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Open Letter to readers re: bonebag
The image came to me more than fifteen years ago: A boy living in a forest in a ramshackle cottage. His only companions? His strange and unloving parents. He has never seen another human being. Without too much thought, I knew this was a loosely disguised analog of my own childhood. I also knew it was a starting point for a much larger story, one that went far beyond the details of my life. I understood, too, it was a story beyond my own ability to tell. If the narrative w
David Elliott
Feb 82 min read


The Dung Beatle and Me
In March of this year, Candlewick Press released In the Desert , the penultimate in a series of ten lavishly illustrated poetry picture books focusing on the world of animals. By the time the last book is on the shelves, I will have published somewhere around 150 short poems about the creatures with whom we share the planet. Animals. I live in rural New Hampshire. Last spring, a black bear strolled across our yard as if he owned the place. (And us!) One early autumn morning a
David Elliott
Jan 265 min read


ON On the Wing
In the past week alone, the New York Times has run three stories about birds and birders. A participant on a recent trip where I was...
David Elliott
Sep 1, 20233 min read


A Brief tribute to Holly Meade
I can’t say we were close friends, or even that I knew her well. Though we collaborated on three books, we met just twice. The first was...
David Elliott
Aug 25, 20232 min read


ON In the Sea
Some books are are more challenging for the writer than others. For me, In the Sea, the third book in the Candlewick poetry series, was...
David Elliott
Aug 18, 20233 min read


ON In the Wild
Every book teaches the writer something. Or it should. This second book in the series taught me two things. The first was how little I...
David Elliott
Aug 11, 20233 min read


ON On the farm
It started when a friend ran into some undeserved financial trouble and a bunch of authors and illustrators – none of whom are strangers...
David Elliott
Aug 4, 20233 min read


WHAT DOES IT MATTER?
Believe it or not, this is a portrait of a saint. Saint Michael, in fact. It's by the Italian Baroque artist Cesare Dandini (1596-1657)....
David Elliott
May 17, 20203 min read
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