Lisa Tolin & Yas Imamura | The PEN Ten
Can You Imagine? The Art and Life of Yoko Ono, a new picture book by Lisa Tolin and Yas Imamura, begins with a portrait of the artist as a young woman, introducing Yoko Ono as a child who used her imagination to escape the horrors of World War II. It follows her through her famous romance with John Lennon and beyond, capturing her as an artist in her own right.
In conversation with Sy Sims Managing Director of U.S. Free Expression Programs Jonathan Friedman for this week’s PEN Ten, Tolin (PEN America’s editorial director) and Imamura speak about their collaboration and inspiration, and the challenges of capturing a complex life in picture book form. (Barnes & Noble, Bookshop)
Lisa, you interviewed Yoko Ono in 2005. What inspired you to write a book about her 20 years later?
LT: I had no idea when I walked into the Dakota that our interview might someday inspire a book. I just knew it was the coolest assignment of my life. I was working for The Associated Press and had been asked to interview Yoko Ono about “Lennon,” a musical about John Lennon’s life. To be honest, I don’t remember much about the musical, but the interview was unforgettable. I had grown up hearing about Yoko from the perspective of angry Beatles fans, so it’s a little embarrassing, but my first thought when I met her was, “Well, of course he loved her.” It became obvious that she deserved better treatment from the public. The idea for the book came years later, after I started writing children’s books and came across a newspaper clipping of that interview. I realized Yoko is someone kids should know about for her strength and the power of her imagination.
Indeed, for many people, Yoko Ono has primarily been known as a secondary character in the life of John Lennon. In the book, we see her as so much more than John’s wife — she’s a daughter, sister, mother and artist. Was it challenging to distill her story independent of his?
LT: Her relationship made her famous, but I don’t think it’s what makes her interesting. As a child, she moved back and forth between Japan and the United States when the two countries were headed to war, and she survived the firebombing of Tokyo. After John’s death, she continued making groundbreaking art and engaging in powerful advocacy. I have to credit my brilliant editor, Alyza Liu, for making sure that John didn’t take up too much real estate in the book. She wanted to make sure that this was firmly Yoko’s story.
Yas, as an illustrator, it must be a special challenge to portray an artist and her work. How did you pay tribute to Yoko’s art while making the style your own?
YI: To best pay homage to Yoko’s craft, I decided to deviate from my usual art style and try to let loose a bit more, playing around with watercolor and crayons. I wanted to embody the ever shifting and flowing creative identity of Yoko through the unexpected and sometimes accidental imagery I can come up with, with just blobs of color and doodles.
Did that approach mesh with your usual process for creating art? Do you begin with research and reference images or color and feeling (or something else entirely)?
YI: I usually start with some visual development of imagery that inspire me that would orient the vision I have for the project. Then, I do some sketches and revisit the visual research for color inspiration.
I wanted to embody the ever shifting and flowing creative identity of Yoko through the unexpected and sometimes accidental imagery I can come up with, with just blobs of color and doodles.
One thing that I think is being reevaluated in recent years is the question of Yoko’s role in the breakup of The Beatles, which dogged her for many years. I’m thinking of the recent Get Back documentary which gives a fuller picture of the band’s near-final recording sessions and her participation in them. The film provides a sense that her relationship with John was just one part of a larger constellation of forces at work. Do you think that reevaluation is part of what might drive new interest in her story now?
LT: Get Back was an interesting Rorschach test. Some people watched it and saw the nuanced dynamics you’re describing. Others were astonished that Yoko could knit and open mail while the band was creating a masterpiece. I think from a contemporary perspective, the idea that Yoko had some witchy power over a man is pretty obviously misogynistic and racist. It doesn’t give much credit to John, either, for being a brilliant artist who made his own decisions. Yoko once said “the world gives me too much power. Only the Beatles could break up the Beatles.” That feels fairly evident from the vantage of 2025.
