Sue Cowing
Annie Rogers
Sue Cowing grew up in Galesburg, Illinois, home of Carl Sandburg, but she now lives and writes in Honolulu. Her first love was poetry. She has published two books of poetry, Fire In the Sea: An Anthology of Poetry and Art, which she edited, and My Dog Has Flies: Poetry for Hawaii’s Kids, a collection of her own, humorous poems. She currently writes primarily children’s fiction and has published poems and stories in Cricket and Spider magazines. You Will Call Me Drog is her debut children’s novel.
Interview
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling
What’s your favorite line from a book?
So many! “When you have an unhappy childhood, it makes you disrespectful.” That’s Thomas speaking, from Guus Kuijer’s The Book of Everything. Kuijer made a whole world (and book) out of Thomas’s desire to be happy when he grows up.
Who are your top three favorite authors or illustrators?
Too hard to choose, so I’ll cheat: Philip Pullman, H. G. Wells, Katherine Patterson, Gary Schmidt, Chris Van Allsburg, Ted Kooser. . .
Why did you want to become an author or illustrator?
Since I knew I could only really be happy creating something, and since I loved books and stories and songs, loved to play with the sounds and textures and feelings of words, writing was a natural choice. Took me a while to make that choice, though.
Do you have any advice for future authors or illustrators?
Work hard every day, but don’t be in a rush to publish. Take years.
