Patricia Lee Gauch: Creating and Recreating the Picture Book

Patricia Lee Gauch is one amazing woman. 

Patti is not only a published author herself (Christina Katerina and the Box, Thunder at Gettysburg, andThe Knitting of Elizabeth Amelia), she has edited some of the finest writers in the business: Brian Jacques, T.A. Barron, Andrew Clements, Jane Yolen, Janet Lisle, Katherine Erkskine, and Barbara Joosse.

She's worked with artists Eric Carle, David Small, Ed Young, Loren Long. Three books she  edited have won Caldecott Medals: Owl Moon,Lon Po Po, and So You Want to Be President. (Stolen from Martha Brockenbrough's blog interview with Patti.)

Patti spent many years as the Executive Editor at Philomel Books from where she recently retired.

Lin says of Patricia Lee Gauch, "Patti has become one of the guiding lights for picture books of our times."

And personally, Patti is one of the most generous editors I've ever come across. 

As an editor, to notice a manuscript, it can not be merely adequate.

A picture book writer a storyteller. 

"I believe the stuff of story is right in you. It's in your gut. It's stored stuff."

"The child in you is crucial in writing a picture book."

"Don't live only in your head if you are going to write a picture book."

Mischief leads to attitude which leads to voice. 

“Let go to story!”