it's hard to be queer in appalachia, and someone I care a lot about was arrested seemingly for walking home on rural roads while queer after losing his keys. He's trying to raise funds for his court costs. www.gofundme.com/f/5d3hr-help...

Please preorder my book from @loyaltybooks.bsky.social: loyaltybookstores.com/book/9780593...

Updated portfolio with one of the coolest projects I did: The Wild Seed Project's 2025 planting guide! I got to illustrate the cover, spots, and six spreads all featuring native plant communities. Altogether painted ~80 native species! → julianplum.com/the-wild-see... #kidlitart #sciart #gouache

Updated portfolio with one of the coolest projects I did: The Wild Seed Project's 2025 planting guide! I got to illustrate the cover, spots, and six spreads all featuring native plant communities. Altogether painted ~80 native species! → julianplum.com/the-wild-see... #kidlitart #sciart #gouache

here we go again, folks. it’ll take a lot of pressure on dems again to get them to fight! i’ll thread after i’m out of meetings, but if you’re raring to go, this is secs243-246 of the FY26 budget &, yes, this is basically the hyde amendment for trans care as predicted last fall. contact: reps.fyi

#kidlitpostcard day! I love color, animals and whimsy. Repped by Nicole at T2 @the_t2_agency. #illustration #kidlit #childrensbookillustration #procreateart #procreate #kidlitart #childrensbooks #illustrationforkids #picturebooks

Hey, the Unbound for Gaza fundraiser is here, starting September 25th. www.32auctions.com/unboundforga... The auction raises money for charities operating in Gaza. There are a LOT of super-cool items, many of which would be AMAZING holiday gifts for book nerds.

Hello, my local pals! If you're around this Friday from 5–8pm and live in or around Ithaca, NY, come out to the opening of my art show in the CAP ArtSpace on the Commons! It's my first-ever solo show, focused entirely on my picture book work, and there will be snacks. Also there will be art!

This was such a fun interview to do and I am so eternally grateful to @stephfc.bsky.social for what LMPB did for me!! Thank you for having me, Steph, now & when I was a nervous baby beginner! #kidlit #kidlitart

“You must be a friend,” said Corduroy, “I’ve always wanted a friend.” “Me too!” said Lisa, and gave him a big hug. #kidlit

It’s hard to overstate just how good Catia Chien’s work for this one is.

Let's give a shout out to the men & women who labor in the fields to put food on our tables. #WeFeedYou #LaborDay. Mandemosle un saludo a los hombres y mujeres que trabajan en el campo para poner comida en nuestras mesas. Thank you Ignacio Gomez for letting us use this art

I've set the hardest possible task for myself: to find a nice chill autumnal playlist that doesn't include tswift's music (she's fine! I just don't care about her!!!!)

The Botanists Had a lot of fun making this one

The garden is enjoying this languid August heat!! And so am I!!

feeling particularly excited & grateful today to be a trans person!! it is an existence that others are trying to make difficult and that does definitely get to me but like... I really like who I am now, and I like the unique perspectives that transness gives me.

nobody tells you when you become a professional illustrator how much is math and emails actually!!!

and--idk quite how to articulate this--but the work of it is... critical to art-making. like you discover your intentions through the labor of expressing them. if I'd woken up at 17 with the technical ability to write a novel, i wouldn't have known what i was trying to say. the work IS the product.

I finally moved my stuff off Substack, over to Buttondown!! Been meaning to do this forever and haven't been writing a word while I got myself together. Here is a little email to introduce folks from my last newsletter & if you all wanna check it out, you can, mostly I am just proud of myself!!

Hello #kidlitartpostcard ! I am Charlene Chua & I illustrate books for kids. 🌟Open for 2026 projects for PB, GN, board & chapter books🌟 Portfolio - charlenechua.com#kidlitartpostcardAgent - Tracy Marchini @bookendsliterary.bsky.social #kidlitart #kidlit #illustration #art

Hello #KidLitArtPostcard ☀️ I’m looking for picture book, chapter book, and covers! I love adding a creative flair to nonfiction/biographical work and stories with lots of fun and diverse characters! I’m rep’d by Christy Ewers at The CAT Agency 💌: [email protected] 💻: www.deandrahodge.com

Once again too deep in final art for book making to make a new postcard, so please accept this older one for #kidlitartpostcard day! still would LOVE a book about the sea!!

