Not Quite a Preview from the Book!
“We write, first and foremost, because we have something we want to share with the world.”
That’s a line from Our Endless and Proper Work, the book based on this newsletter that Belt Publishing will be releasing in early June (and which you can preorder from an independent bookshop by clicking on that link). The artwork is by Emm Roy; longtime readers of “Destroy Your Safe and Happy Lives” might recognize the style from previous times she’s let me use illustrations she’s shared on Instagram and Twitter.
Because I’ve been such a fan of hers for such a long time, though, I reached out several months ago and asked Emm if I could commission some original illustrations for my book. She wanted to read it first, to see what she might be getting herself into, and she ended up becoming an impromptu sensitivity reader, making several suggestions that I believe make for a better book, one that better approaches the level of inclusivity I had striven for in the writing.
So, once she was on board, she sent me the illustration above as a sample—and this axolotl perfectly represents the playful and pragmatically optimistic creatures that populate her drawings. Ultimately, though, I found myself wanting something closer to other things I’d seen her draw in 2020… something a little less anthropomorphic, a little more naturalistic.
She came back with four wonderful full-page illustrations, and I think you’re going to love how they fit in alongside the words once you see them. In fact, when my editor at Belt sent me the first round of proofs from the typeset book, with Emm’s drawings included, I was delighted that he mentioned there could be room for a few more pieces as well. I saw exactly where I would put them if I had the opportunity, so I asked, and Emm said yes! I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.
As I say, this is not quite a preview: What you’ll see this summer is very much like the artwork above, but not exactly like it. It’s not a question of better, because I really love Emm’s cartoony style; it was simply a matter of finding the right style for the book.
If you’d like to see more of Emm’s art, that link above goes to her Instagram page, but you can also support her on Patreon for as little as $1 a month (though, personally, I suggest you splurge on the $5 level). I say I find her message “pragmatically optimistic,” and by that I mean Emm does not look away from the hardships many of us have faced, are facing, and can expect to face in the future—but she also offers us the possibility of hope, and the freedom to embrace what good things we do have in this moment, because they are what can carry us through to the next.
Whichever path you choose to Emm’s work, I hope you’ll find it as comforting as I have over the last few years.
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