About Me
I was four when I first announced I would be an artist when I grew up. My parents really encouraged me, though Mam always pointed out that artists rarely make much money. I studied design and illustration at COMAD (DIT) in Dublin.
My first three books as an author/illustrator are very different from one another. I was learning as I worked, figuring out how to write and illustrate a book on the job. An Chanáil (An Gúm, 1988) was set along the Grand Canal in Dublin, The Sleeping Giant (Brandon Press, 1991) was set in Dingle, Co Kerry, and The Long March (Wolfhound, Ireland 1997/ Tricycle Press, USA 1998) is the story of how the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma sent aid to Ireland in 1847.
I found my voice as a writer and an illustrator with Izzy and Skunk, I’m a Tiger Too and You, Me and the Big Blue Sea (Gullane UK, 2000, 2001, 2002). By now I had worked out that my main interest as a picturebook creator is in charting the personal journeys we make in early childhood, the small events which change us, the little battles and triumphs as we grow up.
Silly Mummy, Silly Daddy, Silly School and Silly Baby (Frances Lincoln UK 2006, 2008, 2010) are three books I made featuring my nieces Beth and Ann, and our whole family.
I am I (2006) and There (2009) are books I developed with Neal Porter of Roaring Brook Press, NY. I’m very proud of these two titles. I pushed my own boundaries – artistically and subject-wise – and went somewhere new.
I began writing novels in 2006 – another big learning curve. Timecatcher was published by Orion UK in 2010, followed by Dark Warning in 2012 and Hagwitch in 2013. My novels are rooted in myth and legend but ultimately they are concerned with how we each twist and turn and struggle (and laugh and dance) towards adulthood.
The New Kid (Hodder UK, 2014) is about the delicate dance of meeting and making friends. The stakes are high for new kid on the block, Ellie. What if she isn’t accepted? But the stakes are high for the local kids too – what if this new kid takes my friend? What if she makes up better games than me?
After The New Kid I went silent, with a wordless story called Owl Bat Bat Owl (Walker, 2016). Here, friendship seems very unlikely as Mother Owl is clearly horrified when a family of bats come seeking refuge on the owl family’s branch. But both mums have a change of heart when their babies are in danger.
In 2008 I was honoured to contribute an image to We Are All Born Free (Frances Lincoln/Amnesty International), a picturebook depicting the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. In 2015 I contributed a short story to Eoin Colfer’s Laureate na nÓg project – the anthology Once Upon a Place (Little Island). In 2018 I was commissioned to write and illustrate the first ever Christmas cover story for the RTE TV Guide. The Christmas magazine is an Irish institution and this unusual commission was both thrilling and nerve-wrecking!
My YA novel with Faber&Faber, On Midnight Beach, came out in 2020. It is a reimagining of an Irish legend, The Táin, reset in the long hot summer of 1976. Cúchulainn and Maedhbh are teenagers in bellbottom jeans, and the bull is a wild but playful dolphin. Told through the voices of Emer and Gus, it is at once a love story and a dramatic coming-of-age tale.
It has been shortlisted for the 2021 Carnegie Medal, the Lancashire Book of the Year Award, the Irish Book Awards, and longlisted for the UKLAs and the KSC Book Awards.
I Can Make a Train Noise is a new picturebook, created with Michael Emberley.
It came out this summer (2021) with Neal Porter Books, Holiday House NY, and has already garnered three starred reviews – The Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, Book Page.It is a Junior Library Guild selection and is no.5 on the Book Pages Best Books of 2021 list for picture books.
Right now I am working on a picturebook called Don’t with OtterBarry Books, due out in 2022.
