Jordan Scott is a poet and children’s author. His debut children’s book, I Talk Like a River (illustrated by Sydney Smith), was a New York Times best Children’s Book of 2020. I Talk Like a River is translated into nineteen languages and was the recipient of the American Library Association’s, Schneider Family Book Award, which honors authors for the artistic expression of the disability experience. I Talk Like a River has won numerous international awards and was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Prize for Young People’s Literature. Scott is also the author of four books of poetry and the recipient of the Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize, given to a mid-career poet in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian poetry.
Hi Jordan! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions—we’re so excited to have you! You’ve authored four books of poetry and two books for children, with I Talk Like a River being the recipient of numerous awards, including the Schneider Family Book Award. What drew you to writing for children?
Initially I was drawn to the picture book genre because it shares so much aesthetically and structurally with poetry. I was drawn to the use of white space, line breaks, sound, fragments, and the conciseness of poetic devices within such a minimal space. I became even more drawn to the genre when my first son was born. I think was because I started reading picture books again (so many picture books) and found myself accessing both nostalgia for the books I had read as a child and a renewed love for childhood reverie and imagination.
In your most recent children’s book, My Baba’s Garden, I was captivated by your imagery and narrative voice. At times, it almost felt as though I was reading poetry. Can you tell us about the writing process for My Baba’s Garden and how it differed or resembled your writing process for poetry?
My poetic process doesn’t differ very much from how I compose picture books in terms of imagery and sound. However, unlike my poetic practice, I spend a great deal of time on narrative and voice when I’m writing picture books. This took me some time to get used to as I’m usually writing poetry that doesn’t concern itself with these elements of craft. To be honest, I try to inhabit the narrative voice of my kids when I write. I pay attention to their tone, cadence, and the way they tell stories and then try to mimic that in my books. Obviously, I’m blending their voices with how I imagine my childhood, but I think there’s a lot of interesting things that happen in this confluence. The whole process is like some kind of unconscious collaboration.
Both My Baba’s Garden and I Talk Like a River are beautiful reflections on communication—in My Baba’s Garden, the narrator and his grandmother communicate without words, and in I Talk Like a River, the narrator learns to embrace his stutter. What draws you to this theme, and what do you hope readers take away from your work?
As a person who stutters, these themes are (and always will be) integral to my work. Stuttering teaches the vastness of communication by ‘taking away’ the smoothness of speech. In both books I’m trying to express the potentialities of silence, touch, food, water and gardening, as non-verbal instances of communication and bonding.
If you could give one piece of advice to emerging writers trying to navigate the publishing industry, what would it be?
Understand the workings and market pressures of your genre. Talk to other writers who have published in your genre and ask them specific questions about agents, query letters, editors, presses and so on. If they are willing, ask to see their query letters from when they first started out. Don’t be shy to ask these writers for introductions to editors or agents. This is fairly common, and I find (and hope!) that everyone, no matter how well known, remembers how they first started.
Who are some other children’s book authors you’ve been inspired by lately?
Sydney Smith, Zahara Marwan, Leila Boukarim.
For extra content, our managing editor chatted with Jordan over on your YouTube Channel!
YOUNG ADULTING 