South Africa, no stamps, The War of Art, Gwen Frostic, and "A is for Aging, B is for Books.": Non-fiction picture book author, Lindsey McDivitt
Charlie Barshaw coordinates our regular Writer Spotlight feature and interviews writers of SCBWI-MI. In this piece, meet unapologetic late bloomer, author Lindsey McDivitt.
An SCBWI-MI conference helped you get
published. Please tell us how it happened.
Thank you for all the terrific questions Charlie. I
feel a bit like I’m back in beautiful Michigan!
It’s still a little
unbelievable to me that my first book contract was for a picture book of
President Mandela! But at the time I felt absolutely compelled to write about
him after a trip to my birthplace, South Africa.
Picture book bios fascinate me
and I garnered many tips on writing them from blog posts by Kathleen Merz,
editor at Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.
Fortune smiled when I landed a
conference critique by Kathleen at a MI-SCBWI conference in 2015. Her editing
and stunning illustrations by Charly Palmer helped create our book A PLAN FOR THE PEOPLE: NELSON MANDELA’S HOPE FOR HIS NATION. It was published in 2021 as
my third picture book.
As a child, you visited your family
in South Africa regularly, but there was a gap of a quarter of a century before
you returned as an adult. Nelson Mandela had recently died, and the country
mourned his passing and celebrated his leadership. What was it that spoke to
you about his life that started you reading, and ultimately writing A PLAN FOR THE PEOPLE?
Growing up in America it seemed unreal that South
Africa was finally rid of hateful apartheid. That visit with my teenaged kids
made me realize how ignorant I was about my birthplace—it was so difficult to
explain how it took so long for SA to become a true democracy for people of all
colors.
We visited Robben Island where Mandela spent 18 of his
27 years in prison. I was astonished to learn of all he accomplished while
behind bars. And how convinced he was that white South Africans could change—that
they had created a kind of prison for themselves.
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| Lindsey's research stack |
Coming home I read everything
I could by Nelson Mandela and about him. It was a scary thing to write about
him, but I came to believe a story focused on his adult life and decades in
prison needed to be told.
Your fictional story, Christmas
Fairies for Ouma is based on a true story linking South Africa and your new
home in America. A young girl draws Christmas fairies on a card and mails it
across the world with “no name, no street, and no real stamps.” Somehow, from
the hand of one stranger to another across 10,000 miles, the card makes it to Grandma.
This is actually based on your own experience, when you and your sister “mailed”
a picture with an incomplete address and Gold Bond stickers as postage. In the
story you account for the improbable journey with the magic on contagious
kindness. Does anyone know how the card actually traveled all that way?
No one knows! Our homemade card (actually with
princesses and no envelope) landed at my Ouma’s doctor’s office three months
after mailing. The nurse knew my grandmother had grandkids in America and asked
if it could be for her! The last in a chain of luck. My mom’s theory was that
our picture got stuck to medical journals. But I imagined kind people seeing
our card, obviously created by kids, and passing it on—one by one. Wouldn’t
you? At Christmas time?
You worked for many years with stroke
survivors and developed support and educational programs for them and their
families. How did you end up in this
career?
While studying Speech and Hearing Science in college I
learned about aphasia, the complex communication disorder that can occur after
stroke. I met many stroke survivors in my first jobs in long term care. And I
learned about the importance of peer support—people in the same boat helping
each other. I started several stroke support groups and eventually worked in a
hospital, a rehabilitation center and with the American Heart Association.
SCBWI is another terrific example of peer support. I’m
incredibly grateful to the Michigan Chapter of SCBWI, Carrie Pearson, Leslie Helakoski and so many fellow MI writers. What a long arduous journey it is—you
absolutely need support.
In the winter of 2008, in the depths
of a recession, you were let go from your job. You were securely into middle
age, in frigid Minnesota. How did you find the courage to choose writing as a
new career?
Honestly? It was partly my desperation to get out of
the house! January in Minnesota, with a move to Michigan on the horizon. I took
my laptop and hung out in cozy coffee shops. A project at my job gave my
confidence in my writing. Three of us had edited a set of stories by stroke
survivors—peer support in book form.
My fellow editor, Jacquelyn Fletcher, gifted me The War of Art: Break through the Blocks andWin Your Inner Creative Battles. After years of dreaming and reading about
writing, I learned it was Resistance keeping me from actually putting pen to
paper (Resistance with a capital R).
