Reverse-Engineering a Picture Book with Michelle Lin

In picture books with separate authors and illustrators, the author writes the text first, and the illustrator decides what to bring to life visually. Many beginning writers make the mistake of including too much text, leaving little to the illustrator’s imagination. This lecture explores the interplay between words and pictures in successful children’s books. Attendees will also be presented illustrations, from which they will be asked to write accompanying text. The goal of this "reverse-engineering" lecture and the exercises is to help budding authors become more familiar with picture book text, what can be expressed in writing, and what can be left to the illustration.

Michelle Lin is an illustrator with a background in molecular biology, English Literature and law. She works primarily in cut-paper collage and colored pencil. Prior to jumping into the children's book illustration world, she worked as a greeting card illustrator for ten years. When she's not illustrating, she's curating products for The Rad Dad Box, a subscription box service for dads and their children, or moonlighting as a substitute teacher. Her illustrator debut, “The Bird I Became” by ornithologist J. Drew Lanham, will be published by Enchanted Lion Books in 2027. Her author-illustrator debut, tentatively titled “All I Want for Christmas is a Gingerbread House” will be published by Familius in 2028.

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