Local resident finds direction as children's book author, illustrator

Mar. 3—NEW ALBANY — As Brigid Morrissey pursues a career as a children's book author, she has found her direction.

Morrissey, co-owner of The Root coworking space in downtown New Albany, is the author of a new book called "The Bird That Walked North." She illustrated and wrote poems for the book, which releases today.

Although she has always been creative, it has been less than a year since she began the process of becoming a published children's book author.

"It's truly surreal," Morrissey said. "It has been a whirlwind...but I know that things are happening quickly because this is what I'm supposed to be doing. It's been humbling, and I've had so much support for doing this. I hope to be an example for other people to follow their dreams."

She grew up drawing and reading, and she was drawn to books by well-known author of children's books Shel Silverstein. Her interest in illustration continued as she pursued college and her career.

"I was always creative in different types of ways, but I was always just attracted to illustrating," Morrissey said. "I was an art major in college, but it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to do this at some point in my life," she said. "I've always either thought this is a pipe dream, or I'll do this eventually. I would always push it off, and it didn't seem like a real job to me."

Morrissey knew she wanted to pursue another passion in addition to running The Root with her father. She had a marketing company for a few years through the COVID-19 pandemic, but when the business dissolved, the timing felt right to begin writing and illustrating children's books.

"I've always been involved in multiple things, so I knew I needed to find something else," she said. "I just thought to myself, you know what, I'm single and I have no kids, I'm in the middle of a career change — there's no better time than right now to start. That was kind of my mindset. I'm tired of putting this off. I'm going to put myself first, I'm going to try this. If I fail, I fail, but I want to live my life saying I tried, whether it works out or not."

Morrissey had compiled poems over the years, and in the summer of last year, she finished some and wrote new poems as she began putting together a book.

Her friend from college, Lakyn Basham, called to ask if Morrissey would be interested in illustrating the children's book she was writing. The two friends had played basketball together at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.

"I just said Lakyn, you have no idea how perfect that timing is, or like, you have no idea what I'm up to," Morrissey said. "She had no idea I was doing this."

She immediately agreed to illustrate her friend's book. Through mutual connections, they learned about a publishing company in Zephyrhills, Florida, called Cocoon to Wings Publishing.

Morrissey eventually secured a job as an illustrator for the publisher, and she was able to illustrate Basham's book, "Growing Hope," which was published on Jan. 19 of this year. The book tells the story of a young fox and its mother, and it includes life lessons that Basham has taught her daughter through gardening.

"It's a book that of course is for kids, but adults get just as much out of it," Morrissey said.

After she completed her work on "Growing Hope," she prepared to pitch her book to Cocoons to Wings. She presented the idea to the publisher on Jan. 2, and it all came together quickly.

"[The publisher] loved it — loved the idea, loved the book and loved the illustrations that went with it," Morrissey said.

"The Bird That Walked North" is a collection of poems with correlating illustrations. Morrissey said her book explores the theme of "direction" both in the literal and figurative sense.

The book is the first of four-book series called "Cardinal Directions," and each individual book will have a direction in the title.

"Ultimately, it's just about following your path and your purpose in life," she said.

Shel Silverstein's work inspired her writing style, Morrissey said. Although "The Bird That Walked North" is a children's book, she feels that adults can also appreciate the deeper meaning behind her poems.

"So a kid can read it and think, oh, this is a cute poem, whereas an adult can say, oh, there's more to this than meets the eye," she said. "Sometimes, you need an illustration in order to put context to the poem, and then a lot of the times, the illustrations kind of tie the entire book together, so there are little surprises throughout the book."

"So somebody just leafing through pages hopefully will enjoy the book, but if there's a more attentive reader, then they might find some hidden surprises in there."

Her poems feature wordplay such as vegetable-related puns, and she hopes readers can enjoy "a chuckle or two" from the book. Many of her illustrations and poems focus on nature and animals.

Morrissey's daily life inspired her poems and illustrations. Some of them feature her nieces and nephews.

"I love being an aunt, and what has been very cool about this process is that all of them are very creative — drawing and writing, they are so creative," she said. "So it has been very cool to show them that they can make a job out of it or they can pursue this if they want to. It's possible."

She has always wanted a career that gives her fulfillment, she said.

"I always wanted to enjoy what I do, because we spend the majority of our lives working," Morrissey said. "It's totally OK if people use their jobs as a means to an end if it's a paycheck for them so they can do fun things. There's no harm or shame in that, but I just knew that I wanted to do something that I love to do. This has been a lot of fun."

Morrissey feels writing and illustrating is her "path and purpose in life."

"I just think that whenever we agree to follow our true path and be our genuine selves opportunities come our way," she said. "That's absolutely what's happened to me on this journey so far. So many things have already opened up for me, and it's just confirmed and affirmed what I'm doing, that I'm right where I'm supposed to be."