Catching and keeping up with Gary Schmidt
Inspiration for Gary Schmidt鈥檚 books comes from many places. Most recently, it came from the Smithsonian鈥檚 list of the 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time.
One of those immensely influential people, Sojourner Truth, caught Schmidt鈥檚 attention because of her Michigan connection. Sojourner Truth settled in Battle Creek in 1857; she lived there until her death in 1883.
Schmidt, the Calvin English professor and award-winning author, tells the life story of the African-American abolitionist and women鈥檚 rights activist in the forthcoming children鈥檚 picture book: So Tall Within, A Story of Sojourner Truth (Roaring Book Press, 2018). The book is edited by Calvin alum Katherine Jacobs 鈥02, a former student of Schmidt鈥檚.
鈥淭here are a number of picture books about her,鈥 said Schmidt, 鈥渂ut I don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 a limit to the number of books that are out there making known these important people.鈥
The book鈥檚 title, So Tall Within, is Truth鈥檚 own words describing how she felt fighting for the rights of her son, who had been illegally sold across state lines.
鈥淪uch guts,鈥 said Schmidt, 鈥渁 former slave fighting for the rights of her child in an all white male court. And she wins the case!鈥
Schmidt is also completing a children鈥檚 biography on Celia Thaxter, Celia Planted a Garden (co-authored by Phyllis Root), which was begun by his late wife, Anne.
Thaxter grew up in the Isles of Shoals, off the coast of New Hampshire, as a lighthouse keeper鈥檚 daughter. There, on a rock with the tiniest bit of soil and rainwater, she grows a beautiful garden.
鈥淢y wife loved that story,鈥 said Schmidt, 鈥渂ut she never got to tell it.鈥
In addition to these biographies, Schmidt has other projects in the works, including an upcoming novel, Carter Jones and the Butler (working title, Clarion Books, 2019). This middle-grades novel began with an image Schmidt had of the first day of sixth grade.
鈥淚t began with all of the chaos of the first day of school and then it鈥檚 raining and the car won鈥檛 start,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one of those really stressful days when everything goes wrong.鈥
And suddenly a butler shows up. 鈥淭he image in my head is so incongruous,鈥 said Schmidt. 鈥淎nd there are so many questions: Where did he come from? Why is he here? What鈥檚 the relationship?鈥
Any novel has to begin as a really good story, said Schmidt. 鈥淭here are books out there by Christian publishers that are a sermon in disguise,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 hated those books as a kid.鈥
Books like this one are stories about 鈥渙ur real world鈥攁nd our real world is broken,鈥 said Schmidt. 鈥淕iven that, how do I now live? Any novel has to deal with that.鈥
Schmidt鈥檚 writing career, while prolific, serves to inform his teaching, he said. 鈥淚 teach writing, and it feels more authentic to me to talk about the craft of writing, knowing that I鈥檓 doing it myself.
鈥淚 want my writing students to leave my classes hungry鈥攁nd not just hungry to put their work into manila folders,鈥 he said, 鈥渂ut to send it out into the world.鈥