Cornelia Maude Spelman: Missing: A Memoir

Missing: A Memoir – Cornelia Maude Spelman – Jackleg Press – 9781737513445 – Paperback – 176 pages – $17.00 – July 15, 2022 – ebook versions available at lower prices

Cornelia Maude Spelman is best known as a children’s book author. This memoir of her family was spurred by her meeting with and friendship with the late New Yorker editor William Maxwell (himself an extraordinary writer as well), who knew her parents in the 1920s when they were at the University of Illinois together.

Cornelia plainly admired and enjoyed the company of Maxwell, but also was fascinated that he knew her parents before they had children, before their lives went in different directions than Maxwell’s. At one of her meetings with him, she suggests that her parents’ lives were not successful in the terms they had hoped for. Maxwell gently tells her that “in a good novel one doesn’t look for a success story, but for a story that moves one with its human drama and richness of experience.”

It was Maxwell who prompted Cornelia to explore and tell the story of her parents. This memoir tells that story. Spelman spent years exploring the history of her family. It’s a wonderful exploration, full of side trips and thoughtful reflections, and much that anyone interested in the mysteries of their family members will appreciate. Superman was luckier than most of us, in that she was able to meet with people who knew her parents when they were young. Most of us get interested in these stories far too late in our own lives to be able to talk to people who actually knew our older family members, or who, if still around, can remember anything meaningful to tell us.

Spelman’s research is extensive too. She goes to Iowa and Illinois to track down places and information details of her family history and to find people who know something about her parents and their parents. She recounts letters and interviews, even finding medical records and telegrams to help fill out stories that would otherwise be invisible or lost. Importantly Spelman is able to reconstructs her mother’s life and death, as well as that of her long lost brother. Cornelia’s writing is excellent and her storytelling compelling, so that even though we are not connected to the people about whom she writes, we can feel how she feels about them and about herself as she searches out and tells these “missing” family stories.

Cornelia is always honest with us about her disappointments, as well as what she learns that brings her joy and closure as well. This book is warm, profound, and honest. At the end, we know there is still much that will always be missing, but so much more that has been found.

Cornelia Maude Spelman, MSW, was a family therapist before she became a writer and artist. She’s written eleven books for children that help them manage emotions and difficult life situations. Her The Way I Feel series of books for young children has sold several million copies and been translated into Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Greek, Japanese, German, Arabic, Turkish, Danish, and Russian. Cornelia has earned awards from the Illinois Arts Council and was awarded the Bernard De Voto Fellowship in Nonfiction at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. This is her first book for adult readers.

It was truly a pleasure to speak with her about this book and her journey to write it.

Author website
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Publishing Talks: Interview with Angus Yuen-Killick of Red Comet Press

Publishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I’ve spent time in conversation with people in and around the book industry talking about its evolution in the contexts of technology, culture, and economics.

Later, this series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the current and recent past of book publishing, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders of all kinds, past and present.

These conversations have been inspirational to me on many levels. I have gotten to speak with visionaries and entrepreneurs, as well as editors and publishers who have influenced and changed contemporary literature and culture. I’ve also had the opportunity to speak with a number of friends and colleagues whose work has influenced my own.

One such person is Angus Yuen-Killick, whom I have known since the 1990s when he came to the US to set up an outpost for a small UK publisher I was working with at the time. I was immediately impressed with Angus’ energy, vision and intelligence and since then, he has gone on to have a great career in children’s book publishing, his true love in the book business.

After working for several larger children’s book publishers over many years, Angus has now founded his own publishing imprint, Red Comet Press, about which he says:

“This is the realization of a long-held dream. The past year has forced us to reevaluate our priorities and reflect on our future. Launching a new publishing company seemed at once a crazy proposition, but also the absolute right thing to do.

At Red Comet Press, we will focus on the craft of publishing and curating a list of hand-picked titles. We will shepherd them through the publishing process, from creator to reader, with care and attention to detail. When we acquired these first books, it was a sign. They are inventive, surprising, touching, and multi-layered—and they remind me, upon every reading, of the passion and creativity that drew me to this business in the first place.”

Angus was interviewed earlier this year in Publishers Weekly, where he said “When I first started in the business, I worked at a tiny poetry publishing company in the north of England. My dad was an editor there and I was exposed to every aspect of the publishing process. When I left Macmillan last year and was trying to figure out the next step in my career after 30 years in corporate publishing, I realized that my dream was returning to that model of shepherding a list of books from the beginning to the end. This felt like the right thing for me to do next.”

