ABOUT RUTH GORING
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Ruth Goring’s picture book Isaiah and the Worry Pack, illustrated by Pamela C. Rice, released in November 2021 under the new imprint IVP Kids. Her author-illustrator debut, Picturing God, was published by Beaming Books (2019) and was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection.
Her first picture book, Adriana’s Angels / Los ángeles de Adriana, was released in English and Spanish editions in 2017 by Sparkhouse Family (Augsburg Fortress). A Chicago Tribune article about Adriana’s Angels came out that same year; a Chicago Public Radio (Worldview) interview about Adriana’s Angels and a Colombia trip can be heard here. The Spanish edition won a silver Moonbeam award.
Ruth’s poetry collections are Soap Is Political (Glass Lyre, 2015) and Yellow Doors (WordFarm, 2003). Her poems have also appeared in Calyx, RHINO, Crab Creek Review, Pilgrimage, Sin Fronteras, New Madrid, Iron Horse Literary Review, and elsewhere. Hear her 2015 Chicago Public Radio reading/interview
about Colombia and poetry here.After many years working as a senior manuscript editor at University of Chicago Press and teaching in the Graham School’s editing certificate program, Ruth now focuses her time on her own author-illustrator projects and occasional translation work.
ARTIST STATEMENT
- I believe that children respond to beauty, and books for them should be beautiful. My work is highly textured, inviting contemplation. There’s movement in it even when I use very solid materials (rocks, tiles, pieces of metal), but I have been struck by reports that toddlers will gaze at one of my spreads for a long time. I like to think that they’re not simply entranced by a fascinating object but somehow drawn into the delight, the love, with which the art was made.The materials I use for collage illustrations are sometimes quirky–not just pieces of tile and fabric but also bread-bag clips, vintage watch pieces, drinking straws, cereal boxes, and many other odd objects. I hope that children will get inspired to try their own funky art pieces with objects that might otherwise be thrown away.
