The 2024 roundup of recently published work by Pratt Institute alumni shines a spotlight on the diverse worlds authored and illustrated across a range of genres and forms. These titles span immersive design experiences and intimate personal narratives, poetic explorations, and engaging literary escapes for readers of all ages.
Diving Into Action
My Day with Dad (Holiday House)
Rae Crawford, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’18
For early-to-mid first-grade readers, My Day with Dad follows a young child’s day with their father as they make pancakes, play board games, ride bikes and fly kites, and watch movies together. Emphasizing the importance of family time and creating cherished memories, this is “[a] needed story . . . An affirming read centering a child of a two-home family” (Kirkus Reviews).” Available at holidayhouse.com.
Our Pool (Simon and Schuster)
Lucy Ruth Cummins, BFA Communications Design (Graphic Design) ’05
Inspired by author-illustrator Lucy Cummins’s days spent swimming with her son, Nate, Our Pool is a picture book ode to community spaces and cooling off on a hot summer day. With illustrations featuring friends and family, kids and grandparents, and big and small bodies at their bustling New York City pool, Cummins asserts that “everybody is welcome at our pool” (NPR). Available at simonandschuster.com.
Illustrating History
We Who Produce Pearls: An Anthem for Asian America (Scholastic)
Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, MFA Communications Design ’15
Artist and activist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya paired up with New York Times bestselling author Joanna Ho to illustrate a call to action highlighting the vastness and diversity of Asian American history. Weaving together the intersecting threads of power and defiance present within the Asian American diaspora, We Who Produce Pearls reminds readers that “[the past can] hold them, [remind] them of who they are, and [help] them to have the courage to shape the future” (Scholastic). Available at scholasticlibrary.com.
Lifting As They Climbed: Mapping a History of Trailblazing Black Women in Chicago (Haymarket)
Mariame Kaba, MSLIS ’22
Coauthored by Mariame Kaba and Essence McDowell, Lifting As They Climbed serves as a guidebook, spotlighting influential Black women from Chicago’s South and West Sides and their profound impact on social, cultural, and artistic spheres across generations. Through five immersive self-guided tours, readers navigate the city through the stories of 78 remarkable women, featuring the likes of Margaret Burroughs and Gwendolyn Brooks. This updated edition celebrates these women’s often overlooked stories: “With no ‘official’ landmarks to preserve the history of their social justice efforts, this book is an intervention against their erasure” (Haymarket). Available at haymarketbooks.org.
Balto and Togo: Hero Dogs of Alaska (Macmillan)
Solomon Hughes, Communications Design (Graphic Design) ’23, illustrator, and Helen Moss, author
In the winter of 1924, a diphtheria outbreak hits the population of Nome, Alaska with the prospect of a full-blown epidemic on the horizon. As the snow piles higher, the only way to stop it is by delivering one million units of the diphtheria antitoxin to the affected communities through a route only accessible by dogsled. The picture book Balto and Togo, illustrated by Solomon Hughes, tells the true story of the canine heroes as they race against time to save lives. Available at macmillan.com.
Benito Juárez Fights for Justice (Godwin Books)
Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez, BFA Communications Design ’17
The recipient of the Ezra Jack Keats 2024 Honor Award for Illustration, Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez’s picture book chronicles Benito Juárez’s journey from village sheepherder to a trained lawyer and repeatedly elected president of Mexico during its period of Liberal Reform. Tracing Juárez’s path from childhood through his political career, this story illustrates to young audiences the power of perseverance. Available at lindentreebooks.com.
Reimagining Narratives
Fourteen Days (HarperCollins)
Pat Cummings, BFA Communications Design ’74, contributing writer
Featuring contributions from 36 North American storytellers, this anthology edited by Margaret Atwood is a contemporary take on the plague novel. Fourteen Days follows tenants-turned-real-neighbors—some of whom have barely spoken to one another—of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan one week into the COVID-19 lockdown. As they gather on the rooftop to tell stories, the narrators, including Pat Cummings writing as the “Lady With the Rings” who studied at Pratt, weave together their varied voices to tell a story about community and the spectrum of human experience. Available at harpercollins.com.
Princess Protection Program (Greenwillow Books)
Alex London, MSLIS ’10
Alex London weaves several beloved fairy tales together to tell the tale of Princess Rosamund’s discovery of the Princess Protection Program, “where fugitive fairy tale princesses escape unwanted affections, untimely ends, and all the other perils of their stories” (Greenwillow Books). This novel is ideal for junior readers who want to find their place in the world and take control of their own stories. Available at harpercollins.com.
Buzz Buzz: 25th Anniversary Edition (Concord/Kidz Bop)
Cassandra Berger, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’06, Visiting Instructor of Communications Design
For Laurie Berkner’s 25th anniversary remaster of her kids’ album Buzz Buzz, Cassandra Berger designed bees and flowers for the LP art. Berger shared on her Instagram account that she “had so much fun working on this, and it was so cool to see it all come together in such a nice design by the great team at Kidz Bop.” Available at recordstoreday.com.
