Writing With Chris Van Allsburg

Several years ago, my wife introduced me to an incredible author she came across while working on her masters in education. Chris Van Allsburg writes children's/juvenile literature, and I bet you've heard of his works titled Jumanji, Zathura, and The Polar Express.

There is another book, however, that is most fascinating called The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. This book is a collection of mysterious artwork with merely a title and a one sentence tag line. The rest of the story is to be filled in by the reader's imagination. From the website:

Several years ago, Chris Van Allsburg discovered fourteen drawings, attributed to an artist named Harris Burdick, that were, like pieces of a picture puzzle, clues to larger pictures. But the puzzles, the mysteries, presented by these drawings, are not what we are used to. They are not solved for us, as the final pages of a book or a film's last reel. The solutions to these mysteries lie in a place at once closer to hand, yet far more remote. They lie in our imagination.

Now, on the website, Allsburg invites readers to write their own stories based on the illustrations and to submit them. Each month, the winner will receive an autographed copy of the book.

Now’s your chance to explore the mystery of Harris Burdick’s illustrations. Each month, one of the drawings will be highlighted. Submit your own story of 200 words or less based on this month’s drawing. At the end of the month, a submission will be selected. That individual will have their story published on the site and will receive an autographed copy of Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!