The above image will be the main page for the publishing company, Rogue Planet Books, that my partner and I are creating this year. As the image suggests, we are putting out seven books this year, three of which will be mine, one Tracy Pinet’s and the rest by other authors.
I am primarily known as a children’s picture book author and visual artist. I also write young adult fiction, adult fiction which includes a novel, a book of short stories and a book of poetry. I’m putting together another collection of short stories, two collections of poems and a collection of my comics and commercial illustration work. I won the Governor General’s Award and Schwartz Award for my third published book, The Boy from the Sun. After living in Toronto, Victoria, Vancouver and Montreal I returned to my childhood city of Thunder Bay and started a little self-publishing empire, selling thousands of books and giving away over eight hundred books to children. I regularly give away free books to children during readings and workshops. During the pandemic I gave away free books from my balcony. Special thanks to the Trudeau government for saving my bacon with the CERB cheques. I lost all streams of revenue during the pandemic – closed my studio/gallery space (Rogue Planet Gallery), couldn’t do readings or workshops in schools, lost my writing gigs, and couldn’t go to the markets. It sucked, but I got a lot of work done, some of which has lead to the creation of a publishing company in Thunder Bay, Rogue Planet Books, soon to be launched.
With the ability and freedom to play visually with ideas I do my best to create highly original works to delight and surprise both children and adults. Lots of reading, travel and research feed my imagination allowing me to better express several humanist themes. A 2012 Chalmer’s Fellowship Award sent me to Ghana to do research for a children’s graphic poetry book. I wrote for the online magazine Northern Ontario Travel, and had a column called Art On The Edge, for the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal newspaper where I promoted young talent and indigenous artists in the region. Now, after the pandemic, I’m more focused on completed a number of stories, doing the markets and having art shows.
I’ve also worked in a small capacity in film, television and animation, directing, acting (a feature length film, commercials and over 25 short student films), creating storyboards, and more. I enjoyed a short stint as an art director in the Play Industry in Vancouver, heading a team of artists to create large indoor sculptures and climbing installations for children, working with Emmy award winning artists in the film industry. I lived, worked and shown my artwork in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, B.C., Windsor and Thunder Bay. Off and on, I’m a member of the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators), visiting Los Angeles to take part in the 2017 conference where I made a few wonderful connections. I had a gallery/studio for two years, Rogue Planet Gallery, which I had to close due to the pandemic.
The citizens of Thunder Bay continue to be amazingly supportive, many purchasing my books three times over to gift my books to friends and relatives around the world. I’ve surveyed easily over a hundred children and their parents to discover that children consider my books amongst their ultimate favourites. Special thanks goes to the Ontario Arts Council who has been instrumental in supporting the creation of a number of my books and visual art projects over the years.
You can see my work and other activity on my YouTube channel: Duncan Weller
