Podcast – Jon Klassen – Use Your Fear

Do you have creative fears that intimidate you when you’re trying to write or illustrate? Jon Klassen shares how to use those fears to your advantage when developing stories. You may just find that those fears are the exact things that make you (and your work) uniquely you.

Jon Klassen is the author-illustrator of This Is Not My Hat, winner of the Caldecott Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal, the first book to receive both honors; and its companion books, I Want My Hat Back, and We Found a Hat, and The Rock from the Sky. He also illustrated two Caldecott Honor Books, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn, as well as Triangle, Square, Circle, and The Wolf, the Duck, & the Mouse, all written by Mac Barnett.  There are over 2.7 million copies of his books in print.

Klassen’s work has received many awards and accolades. The New York Times Book Review says, “no one does perturbed animals better,” and The Los Angeles Times remarks “The hallmark of Klassen’s work is what is not shown but rather left to the imagination.” Klassen’s work has appeared in Kung Fu Panda, Coraline, and The New Yorker. 

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Want more from Jon Klassen? (And, who doesn’t?) Get lifetime access to his full Summit presentation USING YOUR FEAR on our Picture Book Summit Teachable site:

Making picture books can be scary, but your fears about it are often unique to you. However, neutralizing those fears can leave you with work that is just as unique. Caldecott Winner Jon Klassen will explore the idea that the anxiety about making a book doesn’t have to stop you… in fact, it can be the very thing that makes it yours.

Are your fears holding you back? Learn how to turn them into your greatest strengths today! Click here!