New Book (for Grown Ups!)

In spring 2018, Phyllis’ first grown-up book will come out, Searching for Minnesota’s Native Wildflowers,  A Guide for Beginners, Botanists, and Everyone in Between. Published by the University of Minnesota Press, it’s a collaboration with a photographer friend...

BLOG: Thinking with our Hands

Once, when I was completely stuck on a manuscript that was collapsing under its own cumulative weight an editor said, “Maybe this story wants to be a manipulative book.” She was suggesting an interactive picture book, one with, say, flaps to lift or pop-ups or...

BLOG: Report from the Desktop #1

I love words.  I love the way they sound, the way they roll together in rhythms gentle or jaunty, the way they reach across silence and connect us. (When I was small I decided to make up my own language with my own invented words, but  because I couldn’t remember what...

Lost Forest, forthcoming Spring 2019

In spring 2019,  Lost Forest, with art by Betsy Bowen, will come out from the University of Minnesota Press. This picture book tells the story of how a piece of Minnesota’s virgin forests was mis-surveyed as a lake in 1882 and so was never logged. If you are ever...