From: Franciso Alarcon <fjalarcon>
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 15:20:21 -0800

Dear Megan and Eliza,

In response to the question Eliza Dresang and you had for me. "How did it work for you and Maya Christina Gonzalez with your season poetry books? Was it in the traditional manner described? Or did you work more collaboratively on the project?"

It was Harriet Rohmer, founder and former Editorial Director of Children's Book Press of San Francisco who really brought us together. I had collaborated with Children's Book Press doing the Spanish translation of Gloria Anzald?a's "Prietita and the Ghost Woman / Prietita y la Llorona" which Maya Christina Gonzalez illustrated. I was very impressed by the beautiful book that came out. So when Harriet and I were working on my first book ("Laughing tomatoes and Other Spring Poems"), I immediately agreed with her when Harriet suggested that Maya Christina should be the artist working on this book. I know that sometimes this topic of the collaboration between author, editor, and artist could become an explosive minefield, but I have to say that our collaborations were always extremely smoothly, very productive, and with tremendous respect to each other's works.

It was a total pleasure to work with Harriet Rohmer who was very receptive to any ideas, extremely creative, and very professional in dealing with me. She has an incredible ear and eye for bilingual picture books. She was a very effective bridge that linked me as author and Maya Christina as an artist in very effective ways. Together with a designer Harriet and Maya Christina came out with wonderful solutions. Like, for example, including a poem around a painting just as you open my book?fore even the title page-and include another poem after the "Afterword" at the end of the book. So there are poems "before" the beginning of the book and "after" the ending of the book.

It was great experience to work with Harriet and Maya Christina. Harriet made the process very personable since Children's Book Press is a small publisher. She met with me several times to review the overall design of the book but consider it prudent not to have me as the author interfere with the artist's vision. So I never met Maya Christina directly while she was working on any of my books. I did send her some photos of me and family at Maya's request. If at first I had any reservation about this process, I came to recognize the wisdom of this approach. I had to trust that my poems will communicate directly with the artist, designer, and editor, instead of me acting as an interpreter, the same way the poems will have to communicate directly with the readers of the books.

I believe Harriet Rhomer, as an editor and visionary, had a very important role in guiding this process to success. "Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems/Jitomates risue?os y otros poemas de primavera" was awarded the Pura Belpr? Honor Award in 1998, "From Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems/ Del ombligo de la luna y otros poemas de verano" received the same prize in 2000, and this year, "Iguanas in the Snow and other Winter Poems / Iguanas en la nueve y otros poemas de invierno" was awarded this prize.

Each of the four books has been a wonderful surprise for me. It has always been a delight for me to discover the visual "renderings" of my poems according to Maya Christina. I am mesmerized at seeing some of her visual "solutions" that I really couldn't have never come out with since I am not a visual artist. I hope this has shed some light on the making of the series of seasonal poetry books.

Saludos,

Francisco X. Alarc?n




Francisco Alarc?n Spanish for Native Speakers Program Department of Spanish UC Davis Davis, CA 95616
(530) 75222 FAX (530) 752!84
Received on Mon 04 Mar 2002 05:20:21 PM CST