Where do I even begin to talk about the work produced by Lesa and James Ransome? As an author myself, I think of the process of writing and publishing books as a very slow one indeed.
Except when I look at Lesa and James.
I’m not supposed to compare myself, I know, I know. But they seem to produce a new book (or two, together and/or separately) every time I check in on them. And each book is great—a solid work of beauty. How the heck do they do that? I have been following them for years, and I finally reached out to ask them to be our guests for our March 10 salon, to see if they could shed some light on their remarkable productivity. They agreed! Below is just a taste of some of their inner workings, which we will be hearing more about in person:
Get Lit Beacon: You have written & illustrated a wide variety of books that have won many awards. Where do your very top ideas come from?
James Ransome: My ideas come from all around me—books, movies, what I’m interested in painting. I am constantly gathering ideas for books I’d like to create. I only wish I had more time to fully flesh out every one. I once grabbed a biography off my shelf on the life of Harriet Tubman before we took off for a trip. On the first page the writer listed the many lives and jobs Harriet Tubman had throughout her life.
In that moment I knew that we should create a book about it and our book, Before She was Harriet was born. Sometimes, the tricky part is not coming up with the idea, but finding someone to write it. More often than not, Lesa will pass on a project I really want to do because she is not interested and I may have to find another writer or shelve it for later.
Lesa Cline-Ransome: I let my interests guide my choice of topics, but the one subject that remains a constant is my desire to tell the many untold stories from the lives of African Americans. In particular, the stories of women who have persisted in the face of discrimination, prejudice and obstacles and how they found a way to overcome. My interest in sports led me to write biographies about the Negro League player Satchel Paige, soccer star Pele and cyclist Major Taylor. I am an aspiring rapper (if rapping in my car and kitchen counts), and a lover of music, which inspired me to write about musicians I love—Louis Armstrong, Teddy Wilson and Benny Goodman, Joseph Boulogne and the forthcoming book on Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone. My love of libraries was my inspiration for my very first middle grade novel, Finding Langston, about a young boy who finds refuge from bullies and solace from Langston Hughes’ poetry in the Chicago Public Library.
GLB: Do you ever feel like you want to branch out from writing for children? What are your fantasies regarding that? Or, if not, what are some future ideas?
JR: I am definitely interested in studio painting. I spend some time doing my own personal work for exhibits. And I love the idea of my work one day being featured in galleries and museums throughout the country. I would always want to do at least a book or two a year for the children’s market. I enjoy the challenge of telling a story with visual images. When I look back on my childhood, I have always loved books and the idea of combining art and words is, for me, one of the highest art forms.
LCR: While I am an avid reader of adult fiction, my heart is in writing stories for young people. Their curiosity, imagination and impulsiveness make them the perfect protagonists to write about and write for. I find it to be a rewarding challenge to tell stories in a condensed format, sorting through research to find only the most interesting parts of a person’s life and weaving together a story that is both informative and entertaining.
Award-winning author Lesa Cline-Ransome, whose work focuses on African-American history, has written numerous books for children that have garnered her top honors. Her latest, Finding Langston, won the Scott O’Dell Award for historical fiction.
As an illustrator, James Ransome’s work has appeared in over 60 books for children. His art has won Coretta Scott King and NAACP Image Awards, among others. He is on faculty at Syracuse University.
Nightcap Newburgh 