{"id":1442,"date":"2008-09-22T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2008-09-22T06:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1442"},"modified":"2008-09-22T19:35:46","modified_gmt":"2008-09-23T01:35:46","slug":"seven-questions-over-breakfast-with-elisha-cooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1442","title":{"rendered":"Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Elisha Cooper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elisha Cooper<\/strong><\/a> may say below that he’s not so sweet—and doesn’t necessarily believe children’s books should be either—but he was<\/em> a joy to interview for many reasons, not the least of which being Eisha and I have always been fans of his picture books. To be sure, he’s written books for the non-child set as well (though I think Eisha and I would both argue his picture books are, indeed, for all ages), including his memoir of parenthood, Crawling<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (Pantheon, 2006), which the Chicago Tribune<\/em> called “hilarious and beautiful” and The New York Times<\/em> described as “bravely honest”; 1995’s “Valentine to the city” of New York, A Year in New York<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (City & Company, 1995) as well as California: A Sketchbook<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Chronicle Books, 2000) and 1996’s cross-country road trip, Off the Road<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (Villard Books\/Random House, 1996); and the personal essays<\/strong><\/a> he’s written for publications such as The Morning News<\/em> (“The Dream Vacation”<\/strong><\/a> and “The Bear”<\/strong><\/a>), Runner’s World<\/em> (“Running with Purpose”<\/strong><\/a>), and Publishers Weekly<\/em> (his recent “About the Author,”<\/strong><\/a> in which he discusses the agonies of writing one’s own back-flap bio). <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And, as of recent, there’s also Elisha’s ridiculous\/hilarious\/
terrible\/cool: A Year in an American High School<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (Dial, March 2008), in which he documents the year he spent hanging out at Walter Payton High, a magnet high school in Chicago—listening, watching, questioning, and sketching the students. Following eight students on the verge of life-after-high-school, in a book the publisher calls “part documentary, part soap opera, part sketchbook,” Elisha tells their particular stories, while managing to touch upon the universal truths of high school students in today’s world. Publisher’s Weekly<\/em> wrote, “{t}he school milieu is sharply and wittily evoked in deadpan transcriptions of anonymous conversations and descriptions of ordinary events…the considerable strengths of the work come from Cooper’s genius for observation and confident refusal to dramatize what he finds.” And, as the Chicago Sun-Times<\/em> put it, this book allows readers to be that fly on the way most of us have wished we could be, “a silent, virtually invisible observer to worlds we normally have no access to. This is the role author Elisha Cooper plays in {this} wonder of a book…” <\/p>\n

\"IllustrationAnd, since I completely and entirely intended to tack on some additional questions for Elisha about this book yet I completely and entirely FORGOT, I’m going to send you over to the interview Colleen Mondor did with him<\/strong><\/a> at Chasing Ray<\/em> in May, in which he talks all about the creation of this book. Even though I meant to ask him about this book, Colleen, thankfully, covers it all over there anyway. <\/p>\n

We can understand, as Elisha describes in the afore-mentioned Publishers Weekly<\/em> essay<\/strong><\/a>, how the bragging about oneself, which is necessary for an author’s note, would be awkward. So, we’ll do it for him. Here’s what we love about his picture books: His lovely, loose, and warm impressionistic watercolors, seemingly carefree yet possessing an understated elegance and an uncluttered sophistication; his observational skills (have you seen<\/em> 2005’s A Good Night Walk<\/strong><\/em><\/a>? Ah, perfection) and how they bring to vivid life the particular tone and setting of each of his books; and his inimitable style. Perhaps The New York Times Book Review<\/em> put it most succinctly in their review of Magic Thinks Big<\/strong><\/em><\/a>: “Elisha Cooper’s watercolors, like his sentences, are simple and quiet and essentially perfect.” <\/p>\n


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Spread from <\/em>A Good Night Walk<\/strong><\/a>; Orchard Books; 2005<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

We thank Elisha for joining us for breakfast this morning to discuss his work over coffee. Or, rather, “an espresso, which ideally I have not burned. And a blueberry scone from the Cheeseboard, in Berkeley, where I no longer live.”<\/font> Espresso. Excellent. We can so easily do that. <\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/font><\/center><\/p>\n

7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Are you an illustrator or author\/illustrator?<\/font><\/p>\n

Elisha<\/font><\/strong>: Author.<\/p>\n

7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Can you list your books-to-date?<\/font><\/p>\n

Elisha<\/font><\/strong>: <\/p>\n