Frané Lessac is a U.S.-born author, illustrator and painter who lives in Western Australia. She has published many children's books and won numerous awards for her illustrations.

Early life

Lessac grew up in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, a small town outside New York City. As a child, she spent many weekends in museums and galleries. At the age of 18 she moved to Malibu, California, to study ethnographic film at the University of Southern California and UCLA. She worked at many jobs to finance her studies, including projectionist at the local cinema.

Lessac moved to the Caribbean island of Montserrat in 1979,^[1] where she began her career as a painter. Inspired by the beauty of the island, she concentrated on painting the old West Indies architecture and its people.

In 1983 Lessac left Montserrat^[1] and moved to London, where she began to exhibit regularly and published her first book, My Little Island (1984), which was a compilation of her paintings of Montserrat and her "love letter" to the island.^[1]

Career

After My Little Island, Lessac went on to publish a number of children's books, initially in the U.K, the U.S and later in the state of Western Australia, where she relocated with her husband, author and musician Mark Greenwood.^[2]

In 1989 she created the illustration for the cover of the fund-raising album After The Hurricane – Songs For Montserrat.^[1]

In 2002 Lessac founded a Western Australian Branch of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators,^[3] and she has served on the executive committee of the Australian Society of Authors.^[4]

Recognition

For her contribution to children's literature in Western Australia, Lessac was awarded the 2010 Muriel Barwell Award by the Children's Book Council of Australia WA Branch.^[4]

Her first book, My Little Island, was named Children's Book of the Year by the St Martins Children's Book Council and also became a feature book on the popular U.S television program Reading Rainbow.

In 2002 Lessac won the Western Australian Premier's Book Awards for The Legend of Moondyne Joe^[5] was nominated as an Honor book in the Children's Book of the Year Award: Eve Pownall Award for Information Books^[6] for Simpson and his Donkey both of which were written by her husband and frequent collaborator, Mark Greenwood.

Personal life and family

Lessac is married to Mark Greenwood, also an author of children's books, and they are parents to film producer Cody Greenwood.^[1]

Cody's most recent film, Under the Volcano, a documentary about the AIR Montserrat recording studios, arose from memories of the family's frequent visits to Montserrat as she was growing up in the 1990s and 2000s. Lessac visited Montserrat in August 2019, while Cody was filming, and burst into tears upon leaving.^[1]

Selected works

References