I do think a re-evaluation has contributed to interest in her work – the Tate Modern recently hosted the beautiful exhibition “Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind”; a tribute album featured artists including David Byrne, Deerhoof, and Japanese Breakfast; and her “Wish Tree” will be on display at the Armory in New York this month. She deserves to be appreciated for her own art, which was truly innovative and beautiful.
I admit to knowing more than a bit about Yoko Ono’s biography before I opened the book. But I still learned a lot of new information. What surprised you the most in your research about her?
LT: I was blown away the more I understood the context of her childhood. Anyone can see that Yoko Ono is a courageous, strong woman. When you realize that she also survived World War II in Japan and was brought up with very traditional expectations, you have to marvel that she would go on to create art where she allowed people to cut off her clothing, or played the sound of a toilet flushing at Carnegie Hall.
It also gives a new perspective on her peace activism. Some people have said her bed-ins for peace and “WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It)” campaign were naive. But as a survivor of war, she was well aware of the consequences of violence. She also understood the power of public awareness and collective action.
Is there anything you wished you could have included, or anything significant that changed as you were putting the book together that you’d like people to know about Yoko’s life?
LT: The terrible and beautiful thing about squeezing someone’s life into a picture book is that it forces you to make choices. You have to carefully consider what parts of a person’s life show the story you want to tell children. It was difficult to wrap my head around writing about John’s assassination, for example. How do you explain such a frightening event to a child? I could have written several books, but I wanted to focus on Yoko’s dreams, and how imagination can be liberatory and revolutionary.
That theme is certainly reflected in the beautiful illustrations in the book, which I found captivating and so, well, beautiful. It’s like a piece of art on its own. Yas, your illustrations include many references to birds – one seems to peck at her as she practices piano, another rises from the firebombing of Tokyo, and in the end, Yoko rides a bird before watching doves fill the sky. What drew you to the bird imagery?
YI: It was at first a random bird that I just drew on the music staff as she played on the piano, and then I felt like it was just a recurring imagery that seamlessly integrated into the story because of its significance to the concert of peace and harmony. It was also a vehicle of hope throughout the book.
The terrible and beautiful thing about squeezing someone’s life into a picture book is that it forces you to make choices. You have to carefully consider what parts of a person’s life show the story you want to tell children
Your illustrations convey such rich emotion. What do you hope children take away from Yoko’s story?
YI: I hope they see and feel Yoko’s enduring spirit, the way she made no compromises on who she was as a person, despite the hardships and criticism. Yoko managed to continue to do all of this with such exuberance and creativity and I hope the children who read this book can share in that also.
There’s always a gap between the state the world is in when you’re writing a book and the state it’s in when a book debuts. Have you had a chance to reflect on that? I was struck by the hopeful messages, anti-war advocacy, and even international openness that has been so much a part of Yoko’s life. What do you hope readers take away from the book, especially in this moment in the world?
LT: I think for a lot of people here in the U.S., there’s been a feeling of helplessness in the past few years, especially for those who feel disconnected from their government. There are certainly parallels to the Vietnam war era, when John and Yoko had their bed-ins for peace. One message I hope people take from Yoko is the importance of collective consciousness and action. Yoko describes this as sending small pebbles into the world. Instead of throwing a large stone into the ocean, be “small pebble people” who understand that even the smallest stone can have ripple effects. That is an empowering message, especially for children who are not in control of the world in even the best of circumstances, and don’t have large stones.
Yas Imamura is an Asian American illustrator living in Portland, Oregon. Her works include collaborations with Anthropologie and Sanrio, as well as her growing list of children’s books such as Can You Imagine? by Lisa Tolin and The Elevator on 74th Street by Laura Gehl. Her preferred materials are gouache and watercolor and she often finds herself drawn to projects that are playful, mysterious, and a little offbeat.
Lisa Tolin is the editorial director of PEN America who as a journalist covered arts and entertainment, lifestyle, health, and breaking news for The Associated Press and NBC News. Her years as a journalist gave her the opportunity to interview Yoko Ono in her home. Lisa lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and two sons. You can visit Lisa at LisaTolin.com.
