Elizabeth Spires, Chair of the Creative Writing Department at Goucher, recently published her fifth book, I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and his Stone Carvings.
The book is a collection of 23 free-verse poems written by Spires and inspired by the artistry of William Edmondson.
“I take children’s literature seriously,” says Spires of her recently published children’s book.
Edmondson was the first black artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
In the early 1930s, he began to create stone carvings after claiming he had heard God speak to him. Among his most prominent work is the sculpture of tombstones, Biblical figures, and animals.
For Spires, the inclusion of the pictures of Edmondson’s work was integral in the structure of the publication.
“I didn’t want it to be utterly factual,” she says. “I want to take it to another level of imagination.”
Spires thinks the relationship between poetry and artwork is reciprocal – the poetry makes the publication more than just a picture book, while the images make the poetry accessible to children.
The inclusion of the pictures is as a way to “pull the child in,” says Spires, who finds Edmondson’s visual presence in the book as important as the photographs of his carvings.
“Pictures establish him as a person,” she says.
Spires likes playing around with words and language herself, knowing that children reading the poems would also appreciate the interplay of words and pictures.
For Spires, this interplay was not only essential, but enjoyable: “It’s fun to write about art,” she says.
Spires had to do a lot of research while preparing for this collection, especially because there are not many existing biographies of Edmondson.
“It’s really exciting seeing this as a physical object,” Spires says, “especially because of the images.”
This is the first children’s book to be written about Edmondson, and Spires felt that young readers would respond well to his story.
“I really like his work,” she says. “It seemed like something children would like.”
Spires will have the unique opportunity to read her book at an art gallery in Tennessee that houses several of Edmondson’s original pieces, to which she feels “very connected.”
I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and his Stone Carvings is available at bookstores everywhere, including our own Barnes and Noble in Towson.
Goucher Professor Publishes Fifth Book
Published: Saturday, February 21, 2009
Updated: Monday, August 9, 2010 20:08
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