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Elizabeth Lorayne ’02 Artist, Award-winning Author
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A Character is Born
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n 2014, artist and writer Elizabeth Lorayne had an epiphany. As a young mother with an eighteenmonth-old daughter, she had been wondering for some time why there were so few strong heroines in picture books for children.
“I kept asking where are the curious, adventurous girls? Where am I?” recalls Elizabeth from her home in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where she lives with her musician husband Robert Lorayne, and daughter Geneviève (Vivi). 01
Not long afterward, Elizabeth answered her own question. A character came to her: a young girl – a naturalist – who captained a ship and was named Piratess Tilly. Elizabeth sat down and wrote ten stanzas in Haiku of Tilly’s adventures on the high seas. “It just came out so naturally,” says Elizabeth. “I read it to Robert and both he and I choked up. He said, ‘Wow, you really have to do something with that.’”
Elizabeth decided to form her own self-publishing press (White Wave Press) with the goal of creating girlempowering stories. She then scoured the illustrators from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and discovered Canadian artist Karen Watson. In December 2015, The Adventures of Piratess Tilly, Book 1, was born. It was very different from a typical children’s story: not only was it written in Haiku, its heroine was a curious biologist. “Piratess Tilly embodied a lot of me,” reveals Elizabeth. “I grew up boating in Seattle, going to the San Juan Islands and exploring the shorelines, shifting rocks to discover crabs, and adventuring through the forests. I loved the outdoors—I even started a neighborhood save-the-earth club called The Pangea Alliance.” Piratess Tilly captured high praise from reviewers and led Elizabeth into a whirlwind of book readings and community events. In May 2016, the Newburyport Custom House Maritime Museum arranged for Elizabeth to meet the only female captain of a tall ship in the world, Captain Rosario Fernandez Rodriguez. The 16th century Spanish tall ship replica, El Galeón, docked in Newburyport’s harbor, and Elizabeth boarded to meet the captain and present her with a copy of Piratess Tilly. Because she didn’t feel finished with Piratess Tilly’s adventures, Elizabeth created a second book, The Adventures of Piratess Tilly Easter Island, Book 2, which was released in 2017. 0 1 Elizabeth, with her musician
husband, Robert Lorayne 0 2 Elizabeth, with Captain Rosario
Fernandez Rodriquez on board the tall ship El Galeon, 2016 0 3 Covers of Elizabeth’s three
books for children
