Monday, February 3, 2025

Q&A with Carole Boston Weatherford


 

 

Carole Boston Weatherford is the author of the new children's picture book Whirligigs: The Wondrous Windmills of Vollis Simpson's Imagination. Weatherford's many other books include Unspeakable. She is a retired English professor, and she lives in Maryland.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Whirligigs, and how did you learn about the folk artist Vollis Simpson (1919-2013)?

 

A: I’ve been into folk art for years. I’ve written adult poetry about several folk artists. I had seen Simpson’s name in gallery circles, but was not aware of his work until after he passed away in 2013.

 

Q: What do you think Edwin Fotheringham's illustrations add to the book?

 

A: I love Edwin’s art for Whirligigs. It’s detailed yet whimsical. And the colors: Wow!

 

Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book says, “Offering an opportunity to appreciate the boundlessness of human creativity, [Whirligigs] is a story about a figure who refused to call himself an artist, saying what mattered most was to ‘wake up every day and have to do something with my hands.’” What do you think of that description, and what do you think the book says about the role of an artist?

 

A: What separates the creators from dreamers is action—the act of creating. Anyone can dream of creating something but artists act on the impulse. Artists produce.

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the story?

 

A: I hope that the nexus of art and science in Simpson’s story and art will spark young readers’ curiosity and creativity and will inspire some to invent their own contraptions. 

 

Q: What are you working on now? 

 

A: I am writing more STEAM manuscripts and trying to develop an early readers series.

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: Rap It Up!, my first authorial collaboration with my son, illustrator Jeffery Boston Weatherford, debuts in March.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Carole Boston Weatherford.


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