Got around to a #kidlitpostcard today! Hobgoblins and nasturtiums! Open to work! #illustration #kidlit #childrensbookillustration #procreateart #procreate #kidlitart #childrensbooks #illustrationforkids #picturebooks #graphicnovelart #middlegradebooks #kidlitpostcardday

The Parade - Gouache, 2024 An illustration I made for a sale at Gallery 9e Art, and ended up as their 2025 Ex-Libris :)

Today's the day! Happy book birthday to THE PINK PAJAMAS! Thank you to my editor Deeba Zargarpur for believing in the book! Thanks as well to excellent team at S&S and S&S Canada, and my agent Tracy Marchini @bookendsliterary.bsky.social ! #kidlit #kidlitart #booksky #edusky

Gaza Soup Kitchen, run by the Almadhoun family & their friends, sources ingredients from remaining farms, & buys supplies as soon as they hit the markets in order to provide hot meals for displaced families. Based in the north of Gaza, they feed around 3000 people daily. tinyurl.com/gazakitchn

as promised: witch's hat mushrooms, wood sorrel, eastern newt (red eft stage) // gouache on hot press paper . . . #art #sciart #gouache #traditionalart #kidlitart

my dr just now: so it seems that your blood pressure is quite high and your mental health is getting worse. have there been any big changes recently that— me: 🫠 then we both laughed a hollow sort of laugh. anyway it's shit for trans folks right now but I have to paint newts and things.

anybody, if you're willing to signal boost this i'd appreciate it ... if you're also a Brown alum who's trans and you're willing to speak with me for a story potentially, please email me via my site (linked in bio)

A lil collection of life photos recently 🩷 times is scary but there are sunsets and coneflowers

More than Meets the Eye🌱

It's official!! My debut illustrated picture book by the incomparable Marilyn Singer comes out Spring 2026 and I'm SO excited for y'all to see it!! The team at Lerner has been just incredible!

🌕🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟 // swallowtail shiners // gouache on hot press paper

We can't let this happen. Please fill out the FTC form. We have to be extremely proactive about this.

Pushing this again!! Stuff in Gaza is getting worse, any suport is appreciated.

just mentioning again: i'm teaching a workshop! like a real one! it's gonna be good, is my hunch! got announced yesterday and space is finite. www.theshipmanagency.com/classes/work... reposts/shares very appreciated, thank you!

Over in the Broad Street Review, I talked about ten local kid-lit authors folks should scoop up for their young readers. Like @alexlondon.bsky.social @erinentrada.bsky.social @farahnazrishi.bsky.social @dianawallachauthor.bsky.social and more! www.broadstreetreview.com/essays/disco...

Stop what you're doing and read this extraordinary essay by Rümeysa Öztürk: "I am free, but my true freedom is interlinked with the freedom of many women I lived alongside in ICE prison."

Tonight we got such a light show of lightning and brave fireflies flashing in the rain and it felt like magic ahhhh

I have this version of gay hubris that is new post-transition, which presents as: I think if the folks who just don't like trans people without having met one met me, they'd like me. I think I could change their hearts a little. This might be brash overconfidence or naive hope!! Who knows! 🧵

Been pretty heads down working on a picture book dummy, but managed to pull together something for #kidlitartpostcard! Here's a character study of my anxious possum son. Open to PB and book cover projects!! 🤠 www.reaganlehman.net 🐈‍⬛ Rep'd by @christiemegill.bsky.social, @thecatagency.bsky.social

It's #KidLitArtPostcard again! Here's some artwork from Choose Your Own Evolution Hi my name is Gordy. I'm an illustrator from Scotland painting in gouache, acrylic and inks 🎨 🌐 gordywright.com 📚 Rep’d by The Bright Agency #kidlitart #illustration #childrensbooks

It’s been a minute #kidlitartpostcard ! My name is Sydney Stone and I’m a #kidlit illustrator rep’d by @kellydhouse.bsky.social at @thetobiasagency.bsky.social Hire me to illustrate your next spooky or whimsical graphic novel, book cover, or chapter book! #kidlitart #middlegrade #youngadult

Meeting with my state assembly rep today to ask her to introduce some trans-protective legislation!! Thanks to @threnody.bsky.social for putting out the call and resources to do this. Truly doing the work, I hope this goes somewhere!!!

an article that hit me like a softly-pulled punch in the best way. it's about sandy's life and it's beautiful but there are so many threads here woven into my own life too. It's affirming all the reasons I am working in kidlit: I want to make things for the trans kids of today to do better by them.

If you want fireflies, you have to give them the environment they need to reproduce and live! Plant some taller grasses for them to use in the warmer months, leave the leaves in fall & winter for the larvae. Don't use chemicals in your yard. My backyard is a starry sky all summer. Yours can be too

This SCOTUS decision is going to have a hundred knock-on effects that I can't predict but I am going to say this: I was a queer, trans kid. I had accepting parents but I grew up at a time when it was still normal to object to queerness being talked about or shown in any way. 🧵

🐸🪷🌿🌊 / The Fool / gouache on hot press paper Things have been so wild that I've missed posting about this! This painting lives at Valkarie Gallery as part of a group show Arcana: Painting the Fates with so much amazing work! If you're in Denver go check it out! #art #illustration #tarot

Turtle guy now has a shell! Not gonna lie, I'm ridiculously proud of this part