Cocktails with George and Martha (Bloomsbury)
Philip Gefter, BFA Fine Arts ’73
Cocktails with George and Martha follows the story of Edward Albee’s 1962 play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? from its stage debut into its adaptation for film by first-time director Mike Nichols. Tracing the show from its origins in Greenwich Village to its on-screen success in America, Philip Gefter explores how two couples—both the fictional characters played by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and the actors in their off-screen marriage—impacted American culture of the 1960s. Available at bloomsbury.com.
Exploring Histories and Identity
How Do I Draw These Memories? (Levine Querido)
Jonell Joshua, BFA Communications Design ’18, Assistant to the Chair of Art and Design Education
How Do I Draw These Memories? is an illustrated memoir chronicling Jonell Joshua’s childhood split between Savannah and New Jersey, residing with grandparents while her mother battled mental illness. Told in a multimedia format—through personal essays, illustrated memories, and chapters in the form of comics—Joshua pays homage to her time with her brothers and mom while underscoring the importance of “faith, the preciousness of life, and unconditional love” (Levine Querido). Available at levinequeirdo.com.
Skateboard (Phaidon)
Jonathan Olivares, BID ’04
Spanning the 1950s to today, Skateboard: A Visual History of Design explores the skateboard’s evolution, spotlighting decades of defining moments in skating’s history through an in-depth look at over 100 boards. Developed in collaboration with Converse, a footwear and lifestyle brand integral to skate culture, industrial designer Jonathan Olivares’s new monograph blends studio shots, archival images, more than 500 illustrations, and Olivares’s illuminating texts to highlight the materials, designs, and cultural phenomena that have shaped the sport. Available at phaidon.com.
Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey (Macmillan)
Edel Rodriguez, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’94
Having illustrated covers for Time, The New Yorker, and Der Spiegel, Edel Rodriguez makes his first foray into long-form storytelling with this graphic memoir. Worm narrates Rodriguez’s boyhood in Cold War Cuba, his family’s displacement, and his coming of age as an artist, activist, and American. “Immigrants give up their families, homes, and memories, the sound of a grandmother’s voice, the feel of a mother’s hand, the warmth of a friend’s hug. They give them up for freedom, safety, and a new beginning. I wanted to tell that story,” Rodriguez told The Bookseller. Available at macmillan.com.
“What We Aren’t Seeing: Exclusionary Practices in Visual Media” in Unframing the Visual: Visual Literacy Pedagogy in Academic Libraries and Information Spaces (ACRL)
Kai Alexis Smith, BFA Writing ’05; MSLIS ’13
MIT Architecture and Planning Librarian Kai Alexis Smith coauthored the chapter “What We Aren’t Seeing” in the visual literacy textbook Unframing the Visual, exploring the flawed portrayal of disability in visual culture as shaped by dominant ableist and capitalist frameworks. Emphasizing how mainstream dialogue omits people with disabilities from participating in culture and media, Smith and colleague Christine Malinowski argue that visuals themselves can be equally exclusionary and harmful to persons with disabilities. Smith and Malinowksi offer approaches for information educators to challenge assumed perceptions and stereotypes around disability and address barriers to accessibility where common solutions fall short. Learn more at ala.org.
Illuminating Artistic Visions
Double Click: Twin Photographers in the Golden Age of Magazines (Simon and Schuster)
On Frances McLaughlin, BFA Photography ’41, and Kathryn McLaughlin, BFA Photography ’41, by Carol Kino
Double Click’s dual biography details the careers of identical twins Frances and Kathryn McLaughlin. After studying at Pratt, the pair became groundbreaking photographers in New York City’s 1940s publishing scene. The only woman on Condé Nast’s photo studio team, Frances had her cinema verité-style work appear in Glamour and Vogue, while Kathryn’s surrealistic portraits filled magazines like Charm and Mademoiselle. Biographer Carol Kino’s research showcases their lives within the context of the historical moment’s proto-feminist ideals and wartime New York, set against the backdrop of a changing society. Available at simonandschuster.com.
Matter (Hatje Cantz)
Ann Mandelbaum, MFA Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) ’91
The fourth monograph from Pratt alumna and longtime fine arts professor Ann Mandelbaum, published by Hantje Cantz, exhibits 100 unpublished and unseen works spanning the artist’s 40-year practice. Featuring analog black-and-white prints from 1990 to 2000 and digital color images from 2007 to present, Mandelbaum’s book showcases the artist’s “obsession with the organic world” that weaves surreal techniques like collage and sculpture into her varied imagery (Hantje Cantz). Available at hatjecantz.com.
Now Is Better (Phaidon)
Stefan Sagmeister, MFA Communications Design ’98
Designer Stefan Sagmeister’s newest project, Now Is Better, takes shape as a series of data visualizations that depict long-term trends that highlight an optimistic outlook on human progress. Sagmeister’s artistic process entails repurposing 19th-century oil paintings—some created by members of his own family—and inserting graphic shapes or using embroidery to represent the different statistics and their trajectories over time. “The world is terrible. The world is fantastic,” Sagmeister acknowledges. “Both statements are true” (Creative Review). Available at phaidon.com.