You wrote a picture book about GwenFrostic, an up-north Michigan artist. She specialized in nature prints, carving
her art into linoleum blocks and producing stationery in her studio/printing
press. You were enamored of her art while in school, but what led you to
investigate her life as a writer?
I stumbled upon a brochure for Gwen’s shop near the
amazing Sleeping Bear Dunes area! A quick internet search told me Gwen Frostic
overcame stereotypes of disability, gender and age in a very challenging era.
She became an incredibly inspiring artist, advocate for the environment and business
woman.
And again a strategic conference critique made all the difference—this
time from Sarah Rockett at Sleeping Bear Press. (She confided she’s visited
Gwen’s shop in Benzonia many times.) Sleeping Bear published NATURE’S FRIEND:THE STORY OF GWEN FROSTIC in 2018.
Michigan, you have given me so much.
You’ve “adopted” at least four
students far from home, in part, I suppose, because you grew up in their shoes,
coming from another country to settle here. How do you find them? What would a
typical “adoption” entail? Have you been able to keep in touch?
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| Some of the family |
When all your extended family is 10,000 miles away,
you definitely need “found family.” The University of Michigan has thousands of
foreign students also far from home. There was not an easy connection, but an
off campus ecumenical center helped. Also a neighbor taught English at U of M.
It began with Thanksgiving, then Christmas in Ann Arbor, and I now have two
young people from China who call me their “American mom.” Over ten years we’ve
traveled to spend time together—including holidays and weddings.
Explain your “pack a day” habit.
Ha! Post It Notes™ I love them! But I have eased off.
I’m using far more scratch paper and used envelopes now to save trees.
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| Early Christmas in America |
Nelson Mandela spent decades in
prison and became President at age 75. Gerald Ford was 61 when he assumed the U.S.
presidency. Gwen Frostic opened her printing shop on her 58th
birthday. Your biographical subjects all were late bloomers, as were you. You
were 60 when your first book was published. Coincidence?
I am most definitely drawn to late bloomer
stories. I’ve been so fortunate to have tremendous and creative older role
models, including many thriving stroke survivors. It really didn’t feel like a
big deal to reach for a new career in my mid-fifties. And since I started
writing I’ve met scores of late blooming writers. (You can read some of their
posts on my blog AisforAging.com)
You found in reading picture books,
that the older characters were often clichés of forgetfulness and frailty. Publishers
often wish for the protagonist of that genre to be a child solving a problem, how
do you suggest writers approach older characters?
I’m passionate about this topic. Thank you for asking Charlie.
So many picture books contain age
stereotypes like witchy, grumpy, lonely, sad, sick & forgetful. Often
heartwarming, empathetic picture books are entirely based on negative age
stereotypes. Naturally kids need to learn empathy, but much of what we think we
know about aging and older adults is myth and stereotypes.
Older adults are actually more
different from each other than children, due to life experience. And I’ve
learned that well regarded research shows age stereotypes harm us all,
beginning in childhood—our physical and cognitive health and longevity (Becca
Levy Ph.D. et al). In fact, the World Health Organization recently declared
ageism a global health threat.
In the same way we have a responsibility as writers to
research when writing of race, ethnicity or religion, we all have a responsibility to look beyond age stereotypes. It’s far
too easy to empower a child protagonist by reaching for a stereotypical problems
with an older character. My website “A is for Aging, B is for Books” has many examples
of picture books that depict aging in all its complexity, beauty and diversity.
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| On the ferry to Robben Island |
What’s next?
Another picture book based in South Africa is under
contract and awaiting an illustrator—I’m very excited for this one. I’m
currently revising a manuscript about stroke that has a rehabilitation focus.
And another that’s focused on age stereotypes of young and old.
One of my fantastic critique group members said
recently, “Lindsey, you write about such challenging topics!” I have to admit,
they’re not easy to get published either…I am still hoping to write a short and
simple story in this lifetime!
Please share any social media
platforms:
Please
find me on:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lindsey.mcdivitt.3?mibextid=LQQJ4d&mibextid=LQQJ4d
My website & blog http://www.lindseymcdivitt.com/
Guest posts by late blooming writers https://www.lindseymcdivitt.com/?s=late+bloomers
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mcdivittlindsey/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-mcdivitt-32907034/
BlueSky soon, I think…
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