Meet the Auchs

Mary Jane (MJ) Auch

Herm Auch

Mary Jane and Herm are a husband and wife author/illustrator team. MJ started out writing middle grade novels, and had nine of them published before branching out into writing and illustrating picture books. Herm spent forty years as a graphic artist, editorial cartoonist, and digital artist in the newspaper business. Herm and MJ co-illustrated their picture books, combining MJ’s paintings or sculptures with Herm’s digital magic. For The Buk Buk Buk Festival, both Herm and MJ worked digitally.

To clear up the confusion about how to pronounce Auch, it's Owk -- with the ow sounding the same way it does in owl. To clear up further confusion about the difference between Mary Jane Auch and MJ Auch, there isn't any. MJ still uses Mary Jane for all of the picture books, but most of the more recent novels are written under MJ, which is the name her friends call her. Herm and MJ live on a small farm in upstate NY with their cat, Hattie.