Angus has help from his husband, Michael Yuen-Killick, a talented graphic designer, who serves as creative director for Red Comet, and a raft of friends and associates drawn from his many years of publishing. During his more than thirty years in book publishing, Angus has worked in key roles at various houses, including Macmillan, Penguin, Disney, and DK. I doubt there is anyone in children’s book publishing he does not know; he is widely respected and admired by his colleagues, and by many authors and illustrators as well.

It is always stimulating and fun for me to speak with Angus, so having him as a guest here is a special pleasure. If you are interested in the particular challenges of children’s book publishing, you will learn a great deal from Angus even from this brief interview. His knowledge and experience is unmatched. His enthusiasm and intelligence are often inspirational. And the books he publishes at Red Comet are going to be fantastic too. I am really looking forward to seeing his first list of books later this year.

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Publishing Talks: Interview with Arthur Attwell

Publishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I’ve spent time talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics.

Some time back, this series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in the past and into the present.

These conversations have been inspirational to me on many levels. I have gotten to speak with visionaries and entrepreneurs, as well as editors and publishers who have influenced and changed contemporary literature and culture.

Today’s guest is another such special individual. Arthur Attwell, who lives in Capetown, South Africa, got his start in publishing working for Oxford University Press as an editor. Impatient with the inefficiencies of publishing, he left to start up his current venture with some collaborators, Electric Book Works, which has been building books since 2006 that are active in multiple formats and versions, from beautifully produced print books to well fashioned ebooks to websites that express the book form in new ways.

In addition to the work he has done with Electric Book Works, this energetic entrepreneur has co-created an impactful health care information project, Bettercare, which has created and distributed healthcare learning materials to thousands of practitioners and consumers all over Africa. Although this project, entirely volunteer run, has had to cut back on its activities because of the pandemic, its impact continues with part timers and reduced capabilities.

Perhaps the most exciting efforts I have learned about recently is yet another Attwell project, Book Dash. Arthur and his partners created (and have since carefully refined) a process that assembles teams of book professionals to create and publish children’s books, and which also the raises money and support needed for the printing and distribution of thousands of books across Africa, with the stated goal that every child should own 100 books by the time they are five years old! The Book Dash process was built as an intensive one day effort, gathering teams in person, but has quickly adapted to a virtual model, enabling contributors to participate from multiple physical locations. They have made some really terrific books using this process and Book Dash has now distributed over one million books to children in Africa.

With the time difference between us, arranging this talk required bit of organizing, but we were able to speak recently by Skype. My original goal was simply to give Arthur an opportunity to talk about Book Dash. But we ended up having a much wider conversation on a range of topics, including distributed print on demand printing, a dream concept we both have explored, and much more. I suspect we will talk further in the necessary follow up conversation I hope to have with him as there are so many exciting ideas to discuss.

For now, I hope you will enjoy listening to Arthur Attwell as much as I did.

Arthur’s “On Transit” Talk

Arthur’s website

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David Wilk interviews Jess Brallier

Publishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology about the future of publishing, books, and culture. As we continue to experience disruption and change in all media businesses, I’ve been talking with some of the people involved in our industry about how publishing might evolve as our culture is affected by technology and the larger context of civilization and economics.

I’ve now expanded the series to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. I’ve talked with editors and publishers who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in the past and into the present, and continue to explore the ebb and flow of writing, books, and publishing in all sorts of forms and formats, as change continues to be the one constant we can count on.

Jess Brallier is one of those interesting, experienced innovators in publishing with whom I enjoy talking about all sorts of book related subjects. He’s worked in adult trade publishing, but has also had significant success with children’s and YA books, has long been involved in digital technologies, and notably was instrumental in the creation of the wildly best selling Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. And he is a prolific book writer himself, as well. His vast experience has provided him with a unique perspective about books and publishing, and he is just the kind of person who makes this interview series interesting and fun for me to do.

Here’s the more or less “official” biography Jess sent me: Jess M. Brallier currently serves the publishing industry as a media and revenue agnostic consultant to small, mid, and large publishing houses, and a developer of original IP, both print and animated. His career spans the publishing of books and digital storytelling from brick-and-mortar and the web, to virtual worlds and social media. He had his own children’s imprint, Planet Dexter (Penguin) and used the web to establish and launch newly $800M in original IP (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, Poptropica, Galactic Hot Dogs, etc.)

He also worked closely with, and was essential to causing bestsellers for, Norman Mailer, William Manchester, William Least Heat Moon, Herman Wouk, William Shirer, Bailey White, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and many others. Brallier is a frequent speaker at both digital and book industry conferences, has served on the faculty of university-based publishing programs, and is the author or co-author of over 30 adult and children’s books.

