On Fame and Juno

I began writing songs for children in 1975 and recording them on my own "people before profit" label. Over the last thirty years, I've worked steadily as a visiting author and songwriter, sharing my love of books, poetry and song in schools and libraries from Fairbanks, Alaska to Washington, DC.

I have almost 350,000 books and recordings in print and until recently, I thought that was impressive. One of the songs on my second album from 1977 was chosen to be the opening song in the movie Juno and the soundtrack to that film sold almost 600,000 copies in three months.

People consider having my song in Juno to be the pinnacle of success and it sure has brought me a lot of attention, but I measure my success differently: I get emails and letters from adults writing to tell me what it was like discovering my books and music in their local library when they were growing up--and how hearing the things I sang about opened a window for them and allowed them to look at the world in a different way.

Recent articles and reviews have described me as keeping a low profile in the last few years but I've actually been touring and performing as much as ever--its just that I don't usually get a lot of media attention working in the schools. That of course changed with Juno.

I've made a great living as a writer these last thirty years--and people are still more important to me than profit. When I meet kids in my school visits, they always ask me if I am rich and I always say "yes" because I love what I do. True wealth has more to do with being happy and content; to be able to create and write something that touches someone profoundly yields a wealth that is immeasurable.

I am thrilled that people are learning to play my songs. I am thrilled that people are singing my songs at their weddings and I am thrilled that so many people want to record and perform my songs. I was happy and content back in 1975 just to be doing what I loved to do. I am thrilled that my work is finding an even bigger audience now and am humbled and grateful for that.

Barry Louis Polisar
March, 2008