About
Ruth Goring’s children's picture book Isaiah and the Worry Pack was among the inaugural titles of the IVP Kids imprint in 2021. Her author/illustrator debut, Picturing God (Beaming Books, 2019), was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Adriana's Angels, another picture book, was published by Sparkhouse Family in 2017; a Spanish edition, Los Angeles de Adriana, was released simultaneously and won a silver Moonbeam Award in the Spanish Book category.
Ruth also accepts occasional illustration commissions; seven collage images of biblical psalms will appear in The Peace Table, a children's story Bible (MennoMedia, 2023).
Her poetry collections are Soap Is Political (Glass Lyre, 2015) and Yellow Doors (WordFarm, 2003). Her poems have also appeared in venues such as CALYX, Pilgrimage, RHINO, New Madrid, Iron Horse Literary Review, Reunion, and Crab Orchard Review, and in anthologies such as What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump, edited by Martin Espada (Northwestern Univ. Press, 2019).
Ruth was born in Kansas but grew up in Colombia and is involved in human rights causes there. Her professional career was in editing, most recently in the books division of the University of Chicago Press and teaching advanced manuscript editing in the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies. Nowadays she focuses on botanical art, collage illustration, the writings of medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, and her tiny garden of prairie plants a few blocks from the shores of Lake Michigan. She is represented by Keely Boeving at WordServe Literary.
Featured Work
Isaiah and the Worry Pack
It's bedtime again, but Isaiah can't sleep. It seems he's got too many things on his mind: things he’s worried about. So Mom helps Isaiah imagine what it would be like if each of his worries were a block that he could stash in his backpack.
As Isaiah imagines hiking through the woods carrying his worry pack, he discovers the joy and relief of trusting Jesus with everything—especially those worries.
This tender story written by Ruth Goring, paired with Pamela C. Rice's warm illustrations, includes a note from the author to encourage conversation about fear, love, and God's trustworthiness.
Other Works
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Picturing God
2019
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Caras lindas de Colombia / Beautiful Faces of Colombia
2018
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Adriana's Angels
2017
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Soap Is Political
2015
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Yellow Doors
2003
Awards and Recognition
- Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection (Picturing God)
- Silver Moonbeam award (Los Angeles de Adriana)
- Nominations for Orison Anthology and Best of the Net (“Ávila,” poem published in Psaltery & Lyre, 2021)
Press and Media Mentions
- Publishers Weekly announcement of new children's imprints, highlighting Isaiah and the Worry Pack at IVP Kids, 2021
- Review of Isaiah and the Worry Pack by Sonya VanderVeen Feddema for The Banner
- The Reconnect, interview by Carmen LaBerge about Isaiah and the Worry Pack, 2021
- La Hora Hilo interview (in Spanish), by Jorge Inzunza, 2021
- Faith, Hope and Love During an Election, Compassionate Christianity series, interview by Jennifer Grant, 2020
- Book Publishing, Beginning to End, podcast interview by Eve Odum
- Publishers Weekly review: Picturing God
- "Adriana's Angels" shines light on refugees, diversity in children's books, by Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune
- Author of "Adriana's Angels" Revisits Colombia with Family after Decades, interview by Jerome McDonnell, Chicago Public Radio's "Worldview"
- Ruth Goring and Michael Bracey on the "Beautiful Faces of Colombia," interview by Jerome McDonnell, Chicago Public Radio's "Worldview"
- Ruth Goring writes that in Colombia, "Soap Is Political," interview by Jerome McDonnell & reading, Chicago Public Radio's "Worldview"