I hope you enjoy listening to Jess as much as I did.

And not too long at 41 minutes, in case you were wondering.

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Publishing Talks: David Wilk interviews Kate Wilson

In this ongoing series of interviews, called Publishing Talks, I have been talking to book industry professionals and other smart people about the future of publishing, books, and culture.  This is a period of disruption and change for all media businesses.  We must wonder now, how will publishing evolve as our culture is affected by technology, climate change, population density, and the ebb and flow of civilization and  economics?

I believe that these Publishing Talks conversations can help us understand the outlines of what is happening in the publishing industry, and how we might ourselves interact with and influence the future of publishing as it unfolds.

These interviews give people in and around the book business a chance to talk openly about ideas and concerns that are often only talked about “around the water cooler,” at industry conventions and events, and in emails between friends and they give people inside and outside the book industry a chance to hear first hand some of the most interesting and challenging thoughts, ideas and concepts being discussed by people in the book business.

I was recently introduced to the apps and books created by the new UK based children’s publisher Nosy Crow.  I bought their first app, the Three Little Pigs and immediately understood that this company had a vision and an approach that made sense to me.  Here is the message from their website that caught my attention right way:

“We make innovative, multimedia, highly interactive apps for tablets, smart phones and other touchscreen devices. These apps are not existing books squashed onto phones, but instead are specially created to take advantage of the devices to tell stories and provide information to children in new and engaging ways.”  Books too by the way.

When I finally got a chance to talk to company founder Kate Wilson, I found out right away why the company is so smart, and off to such a great start.  I believe that Kate deeply understands how technology and publishing can and will intersect for the creation of great experiences for children readers.  She has a vision, one that makes sense, and she has combined creativity with a keen sense of what parents and children want both from new technologies and from traditional books.  And her experience in publishing has taught her important lessons which she is now applying in this new publishing space (after attending Oxford University, she worked for a number of UK children’s publishers, including Macmillan Children’s and Scholastic UK, both of which she ran.  If you are interested in how children’s publishing is going to evolve, I suggest paying close attention to Nosy Crow, and of course listening to this conversation with Kate Wilson.

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Publishing Talks: David Wilk interviews Rick Richter

In this series of interviews, called Publishing Talks, I have been talking to book industry professionals and other smart people about the future of publishing, books, and culture.  This is a period of disruption and change for all media businesses.  We must wonder now, how will publishing evolve as our culture is affected by technology, climate change, population density, and the ebb and flow of civilization and  economics?

I believe these Publishing Talks conversations can help us understand the outlines of what is happening in the publishing industry, and how we might ourselves interact with and influence the future of publishing as it unfolds.

These interviews give people in and around the book business a chance to talk openly about ideas and concerns that are often only talked about “around the water cooler,” at industry conventions and events, and in emails between friends and they give people inside and outside the book industry a chance to hear first hand some of the most interesting and challenging thoughts, ideas and concepts being discussed by people in the book business.

I’ve known Rick Richter for a number of years.  He is smart, energetic and incredibly creative.  I am told he plays a mean guitar too.  He’s unusual in publishing for having been a leader in both sales and editorial, and for being at heart, an innovator and entrepreneur.  I have talked to him a number of times over the past couple of years about his thinking and ideas, and have been interested in his new venture, Ruckus Media since it was still a brainstorm generated idea.  Unlike many brainstormed ideas, this one has become real, and very quickly too.

Ruckus represents at least one budding trend in publishing for kids – which is to be born digital and to stay that way.  Print, ink and paper will be someone else’s job.  At a recent Digital Book World presentation, Rick’s signature statement about his new work was this: “books you can play with and games you can read.”

Rick is currently President, CEO, and Chair, Ruckus Media Group.  Previous to founding Ruckus, he was President and Publisher of the Simon & Schuster Children’s Division (1996 – 2008).  In 1990, Rick co-founded Candlewick Press, the prestigious children’s publisher based in Boston.

“The goal of Ruckus is to combine the most creative minds in children’s media with tremendously exciting new mobile devices. We’ll be satisfied when a mom or dad can hand their phone or tablet to their child without one ounce of guilt, knowing that the experience the child is about to have will entertain them, challenge them, perhaps make them giggle, and be utterly satisfying.” Beginning in May, Rick will be an adjunct professor at the NYU Master of Science Program in Publishing.

Rick and I had a great talk, not just about what he is doing at Ruckus to make change and create a new way of publishing for kids, but also about the future of digital publishing and much more.  Ruckus, along with a number of other new digital publishers are in the process of establishing new ways for children to experience books and reading in some very exciting ways.  And it looks like they are having alot of fun doing it.

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