Facebook: picturebooks and novels
Instagram: marielouisefitzpatrick
Twitter: @Marielouisefit1
Contact me directly through my contact page or ‘Call My Agent’: Eunice McMullen eunice@eunicemcmullen.co.uk
Studio photo: Róisín White
Awards:
An Chanáil – Readers Association of Ireland Book Award 1989, Irish Book Awards Design Medal 1989, Bisto Book of the Decade (Irish language) 1990
The Sleeping Giant – Bisto Honour Award, 1992
The Long March – Smithsonian Notable Book 1998, Bisto Honour Award 1999, RAI Special Merit Award 1999, IBBY Honour Book (illustration) 2000
Izzy and Skunk – Bisto/CBI Book of the Year 2001, a Schools & Libraries Best Book 2000 (USA)
I’m a Tiger Too – shortlisted for Bisto/CBI awards 2002
You, Me and the Big Blue Sea – Bisto/CBI Book of the Year 2003
Silly Mammy, Silly Daddy – shortlisted for Irish Book Awards 2006
There – Bisto/CBI Book of the Year 2010, Bisto Illustration Honour Award 2010, a Carle Museum Picture Book of Distinction 2009
Timecatcher – shortlisted for The Irish Book Awards 2010 and for the West Sussex Libraries Children’s Choice Awards 2012
Dark Warning – CBI Honour Award for Fiction 2013
Hagwitch – CBI Book of the Year Award 2014, CBI Honour Award for Fiction
Owl Bat Bat Owl – a Junior Library Guild Fall Selection 2017, nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway 2018
On Midnight Beach – shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2021, the 2020 Irish Book Awards, the Lancashire Book of the Year 2021; longlisted for the UKLA Awards and the KSC Teen School Book Award.
Achievements:
2008 – IBBY Ireland’s illustrator nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
2009 and 2017 – awarded full literary bursaries from the Irish Arts Council
2010 – The National Library of Ireland began a collection of my work, purchasing 17 of my illustrations.
2019 – Ireland’s illustrator nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award
2020 – one of Ireland’s nominees for the Astrid Lindgren Award
Events & Exhibitions 2007 – present day (selected):
2007 – speaker at the Children’s Literature Conference in Frostburg University, Maryland
2011 – speaker at the Rhode Island Festival of Children’s Books & Authors
2011 – You, Me and the Big Blue Sea reproduced in full as the Big Book on the Wall at Douglas Library in Cork
2012 – the International Children’s and Young Adults Book Week in Cologne with SK Stiftung Kultur: speaker, illustration work featured in the Enchanted Ireland exhibition.
2012 – contributed to Telling Tall and Tiny Tales exhibition at the Ark, Cultural Centre for Children, Dublin.
2013 – contributed to Pictiúr, a major touring exhibition curated by Laureate na nÓg, Niamh Sharkey, which travelled to the Bologna Book Fair, the Vienna Children’s Book Festival, The Leuven Institute, EU HQ Brussels, IMMA Ireland and Stormont Buildings, Belfast.
2014 – Hagwitch featured in Upon the Wild Waves: A Journey through Myth in Children’s Books in the Long Room, Trinity College, Dublin
2015 – speaker at the inaugural Towers and Tales children’s lit festival, Lismore Castle
2015 – filmed 10 one minute quick-drawing segments for RTÉ Jr.
2015 – Dublin Book Festival panel with Eoin Colfer and John Connolly in Smock Alley Theatre
2015 – Electric Picnic panel with Roddy Doyle, Óisín McGann and Sarah Webb in the Literary Tent as part of Eoin Colfer’s Laureate na nÓg project
2017 – Ireland Showcase in Canada: speaker at literary festivals in Moncton, Montreal and Ottawa, representing Irish Children’s literature with Óisín McGann, Deirdre Sullivan and David Rudden
2017 – six pieces from Owl Bat Bat Owl accepted for the Bratislava Illustration Biennial
2015 to 2018 – writer-in-residence at Marino Institute of Education
2018 – created a mural in Midleton, Co Cork, one of six made for The Big Picture, PJ Lynch’s Laureate na nÓg project
2018 – one of 20 featured authors & illustrators for the CBI #BOLD GIRLS project
2020 – Dublin Book Festival YA Panel – virtual