VerseShow Archive: Pivot and Diversify with Joyce Wan

This week's episode is a re-air of my 2019 conversation with illustrator and author Joyce Wan!

If you’ve never listened to this episode, it’s a good one. In preparing to rerun it, I rediscovered it. A lot of things went through my head during this relisten. First, a rare glimpse at being completely happy with my creative work. This is a really good conversation and I’m glad of the chance to re-air it.

Two, Joyce has a holistic perspective that we don’t always get to experience. Partially informed by my ignorance into the kidlit world and what it means to be published, I think we manage to go broad and dig deep into aspects of doing

It bears ending on a recognition that we’ve touched on in other conversations, which underpins almost every aspect of this chat with Joyce: children’s books are creativity and a way to reach hearts and build up minds, but they’re also a commodity. Facing that aspect of the business of kidlit can help prepare us for the realities that we’re engaging in an industry that relies on marketability and salability. And we ourselves as creators are commodities as well, in a really important sense.

I really enjoyed relistening to Joyce’s perspective on her career – enjoy Joyce’s verse!