Lisa Jahn-Clough is the author and illustrator of picture books and the author of young adult novels, a series of early-reader comic books, and young chapter books. Her first book Alicia Has a Bad Day was published in 1994 and is still in print! Her most recent publication is The Kids Of Cattywampus Street, a collection of surreal stories for early chapter book readers. It is an Amazon Editor’s pick and has been hailed as “so extraordinary it will make you lose your mind” by Lemony Snicket.
Lisa’s work has won awards from Child Magazine, Parent's Choice, Bank Street, Raising Readers, Entertainment Weekly, and YALSA. She earned a BA from Hampshire College and an MFA from Emerson College and has been writing, illustrating, and teaching for the last twenty-five years. She is a tenured professor at Rowan University in southern New Jersey and every summer heads to an island in Maine where she runs a small art gallery and a low-key gift and card publishing company.
| How did you come to teach at Hamline MFAC? I’ve been in the field for over 25 years and have been teaching for just as long. I was familiar with the low-residency program having taught at one before and really loved that way of working with students. I knew several of the faculty who started at Hamline in the first residency and soon after, when there was an opening, I applied and began that second residency, summer 2008. After a few years, I had to take some time off for other things, but I returned to Hamline in 2017 because I missed it so. |
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| What’s your favorite part of residency? What I love about residency is the delightful and complex, often profound, jumble of creative ideas that bounce around between a group of supportive writers who converge on campus for twelve days with nobody to tell them to stop talking about these creative ideas. In fact, the talking, and even the jumbling, is encouraged. It all makes the mind and the heart swirl around in profound and unexpected ways. What a gift! |
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| How would you describe your faculty advising style? I ask questions and make suggestions that I believe are relevant to the work. I listen to answers and then ask more questions and make more suggestions based on our conversations. Similar to what happens at residency, we bounce ideas around, but now it is much deeper since it relates to a specific project and the writers’ personal goals. All this leads to new discoveries—and probably new questions—over the course of several months. Oh, and I also ask students to commit to a short monthly assignment to engage in some form of creative activity that is NOT writing in order to help them return to their writing with new understanding or even a new experimental process. |
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| What’s your favorite book to recommend to MFAC students? Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud covers so much about writing, narrative, and creative expression. It is much more than a text about comics and can really expand one’s thoughts about being part of the creative world. |
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We asked you to send a photo that represents a favorite Hamline memory. What's happening in your photo? This is a recent photo of MFAC alum Karuna Riazi and myself at Books Of Wonder in Manhattan for the launch of Karuna’s newest middle-grade novel, A Bit of Earth. This is a stunning middle-grade novel of prose and verse that reimagines The Secret Garden. I worked with Karuna in her first semester when she experimented with writing picture books. So many Hamline students are sponges, soaking up information and trying new things, and Karuna was incredibly receptive to everything. We had inspiring conversations and she, like many excellent students, pushed me to teach to her needs the best I can. It is such a delight when I get a chance to meet up with students, current or former, “in the wild” and we continue a lasting rapport. I get to watch that creativity continue. |
Nothing but Blue
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013
- "With tight pacing, motley characters, and touches of the spiritual, this is a furious, illuminating adventure." –Booklist
Other YA
- Me, Penelope
Clarion Books, 2007
Middle grade
The Kids of Cattywampus Street (short stories)
Penguin/Random House/Anne Schwartz Books, 2021
- “An extraordinary book.” --Lemony Snicket, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events
- “If you are looking for stories that are odd or mysterious or happy or sad or just plain weird, you should get over to Cattywampus Street. Right now!” —Jon Scieszka, author of the Time Warp Trio books
- “You won't know what's coming at you in these stories, but you will know that you’re with a master storyteller who is going to take you on a remarkable ride—so hold on tight!” —Gary D. Schmidt, author of Newbery Honor Book The Wednesday Wars
Other middle grade
- Country Girl, City Girl
Clarion Books, 2009
Early reader
Petal and Poppy
(illustrated by Ed Briant) Clarion Books, 2014
- "The simple story with clear, bright art demonstrates that friends do not always need to agree and bobs along as buoyantly as sun across the water...A blithe and breezy charmer." —Kirkus Reviews
- "...a heartwarming story of how unexpected courage, kindness, and compromise can strengthen friendships. New readers will look forward to more adventures from Petal and Poppy." —Booklist
Other early reader
- Petal and Poppy and the Spooky Halloween (illustrated by Ed Briant)
Clarion Books, 2014 - Petal and Poppy and the Penguin (illustrated by Ed Briant)
Clarion Books, 2014
Picture books
Alicia has a Bad Day
Clarion Books, 2002
- Best seller
- "Deliberately childlike paintings put a comic edge on a terrible, rotten, very bad day. Those of, shall we say, artistic temperaments may find a kindred spirit in this debut book’s scowling narrator." —Publisher's Weekly
Other picture books
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Felicity and Cordelia: A Tale of Two Bunnies
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011 -
Simon and Molly plus Hester
Houghton Mifflin / Walter Lorraine Books, 2009 -
Little Dog
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / Walter Lorraine Books, 2006 -
My Friend and I
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003 -
On the Hill
Houghton Mifflin / Walter Lorraine Books, 2004 -
Alicia's Best Friends
Houghton Mifflin / Walter Lorraine Books, 2003 -
Missing Molly
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000 -
123 Yippie
Houghton Mifflin / Walter Lorraine Books, 1998 -
ABC Yummy
Houghton Mifflin / Walter Lorraine Books, 1997