Arts & Heritage

NOWW Presents the Art of Visual Storytelling: How Picture Books and Graphic Novels Are Co-created

Join award-winning, best-selling and internationally published creators of illustrated books for a presentation and conversation about how art works to tell a story. Authors Adrian Lysenko and Jean E. Pendziwol along with illustrators Todd Stewart and Olivia Amoah will reference their own work and experience to discuss how illustrators and writers collaborate, the role of publishers in the creative process and where graphic novels and picture books fit in today’s publishing market. Audience members are encouraged to bring questions for the panel.

​Books will be available to purchase at the event.

Panelists:

Jean E. Pendziwol – Writer

Jean E. Pendziwol is the author of books for adults and children, including the bestselling novel The Lightkeeper’s Daughters, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club selection and winner of the Northern Lit Award. Her children’s books include the Governor General Literary Award shortlisted Once Upon a Northern Night, the classic No Dragons for Tea: Fire Safety for Kids (and Dragons) and When I Listen to Silence. Her latest book Skating Wild on an Inland Sea (ill. Todd Stewart) was published by Groundwood Books in 2023. Her work has been translated and published in more than 20 countries around the world. She lives in Thunder Bay and finds inspiration in the beautiful natural environment of Lake Superior and Northwestern Ontario.

Adrian Lysenko – Writer

Adrian Lysenko is the author of Five Stalks of Grain, a graphic novel illustrated by Ivanka Theodosia Galadza that tells a story of tragedy and survival during the Holodomor, the terror-famine that claimed millions of lives in Soviet Ukraine. In his more than 10 years as a journalist, he’s worked in Ontario, Alaska, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. In 2021, Adrian won the Taras Shevchenko Foundation’s 2021 Emerging Writers Short Prose Competition. He’s currently on paternity leave from his duties as the editor of the arts and culture alternative The Walleye Magazine. Adrian lives outside Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Todd Stewart – Illustrator

Todd Stewart is a printmaker, filmmaker, author and illustrator based in Montreal. He co-manages Le Temple, a dedicated screen printing studio, since 2016. He wrote, illustrated and silkscreen printed the artwork for the children’s book Quand le vent souffle, published by Comme des Géants. The English version of the book, The Wind and the Trees (Owlkids), was nominated for the 2021 Governor General’s Literature Award. In 2022, he directed a short animated film version of The Wind and the Trees. His works on paper have been exhibited in Canada and around the world.

Olivia Amoah – Illustrator

Olivia Amoah is an illustrator born and raised in northern Ontario. She completed her studies at Sheridan College where she received a BFA in Animation and proceeded to work as an animator and designer for TV. In recent days, she also pursues a career in illustration — aiming to create humorous stories and illustrations, as well as work that serves as a connection to her African heritage. ​Her work includes the picture book Vanessa Nakate published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books and Here are the Seeds written by JaNay Brown-Wood and scheduled for publication with Kids Can Press in spring 2024.

Fore more info, please visit: https://www.nowwwriters.ca/workshops.html