Illustrator Kate Feiffer and editor Sue Berger Ramin will discuss their collaboration on the new book “The Lamb Cycle: What the Great English Poets Would Have Written About Mary and Her Lamb (Had They Thought of It First)” on Thursday, July 13, at 4 pm, at the West Tisbury library.
In “The Lamb Cycle,” poet David R. Ewbank reinterprets the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” in the style and substance of the great English poets, from Edmund Spenser to Stevie Smith. The book is filled with Feiffer’s witty and whimsical line drawings. Her biggest challenge, she said, was figuring out how to illustrate a book for adults based on a nursery rhyme for children.
An Island resident, Feiffer is the author of 11 children’s books, including “Henry the Dog with No Tail,” “My Mom Is Trying to Ruin My Life,” and “Double Pink.” Her illustrations have been published in various Vineyard publications, and she’s had several shows of her work on the Island. Her artwork can also be found at R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton. Feiffer is the event producer for the writer’s festival Islanders Write. “Lamb Cycle” is the first book she has illustrated. Her first novel for adults will be published in 2024.
Sue Berger Ramin has worked in book publishing since she left university in the U.K. Running the film and TV department at Penguin Books led her to open an office for Penguin in Los Angeles, where she spent sunny years publishing books and co-producing two movies. She moved to Boston, where she became associate publisher at independent David R. Godine, Publisher (publisher of two Nobel prizewinners for literature) before joining Brandeis University Press in 2019.