![]() It was, as I recall, art director Nanette Stevenson who put out the call to agent Libby Ford, who responded that she had a young talented African American artist whose work she wanted us to see. ![]() If I wanted to publish Grandpa’s Face, a story about a young hero of color, she wanted an African American artist to illustrate it.Īrtists of color like Tom Feelings and Jerry Pinckney had already begun publishing prominently, but, green as grass, I really had no pool of artists to choose from. There were too few books that told the truth about African Americans, she felt. I loved it!Įloise Greenfield was at the vanguard of children’s literature at that time. Another windfall? In a stack of manuscripts that had been sent originally to my predecessor, the distinguished editor Ann Beneduce, was one from African American poet and author Eloise Greenfield, a picture book manuscript called Grandpa’s Face. Now I had to make books rather than write them. I was a writer and teacher, but in 1986, in a windfall, I was offered the editor-in-chief position at Philomel Books. ![]() A young, talented Floyd Cooper arrived in my life at a serendipitous time. ![]()
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