The Death of Yorik Mortwell

Blown into this world as a baby, Stephen Messer spent his childhood flying kites on windswept hilltops in Maine and Arizona. He has lived in deserts and in megacities, on alpine mountains and in lowland swamps. Nowadays he lives with his wife in an old house surrounded by oak trees in Durham, North Carolina. Sometimes, on windblown nights, it seems like the house has been transported to another world.

Gris Grimly is an award-winning illustrator renowned for his macabre yet playful style in children’s and young adult books, with a career spanning over two decades across publishing, film, animation, and design. His Wicked Nursery Rhymes evolved into a cult-favorite book that helped launch Baby Tattoo Books, while his illustrated editions of classics like Edgar Allan Poe’s works have become widely used in schools. Grimly has collaborated with major publishers, bestselling authors, and studios including Disney and DreamWorks, and today continues to create books after returning to Nebraska with his family.