Video transcript
2018 NSW PRC author interview - Nicki Greenberg

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TAMARA RODGERS: Hi, I'm Tamara Rodgers from the Premier's Reading Challenge. We're backstage at Riverside Theatre at Parramatta for the Sydney Writers Festival. And we're joined today by Nicki Greenberg. Hi, Nicki.

NICKI GREENBERG: Hi, Tamara.

TAMARA RODGERS: It's great to see. So PRC is about developing a love of reading and stories. Were stories and pictures something that was a huge part of your life when you were a child?

NICKI GREENBERG: Absolutely. I've always had a great love for books and reading. And I've always found that telling stories in pictures and words has been my preferred way of doing it.

TAMARA RODGERS: Do you remember books that really captured your imagination when you were a kid?

NICKI GREENBERG: I'm still very attached to the Dr. Seuss books. And it's books like 'The Sneetches,' and that cadence and that rhyme and those kooky creatures and extraordinary landscapes are sort of embedded in me.

TAMARA RODGERS: And they're really those kinds of books that-- like Roald Dahl as well-- that kind of rhythm. They're so beautiful to read out loud.

NICKI GREENBERG: Yeah. Yeah.

TAMARA RODGERS: So you had your first picture book published when you were quite young, didn't you?

NICKI GREENBERG: Yes. That's right.

TAMARA RODGERS: So how does that happen? Most 15-year-olds are not having books published. They're hanging out with their friends and trying to figure out which mascara looks right or how to do their hair. How did the opportunity [inaudible] to be published at such a young age come about for you?

NICKI GREENBERG: So I think it was a very different publishing landscape back then. But I actually wanted to do a greeting cards, and I'd done this very sweet, and generally quite inept, folio of greeting cards. And my mum took me off to John Sands, you know, a big card publisher, who seized on these few cards at the end that were characters based on a fingerprint, and they did a range of these cards.

TAMARA RODGERS: Wow.

NICKI GREENBERG: And they had some sort of connection with Budget Books, who did a lot of the books by [inaudible] and so on. And they actually asked me, would you like to do a range of little Mr. Men-sized children's picture books based on these characters. So it was amazing good fortune.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yes. Very exciting. So your children's books are lovely and picture these really fantastic, kind of diverse animals and creatures in interesting scenarios. What's it like to have to come up with both words and pictures to create a story? Can you talk us through your process a little bit?

NICKI GREENBERG: Ah, yes. So the process is having a fabulous idea and then writing it and thinking, how am I going to draw this? And there follows lots of sketchbook work. I actually have a sketchbook out there. I should have brought it in. It follows lots of sketchbook work. And working out how to draw those characters, which medium is going to work best for them. Will it be pencil? Will there be colour? And that's a really fascinating process. I tend to write myself lots of little notes and directions. And then developing that style to suit that story.

TAMARA RODGERS: So as well as your wonderful picture books, you've also written graphic novels and a play for the page. So your 'Hamlet' book is breathtaking. Can you tell us a little bit about what it's like to stage a play by someone like William Shakespeare on paper? Like, that's an extraordinary achievement.

NICKI GREENBERG: Oh, thank you. It was an exercise in passionate obsession. It was a little over three years that I worked on it, and I really lived, breathed, slept, dreamed 'Hamlet,' and I did a lot of research. And there was a lot of conceptual thinking about it. So the characters are not human.

They're made of ink. Their faces are strange masks that can be removed. The page is like a theatre stage that can be flipped around at the end of the scene. So there was a lot of this thinking about plays within plays and exploring the tough questions that Shakespeare raises for us and makes us delve into with 'Hamlet.'

So as well as the very large task of actually rendering it on the page. There was a lot of thinking, a lot of planning, and layers of meaning that I wanted to delve into. So it was a huge task. It was fascinating.

TAMARA RODGERS: Mm. And so 'Hamlet' uses a pen nib as his sword, and some of the other characters use paintbrushes-- really beautiful little elements in the book. Can you talk a little bit about how you came up with some of those ideas around these dynamic little ink blots working they're way through the story?

NICKI GREENBERG: Yeah. So well before I came up with the idea of adapting 'Hamlet,' I'd been playing with these, sort of, ink blot characters, and it's still a bit of a fascination for me. And I had this sort of strange cat-like creature in a little comic, and he was musing about how did he get here? What's he doing on this page and what kind of confluence of strange things happening conspired to make him and put him here? Very 'Hamlet.' And so he sort of auditioned for the part.

And so I knew that the characters were going to be these strange creatures, and that they'd be made of ink. And that was also playing with the ideas of what's real, and what's constructed, and what's pretend, so what's [? out ?] of us. And so their weapons are also the tools that draw them all, that change them. And there's also a space around the panels which is also the same black, inky substance that can interact with the characters. So it's really playing with those ideas.

TAMARA RODGERS: So what were some of the challenges in taking a story that was constructed by someone else and rendering that yourself? Particularly with someone like Shakespeare's work-- it's very famous. Everyone knows who he is-- to take something that someone else has written and then create that as your own version.

NICKI GREENBERG: Yes. Well, in a way, that was a more daunting task, in a way, with 'Gatsby.' Hamlet, because it was written as a play, it was written to be adapted, to be performed. And there's a lot of space for interpretation. There are very few stage directions. It's left to the actor-- or in this case, the artist making the actors-- to interpret it. So there's actually a lot of space there.

The pressure was to understand how it has been interpreted over hundreds of years and think about what I was going to make of it. And so I really wanted to understand other interpretations. With Gatsby, because the original is a novel which stands alone and really doesn't need to be interpreted, it was about how am I going to pay tribute and cast an interesting light and add something and not tarnish it, not detract from it. And so it was a very different process.

TAMARA RODGERS: So is 'Gatsby' something that came about because you have a particular love for the book? Are was it something--

NICKI GREENBERG: Yes. Absolutely. It was an absolute labour of love. And really, for the first five years that I worked on it, I didn't know if anyone would publish it.

TAMARA RODGERS: For the first five years?

NICKI GREENBERG: For the first five. It was six years.

TAMARA RODGERS: Wow. So that's an extraordinary amount of time.

NICKI GREENBERG: It's a lot of time. I did several books while I was doing it. And I was working as a lawyer. I was working full time. But really, I persisted with this work for five years without knowing if I would see the published light of day. So it really was a labour of love.

TAMARA RODGERS: Well, I'm really glad you persisted. Such a beautiful book. And it's like looking through someone's family album, almost, a really kind of beautiful photo album-type layout which it just kind of absorbs an afternoon.

NICKI GREENBERG: Oh, Thank you.

TAMARA RODGERS: So what's next for you? What are you working on at the moment? What can we expect to see?

NICKI GREENBERG: Ah. I'm working on a few things. I'm working on a sequel to the first 'Zelda Stitch' novel, which is lots of fun and lots of mayhem and scrapes and subplots. And I have another picture book coming out this year. And then I'm working on another picture book. So three things at once.

TAMARA RODGERS: Amazing. Well, it's been really great to catch up with you, Nicki. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy the rest of Sydney Writers Festival. Makes sure that you keep an eye out on the PRC list for some of Nicki's amazing work. And happy reading.