R.I.P. Floyd Cooper, 65, Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner in 2009

[Lenona]

He died in Easton, Pennsylvania. He had three entries in the Something About the Author series, plus an entry in volume 60 of the Children's Literature Review series.

He won the CSK Award for his work in Joyce Carol Thomas' poetry collection The Blacker the Berry.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/author/floyd-cooper/
(a few dozen Kirkus reviews)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/floyd-cooper-acclaimed-childrens-illustrator-dead-at-65/2021/07/17/ad8c9a20-e722-11eb-88c5-4fd6382c47cb_story.html

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/86913-obituary-floyd-cooper.html

Excerpt:

...Moving on from Hallmark and from Kansas City in 1984, Cooper landed in New York City to pursue illustration work. One of his first tasks upon arriving in New York was to seek out representation and Cooper said that he credited his children’s book career to his first agent, artist representative Libby Ford, who got his portfolio seen at children’s book houses. He initially received some book jacket work, soon followed by his first picture book assignment, for Grandpa’s Face by Eloise Greenfield (Philomel, 1988). That same year, he published The Story of Jackie Robinson, Bravest Man in Baseball by Margaret Davidson (Dell, 1988). From there Cooper’s publishing catalog bloomed, as he illustrated numerous children’s books including Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea, a poetry collection by Joyce Carol Thomas (HarperCollins, 1993), which earned him the first of three Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor citations. The others were for Meet Danitra Brown by Nikki Grimes (Lothrop, 1994); and I Have Heard of a Land by Joyce Carol Thomas (HarperCollins/Cotler, 1998). He won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award in 2009 for The Blacker the Berry, another book of poems by Thomas (HarperCollins/Cotler, 2008).

In 1994 Cooper both wrote and illustrated a picture text for the first time, Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes (Philomel). He illustrated many picture book biographies of figures in African American history, including Nelson Mandela, Louis Armstrong, and Serena and Venus Williams, but he told the Brown Bookshelf that he was additionally “quite proud of the diverse cultures represented in my backlist.”


© Jacob Blinkenstaff
Cooper’s other nonfiction titles include the recent release Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre (Carolrhoda) by Carol Boston Weatherford. For that book, he said he drew upon his grandfather’s recollections of the tragic event to inform his illustrations. In all, Cooper created more than 110 books for young readers. He was a frequent presenter at conferences and workshops around the country where he often demonstrated his art technique. Cooper additionally took on the role of mentor and teacher as a longtime member of the faculty at the Highlights Foundation in Milanville, Pa. Earlier this year the Foundation established the Floyd Cooper Scholarship to provide tuition for an illustrator of color or an Indigenous illustrator to attend a Highlights Foundation course of their choice. A Floyd Cooper “themed” cabin was also made available for on-campus personal retreats at the Foundation and features Cooper’s artwork, photos, and more. Outside of book publishing, Cooper designed a Kwanzaa Forever stamp for the United States Postal Service in 2018.

[Lenona]

http://www.floydcooper.com
(his site)

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/96223.Floyd_Cooper
(reader reviews and book covers)