MADDIE'S CREATIVE JOURNEY
Maddie illustrated her first picture book in college after winning a contest for Massachusetts College of Art and Design students. Although she majored in animation, that experience sparked a growing passion for children's books. After graduating, she took on small illustration projects, including work for the Martha's Vineyard Gazette, and began sharing characters and illustrations on social media, where she found an encouraging community of fellow illustrators. (Special thanks to Julia Patton.) But for a while, this was purely something Maddie did for the love of it, while working a variety of jobs that never quite satisfied her passion and purpose.
In the spring of 2015, feeling stuck in her teaching career, Maddie took a leap of faith and went all in on illustrating children's books. The months that followed brought portfolio building, plenty of rejections, and more than a few moments of self-doubt, but also small wins that kept reigniting her drive to push forward. After finding the right agent in Alli Brydon, Maddie received her first professional illustration offer in early 2016, and the momentum began to build, one project at a time.
From there, Maddie said yes to every opportunity she could. As her illustration career grew, so did her creative world. In her free time, she began writing stories to go along with the characters she was always dreaming up. When she finally shared one of those stories with Alli, it was submitted to publishers and became her first author-illustrated book offer, Once Upon a ZZZZ, and a whole new chapter began.
That first author-illustrated book expanded Maddie's vision for what her career could be, and she made the shift from primarily illustrator to author-illustrator. In the years that followed, Maddie grew her voice as a writer and went on to publish Animobiles, Smug Seagull, Wakey Birds, and Just Be Jelly. With her growing confidence as a writer, she kept experimenting and trying new things, eventually expanding into graphic novels and, most recently, middle grade.
While her success today may look sudden from the outside, it is the result of years of dedication, rejection, and growth. Maddie's creative instinct has always been to turn her ideas into characters and stories, drawn first in her notebook, for herself and her own heart. Luckily, many of those doodles have become the books you know and love today.