One Week in January
New Paintings for an Old Diary
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Chronicle Books
Published:10th Oct '24
Should be back in stock very soon
“Feels like reading a love story that doesn't quite know it's a love story yet, and a success story that doesn't know it’s made it.”
—Emma Straub, New York Times–bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow
Award-winning, beloved children's book author and illustrator Carson Ellis makes a stunning adult debut with an illustrated memoir that evocatively captures a specific cultural moment of the early 2000s and in her journey as an artist.
In January 2001, the young artist Carson Ellis moved into a warehouse in Portland, Oregon, with a group of fellow artists. For the first week she lived there, she kept a detailed diary full of dry observations, mordant wit, hijinks with friends (including her future husband, Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy), and turn-of-the-millennium cultural touchstones. Now, Ellis has richly illustrated this two-decade-old journal with extraordinary new paintings in the signature style that has made her an award-winning picture book author today.
This beautiful volume offers a snapshot of a bygone era, a meticulous re-creation of quotidian frustrations and small, meaningful moments, and a meditation on what it means both to start your journey as an artist and to look back at that beginning many years later.
“This diary tells the story of Carson Ellis and her husband Colin Meloy when they were just friends, before either of them had made their enormous, vibrant artistic contributions to American arts and letters and music—it feels like reading a love story that doesn't quite know it's a love story yet, and a success story that doesn't know it’s made it.”?
—Emma Straub, New York Times–bestselling author of The Vacationers
“One Week in January is a minute-by-minute oral history of a pivotal moment in time—before the internet took over and everything still felt possible. On top of an oral history, Carson created a visual one, too. Her gorgeous gouache paintings are like fuzzy, high-contrast snapshots from her memory, but they might as well be mine. And yours. And anyone who was ever 20-something and dreamed of a life making things, falling in love, and living a full, creative life. Little did we know that is exactly what we were doing then. Maybe we are still doing it now.”
—Wendy MacNaughton, New York Times–bestselling illustrator of Salt Fat Acid Heat
“As long as I’ve known Carson’s work, she’s been at the height of her powers, but here she really is at the height of her powers, all over again. Combining memories from such a rich and formative time in your life with the power and control you have to visualize it later on is such an amazing idea, and I can’t think of anyone who could pull it off better.”
—Jon Klassen, Caldecott Medal–winning author of I Want My Hat Back
“A touching ode to cigarettes, art, pre-digital life, and nascent love.”
—Jillian Tamaki, Eisner Award–winning illustrator of This One Summer
“Enchanting.” —Publishers Weekly
“One Week in January is a snippet memory time capsule, but it evokes the universal remembrance of youth in all its vibrance, ordinariness, and promise.” —Under the Radar Magazine
“One Week in January captures something very special: what it feels like to be on the cusp of becoming, without knowing it yet. It’s a truly evocative book, and of course the paintings that illustrate it are beautiful…. A delightful picture book for grownups.” —Katherine May, author of Wintering
ISBN: 9781797216959
Dimensions: 229mm x 191mm x 13mm
Weight: 431g
80 pages