Janet Frame Memorial Lecture 2014
Gavin Bishop
The mouth of the whale (the power of pictures)
Gavin Bishop is the 2013-2014 President of Honour of
the New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA). On Monday 10 March, he delivered the
annual Janet Frame Memorial Lecture, a literary “state of the nation” address.
This year, for the first time,
the Janet Frame Memorial Lecture was included as part of the Writers
Week programme, which also featured some wonderful talks and workshops with
children’s and young adult writers, illustrators and designers such as Jack
Lasenby, Ulf Stark, Leo Timmers, Elizabeth Knox and Aleksandra and Daniel
Mizielinsky.
Gavin’s talk was
entertaining, evocative and provocative, right from the beginning when he
commented that his appointment as NZSA President of Honour was “daringly different” because writers for
children aren’t always taken as seriously as others in the literary world. He spoke in praise of picture books, but was
clear about the challenges faced by those who write and illustrate them.
Many people
think they know what a picture book is, but opinions vary widely. To Gavin, a
picture book is like a little movie with a storyboard structure that moves
through time (as a movie does) and uses text as a movie uses dialogue. He traces
his lifelong love of movies back to the time when his parents took him, aged
four, to see Pinocchio at the Picture
Palace in Invercargill. One image from that movie - the gigantic open mouth of
the whale - lodged in his mind and he has never forgotten it. The whale’s open
mouth became a touchstone in his life, a reminder of the power of a picture to
stay with children forever.
Gavin holds firm
views about picture books, in terms of both content and publication. His own pictures
have to “work hard”; they should provide “fresh new ways of seeing the
ordinary” and the finished book should be “a delight to the senses.” He believes
that the best picture books are produced by one person, and decries poor
production values that leave many books looking like “shadows of their
potential selves”. Even if children are amused by bodily functions and catchy
tunes, he queries the need to preserve such topics in print.
Picture book
illustrators face particular challenges. Their work is often viewed as being of
lesser importance. Illustrators are commonly given second billing and are not
mentioned at all in the weekly best seller lists. The royalty split between
author and illustrator is usually 50:50, which Gavin feels doesn’t reflect the
hard work put in by the illustrator. Up until 2004, books of fewer than 48
pages (ie most picture books) didn’t meet the criteria for the Public Lending
Right. Picture book writers are seldom successful in obtaining Creative NZ
funding, applying for residencies or winning major literary awards.
But there are
signs of a more hopeful future. Today’s picture book illustrators are producing
some amazing work, and there is more support available in the form of tuition
and awards, including the LIANZA Russell Clark Illustration Award, the
Mallinson Rendel Illustration Award and the Storylines Joy Cowley Award and
Gavin Bishop Award. Gavin’s ending was hopeful and optimistic: “I can see the
sky above picture book land full of fireworks and sky rockets… The Mouth of the
Whale forever open to astonishment and delight.”
Question time
afterwards gave the audience some sense of Gavin’s generosity in mentoring and
sharing his experience, as he offered advice and explained some of his working
methods.
There was more
discussion about the idea of a Children’s Laureate, who could who not only
raise the profile of children’s writing and illustrating but also focus on
literacy issues and the importance of reading. Gavin said that there was a lot
of support for the idea here and all that was needed was money. The Australian Children’s Laureate scheme only began a few years ago but already much has been
achieved there, and other countries such as England and Ireland also
have a high-profile Children’s Laureate.
You can see Gavin Bishop’s wonderful website here, or listen to several interviews with him on
Radio New Zealand, including You Call This Art? - Part 6.