Tenacious Nostalgia
Colleen Longo Collins, MFA Fine Arts (Photography) ’06
Artist and photographer Colleen Longo Collins’s Tenacious Nostalgia is a limited-edition monograph spanning 15 years of Collins’s artistic practice. Working with traditional black-and-white photo processes, Collins finds influence in her memories of girlhood and the nuances of womanhood. This edition of Tenacious Nostalgia is “printed on 12 x 12-inch silk-coated paper and bound in Coal Black Verona linen,” accompanied by a “unique signed print from the book” (Artdaily). Available at colleenlongocollins.com.
Keith Haring Pop Up Book (Poposition Press)
Simon Arizpe, BFA Communications Design ’06, Visiting Instructor of Communications Design
Pratt professor Simon Arizpe’s paper engineering brings Keith Haring’s art to life in an officially licensed pop-up book. Over six pop-up spreads, the book shows iconic works like Silence=Death and The Houston Bowery Wall. Additional three-dimensional Haring creations by Arizpe—a pop-up card, altarpiece, and poster—are also available from Poposition Press.
Many Voices: Architecture for Social Equity (RIBA Publishing)
Everardo Jefferson, BID ’68, and Sara Caples
This monograph from Everardo Jefferson and Sara Caples, cofounders of the architecture firm Caples Jefferson, presents insights from their work designing for social equity, emphasizing the importance of cultural understanding and community engagement. Through interviews with designers and international case studies, this book offers practical techniques for architects to create spaces with social equity as a design philosophy. Learn more at routledge.com.
Creating Poetry
Laura’s Desires (Nightboat Books)
Laura Henriksen, BFA Writing ’12, Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing
Laura’s Desires is a diptych of two formally distinct long poems, each approaching various pop-cultural artifacts as sites of feminist analysis and intervention. From deep-dives into hit ’90s singles like Selena’s “Dreaming of You” to heroines of cult classic TV and films (Twin Peaks’ Laura Palmer and Variety’s Christine), Laura’s Desires travels through dreamscapes, fantasy, and the everyday to “forge a path away from fear and shame” and “towards liberation” (Nightboat Books). Available at nightboat.org.
U KNOW HOW MUCH I HATE BEING ALONE IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS (Futurepoem)
Stephon Lawrence, MFA Writing ’16
U KNOW is Stephon Lawrence’s first full-length collection of poetry, an exploration of “otherworldly poetics” that seeks to cultivate “emancipatory poetic spaces” for sentiments that have been marginalized, displaced, or estranged from the dominant culture. “This book presents an unvarnished take on intimacy in the contemporary world in all its disjointed glory” (Diamond Sharp). Available at futurepoem.com.
Embracing Change
This Wolf Was Different (Simon and Schuster)
Hannah Salyer, BFA Design and Visual Communications (Illustration) ’17, and Katie Silvensky, author
Inspired by natural history, this picture book, illustrated by Hannah Salyer and authored by Katie Silvensky, imagines the origin story of how wolves and humans connected. As a lone wolf pup meets a creature no more like the other wolves than she is, a friendship blossoms, exploring how true friendship means embracing differences. Complete with scientific information about how wolves and humans first met, this story combines speculative storytelling with an educational twist. Available at simonandschuster.com.
Ready or Not (Simon and Schuster)
Andi Porretta, BFA Communications Design ’19
With senior year behind them, Cassie and her three best friends must navigate their last summer in New York City together before they leave for college. Their solution to make the most out of their time together? They’ll spend August having the adventures and doing the dares they invented as kids. Andi Porretta’s debut graphic novel, Ready or Not, is a coming-of-age story that “makes a unique commencement gift for the contemporary high school graduate” (Publishers Weekly). Available at simonandschuster.com.
Curlfriends: New in Town (Hachette)
Sharee Miller, BFA Communications Design (Illustration) ’12
Charlie is used to moving around, but she’s intent on making a good impression at her middle school when her family decides to settle down in their new town. Right when she gives up hope on finding friends, she meets the “Curlfriends,” four inseparable Black girls who show her the meaning of true friendship—and being your true self. The 2024 Golden Kite Award Winner and an NPR and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year, Miller’s graphic novel tells “a stirring tale that encourages kindness and honesty in pursuit of friendship” (Publishers Weekly). Available at hatchettebookgroup.com.
Always Together (Picture Window Books)
Patricia Kreiser, Communications Design (Illustration) ’92
This debut picture book from illustrator and author Patricia Kreiser follows two otters through their daily adventures—until suddenly, one is left behind, and nothing is the same. Pairing soft watercolor illustrations with minimal text, Always Together introduces themes of loss, separation, and loneliness for young audiences, concluding with an uplifting reflection on the importance of creating happy memories. Available at childrensbookworld.net.