In her debut picture book, author Genevieve Young of The Susurrus shares the story of a child overflowing with imagination and a celebration of the beauty in nature. 

What inspired you to create The Susurrus?

The Susurrus was inspired by a range of interactions and experiences. I first heard the word susurrus when I was completing my doctorate and a fellow student was studying the word as part of her thesis. I was annoyed at myself that I didn’t know the meaning. When I had my son almost a decade later, I remembered the word and would ask him, "Can you hear the susurrus?". He loved the sound of it and lots of other words too, but then when he went to school he found learning about sounds in order to read a challenge. The Susurrus draws on each of these experiences as it is about wanting to know what a word really means but also about hanging on to the pure enjoyment of words and their imaginative possibilities regardless of what is technically “right”.

As an author, what steps do you take to make sure your imagination never goes away?

It helps to spend time with a child who is overflowing with imagination. Apart from spending time with my son, I read a lot and try to stay curious.

Is The Susurrus your first picture book publication? Are you excited to see your story in bookshops?

Yes, The Susurrus is my first picture book publication, and I am incredibly excited to see it out in the world. I am also really looking forward to reading The Susurrus with kids at some upcoming library events and seeing what they make of it.

What was it like to work with an illustrator on this project?

The wonderful Cate James and I did not have anything to do with each other during the illustration process. It’s fascinating to see what someone else does with your text and how they bring to it their own vision of the story. The collaborative nature of many picture books is one of the things I love about them.

Were there any scenes in this book that you were most excited to see put with illustration?

The last page spread with text was always important to me as it is where the fantastic element in the story is given particular prominence. I was very excited to see what Cate did with that. As it turns out, my favourite page/illustration is actually the very final one, which has no text at all.

You’ve shared that you like to draw inspiration from nature in your writing. Do you find any parts of nature to be particularly inspirational?

As my son would say, “hard”! I find the ocean thrilling and it often creeps into my stories in one way or another. But rock formations and encounters with animals—even very brief ones—often spark ideas too.

Cats have a reputation for being sneaky and mysterious. Were any aspects of the susurrus inspired by your cats?

I always try to include a cat in my stories because my own two are a huge part of my life and their antics are hilarious. They did not inspire the susurrus per se but they’re always in the background of scenes I see in my mind as I write.

Do you have any other projects in the works?

I always have half a dozen stories—picture books, short stories, poems, longer fiction—floating around at any one time but none of the others have yet reached publication stage.