Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Career Highs and Lows

David Small started his career as a writer and illustrator for children’s books. After working at Yale teaching drawing and printer making, he lost his job due to cutbacks in the 1980s (David Small). This brought on difficulty with his first work, Eulalle and the Hopping Head. It took rejections for a month during the winter season, finally being published in 1981 (David Small). He continued his writing in addition to working for national magazines and newspapers where he had his drawings appear in The New Yorker and The New York Times (David Small).


A big career high for David Small was being nominated for the National Book Award for Stitches in 2009. Below is a video of David discussing what the honour meant for him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWFz4UJAoQA




















“David Small.” DavidSmallBooks. Web. October 2015.

1 comment:

  1. It's very unfortunate to have read that he lost his job. From the work he has capable of, I am sure that he had much to offer his students. After teaching for years, it's hard to find a sense of purpose afterwards and when you finally find one, to face so much rejection from publishers can bring bouts of depression. It is great to see that he overcame these obstacles and found success doing what he loves to do and share his gift with the world. This is an article about Stephanie Holtey, who has a similar story to Davids. She is also a former teacher and she suffered from depression. She ended up turning her life around by following her passion for art: http://www.bradenton.com/news/business/small-business/article37852047.html

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