Patrice Gopo is the child of Jamaican immigrants and was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. As a child, she loved twirling a globe, dreaming about cities and states, countries and continents. As an adult, she loves words and enjoys pondering how places shape the people we become. She is the award-winning author of essay collections and picture books, including Ripening Time, All the Places We Call Home, and the forthcoming Beyond Alaska’s Window. When she’s not writing, Patrice hosts the podcast Picture Books Are for Grown-Ups, Too! because she believes in the power of stories to help build connections between people. Patrice lives with her family in North Carolina, where she enjoys walks just after dawn and thinks a perfect day ends with ice cream. Please visit www.patricegopo.com to learn more.
-
THE JOURNEY:
In 2009, I had just married my Zimbabwean husband and moved to South Africa. Without a work visa, I was unable to work in my field, nonprofit management/public policy. It was in this space of constraints, while also pregnant with my first child, that I first found writing. As I began building a life in a different country, I kept thinking about my parents’ journey from Jamaica to Alaska, the place where I was born and raised.
I found myself pondering more and more how growing up in Alaska as the Black American daughter of immigrants shaped me. An urgency grew within me to write these many pieces of my story and my family’s story. And the personal essay form became my initial entry point into this writing life.
A decade later, in 2019, I was rereading the essay “Before” in my first essay collection, All the Colors We Will See. That essay is about a moment when I was placing my daughter down for a nap in rural Zimbabwe, and I remembered a nap I had once taken as a small child in rural Jamaica. As I reread, this thought alighted me: “This could be a picture book.” That was the beginning of steeping myself in learning the art and craft of writing picture books. Eventually, that sliver of thought emerged as my debut picture book, All the Places We Call Home.
-
THE INSPIRATION:
Whether writing essays or picture books, I draw deeply from the well of my family stories and personal experiences. I also take inspiration from my previously written essays (as I shared above regarding the origins of All the Places We Call Home). In the case of Ripening Time, there is an essay in my first essay collection where I mention how my sister and I would wait for plantains to ripen. That handful of sentences served as a starting place for me. As I crafted this narrative of anxious waiting for plantains to ripen, I drew on all the emotions I felt as the child of Jamaican immigrants living in Alaska. Growing up in Alaska, plantains were a longed-for, rare treat. Finally tasting those sweet, ripe plantains was a celebration!
Ultimately, as with so many other creators, I seek to tell stories that I wish the child version of myself once had—in my case, stories that feature families like mine, people with connections to multiple parts of the world, people creating lives in places where many don’t necessarily think of finding Black people.
-
THE PROCESS:
The writing process is a beautiful combination of generating words and revising those words. However, the most challenging part of my writing process is generating the initial words that will ultimately lead to the final story. The blank page scares me a bit, so I have to trick myself into not having to face it. I do this by writing story fragments—on my phone, in a notebook, on the back of a receipt. Then I eventually compile all those fragments into a messy first draft. Once I have a draft, I’m in my favorite place: being able to revise what I’ve written.
-
THE BUZZ:
In addition to receiving a Publishers Weekly Starred Review, Ripening Time was the recipient of a North Carolina Book Award: the AAUWNC award for Children’s Literature. This honor means so much to me since North Carolina has been a place that has helped develop my literary life. It truly is another place I call home.
Under the Radar:
So many incredible creators!! Just a few . . .
Fabienne Doucet, author of Love Is Still Winning/ El Amor Siempre Triunfa
Melquea Smith, illustrator of The Time Machine and The Biggest Gift of All
Janelle Harper, author of My Block Looks Like and Salon Saturday
Shannon Gibney, author of We Miss You, George Floyd and the forthcoming Where Is My Sister?
Adrea Theodore, author of I Would Love You Still
I also host the podcast Picture Books Are for Grown-Ups, Too! Check out past episodes for some other amazing Black children’s book authors & illustrators.
Instagram: @patricegopo
Facebook: @patricegopowrites
Thank you so much, Patrice. Looking forward to more of your work for all ages!