines, such as The New Yorker. Also, I am a painter, and for many years, I only painted. I have never done illustrations for my books however, as it interfered with my painting.

How many books do you write in a year? I have written as many as a dozen children's book manuscripts in a year, but publishers don't like to publish more than one book a year by an author, sometimes even less. However, I have had two books published in both 2000 and 2001, and will have two in 2005. That's because I have had four different publishers.

How do you keep writing? Does it hurt? Sometimes my hand will get a cramp from hitting the keys on my comptuer. If I don't stand up every so often I will get very stiff in my hips and back. I don't get eye strain very often. I don't get headaches, but sometimes I worry whether I can finish a book. This is usually true of novels. They are a new form for me. I have written about three. One has been published, but I never know whether I should stick with them or just do the scripts for picture books. It's hard to know what one will be good at unless one tries. I enjoy writing, although I have never been at ease with grammar and vocabulary. That puzzles me, but that is true of many writers. We struggle to carve out our words. Maybe that struggle contributes to the originality in our work.

Does someone help you with your books? Not very much. I sometimes think I should join a criticism group, but I am pretty much a loner when it comes to writing. My wife will read a manuscript if I ask her to, but she finds it hard to criticize what I do. She is a good copyreader, though. I do get help from editors. They have a lot of good suggestions, and I usually follow their advice. Ashley Wolff, my illustrator for the Miss Bindergarten books, often makes suggestions, but she is the only illustrator I've had that has done that. Editors like to keep illustrators and authors apart. They don't want them to have an argument that can't be patched up. I do have an agent, William Reiss, who sends out my manuscripts to publishers. He is very supportive and makes good suggestions about my stories. I need him because I don't like to search for publishers and don't understand book contracts.

Are you famous? That's a hard questions to answer. Being famous is relative. How many people have to know about you to be famous? I am not movie-star famous, no. Let's say I am kiddie-famous. Kids, librarians, teachers, and children's book writers know about me.

Have you met Dr. Seuss? No. But he was a great influence on my early picture-book writing; I had to get him out of my system before publishers bought my work.

When did you start writing? I always loved to write. I don't remember when I didn't like to tell stories. I guess I was in eighth grade when I realized I could make my teachers laugh with my stories and poems, and then I knew I was a writer. I was poetry editor of our grade school paper, feature editor of our high school paper, and editor of the high school year book. At the University of Washington, I was elected editor of the University Daily. Then I was a reporter for the Seattle Times before becoming an editor for Foreign Broadcast Information Service. It was then I decided I wanted to be a painter and went to art school. While in art school, I sold my first short story to The New Yorker. Then I didn't know what to do. I decided to finish my degree because I needed a job. The job I got was at Kenyon College, where I taught art for thirty years. I was always confused about whether to write or to paint. The photographer Greg Spaid, a former student of mine, said why don't you do both, why don't you do picture books? So that's how I got started. But I didn't like doing the illlustrations. I did like to write, and that is what I now do.

Do you have hobbies? More activities than hobbies. I used to take tai-chi twice a week. I now only work out in the gym every day I can. I play an old man's game of volleyball whenever I can, and my wife and I travel a great deal. We have set foot on every continent. The last was Antarctica, and we have visited 51 countries. We have lived in Italy and Japan. The Southwest and Mexico are favorite places.

Have you won any prizes or awards? Yes, and they always come as a surprise. For The Secret Stars: the Americas Commended list, the Pura Belpre (Felipe Davalos's illustrations) and Sugarman (text) honors awards, ALA's Notable Children's Book 2000 list; among the others, National Booksellers' and the New York Public Library's annual lists, Colorado and Wyoming School Children's Best Book finalist, Publisher's Weekly bestseller list (three times for Miss Bindergarten), Delaware's 1997 Blue Hen Award, the Head Start Core Knowledge list, the Ohioana Library Association's 1988 award and the Association for Childhood Education International's Outstanding Maryland Author Award (2001), both for distinguished service in the field of children's literature; the International Reading Association's Book Council list for Miss Bindergarten Stays Home from Kindergarten (2001). And the latest, six weeks on the New York Times Children's bestseller list for Miss Bindergarten Takes a Field Trip with Kindergarten. As you may have guessed, I consider making any bestseller list an award from my readers.

Who has inspired you most? My sister Rose. She was ill most of her short life -- she died at 17 from nephritis--but she was very creative. She drew comic books, romantic adventure stories, on the back of wallpaper sheets and bound them in yarn. Loni, the young girl in my novel, Crossing the Trestle, has some of her traits. My parents were very creative, too; my mother made all of my sisters' finer dresses and my father eventually left his job in Weirton Steel to build houses of his own design.

last modified 3.03.05