Laura Shovan's Blog, page 29
November 18, 2015
Craft Talk with Author Lee Gjertsen Malone
I have a confession to make. I am addicted to craft books.
Not the kind with knitting patterns, beading advice, or recipes for adorable cupcakes that look like space aliens (though I do have those).
I'm talking about books about the craft of writing.
These are just a few of my books
about the craft of writing.
Debut middle grade author Lee Gjertsen Malone is stopping by today to give us a pep talk. Sometimes the best advice for authors and NaNovelists is to stop worrying about how to write and just write. That's the moment when our characters, instead of our self-help books, guide us through a draft.
Let's welcome Lee Gjertsen Malone to Author Amok.
Lee Gjertsen Malone is the author of
THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH'S
debuting on February 23, 2016.
“I’m bored,” Francesca said, for what seemed like the tenth time today.
I was jogging along side the two of them, barely able to match their steps. “What’s going? I don’t understand any of this!” I squeaked out, struggling to keep up.
“This is all moving so fast,” Bartholomew whispered, his hands in her hair. “We just met yesterday.”
Many authors find themselves writing this kind of dialogue all the time in first drafts. But sometimes writers need to stop and listen to what our characters saying.
Not to each other – but to us.
I’m a firm believer that we all have a subconscious writer, a little muse (or nag, depending on your point of view) helping us as we grapple with the many facets of writing a novel – the characters, the plot, the voice. And sometimes that muse tells us things we need to hear through our own invented people. I was reminded of this recently while mentoring in this fall's Pitch Wars contest, and I think it’s worthwhile for many writers to consider.
Because let’s face it. If your character thinks the story is boring....or confusing...or moving too fast...what will your readers think?
Sometimes, it’s true, characters need to express certain emotions like frustration or confusion as part of the plot. This kind of dialogue can allow a more knowledgeable character explain what’s going on, or provide needed character depth. For example, a character who is easily frustrated by simple situations could be very compelling in the right story.
But all too often, these bits and pieces of dialogue are telling us what we don’t want to hear – that the romance is actually moving too fast. That our story has become confusing, or repetitive. Or, because the plot demands it, some of the characters are behaving in a way counter to their own personalities.
So looking at dialogue this way during the revision process can be a good method for finding some of the flaws in your work -- especially if you are the sort of writer who is reluctant to listen to critique partners who might be saying the same things.
I generally think reading dialogue out loud is a great way to see how it works for your story, and looking for these kinds of problems is another way you can improve both your dialogue and your plot. If you find can places where what your characters are saying feels more like a commentary on the story itself, then you have an opportunity to solve those problems and avoid some of the tropes that so often torpedo our work, like sagging middles, insta-romances, and plot points that get buried in blur of action.
So, what are your characters saying...to you?
Find out more about Lee's debut
novel on Goodreads.
Lee Gjertsen Malone is the author of the upcoming middle grade novel THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH’S. As a journalist she’s written about everything from wedding planning to the banking crisis to how to build your own homemade camera satellite. Her interests include amateur cheesemaking, traveling, associating with animals, shushing people in movie theaters, kickboxing, and blinking very rapidly for no reason. She lives in Cambridge, Mass. with her husband, daughter, and a rotating cast of pets.
Read the Kirkus *starred review* of THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH'S.
Not the kind with knitting patterns, beading advice, or recipes for adorable cupcakes that look like space aliens (though I do have those).
I'm talking about books about the craft of writing.
These are just a few of my books
about the craft of writing.
Debut middle grade author Lee Gjertsen Malone is stopping by today to give us a pep talk. Sometimes the best advice for authors and NaNovelists is to stop worrying about how to write and just write. That's the moment when our characters, instead of our self-help books, guide us through a draft.
Let's welcome Lee Gjertsen Malone to Author Amok.
Lee Gjertsen Malone is the author of
THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH'S
debuting on February 23, 2016.
“I’m bored,” Francesca said, for what seemed like the tenth time today.
I was jogging along side the two of them, barely able to match their steps. “What’s going? I don’t understand any of this!” I squeaked out, struggling to keep up.
“This is all moving so fast,” Bartholomew whispered, his hands in her hair. “We just met yesterday.”
Many authors find themselves writing this kind of dialogue all the time in first drafts. But sometimes writers need to stop and listen to what our characters saying.
Not to each other – but to us.
I’m a firm believer that we all have a subconscious writer, a little muse (or nag, depending on your point of view) helping us as we grapple with the many facets of writing a novel – the characters, the plot, the voice. And sometimes that muse tells us things we need to hear through our own invented people. I was reminded of this recently while mentoring in this fall's Pitch Wars contest, and I think it’s worthwhile for many writers to consider.
Because let’s face it. If your character thinks the story is boring....or confusing...or moving too fast...what will your readers think?
Sometimes, it’s true, characters need to express certain emotions like frustration or confusion as part of the plot. This kind of dialogue can allow a more knowledgeable character explain what’s going on, or provide needed character depth. For example, a character who is easily frustrated by simple situations could be very compelling in the right story.
But all too often, these bits and pieces of dialogue are telling us what we don’t want to hear – that the romance is actually moving too fast. That our story has become confusing, or repetitive. Or, because the plot demands it, some of the characters are behaving in a way counter to their own personalities.
So looking at dialogue this way during the revision process can be a good method for finding some of the flaws in your work -- especially if you are the sort of writer who is reluctant to listen to critique partners who might be saying the same things.
I generally think reading dialogue out loud is a great way to see how it works for your story, and looking for these kinds of problems is another way you can improve both your dialogue and your plot. If you find can places where what your characters are saying feels more like a commentary on the story itself, then you have an opportunity to solve those problems and avoid some of the tropes that so often torpedo our work, like sagging middles, insta-romances, and plot points that get buried in blur of action.
So, what are your characters saying...to you?
Find out more about Lee's debut
novel on Goodreads.
Lee Gjertsen Malone is the author of the upcoming middle grade novel THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH’S. As a journalist she’s written about everything from wedding planning to the banking crisis to how to build your own homemade camera satellite. Her interests include amateur cheesemaking, traveling, associating with animals, shushing people in movie theaters, kickboxing, and blinking very rapidly for no reason. She lives in Cambridge, Mass. with her husband, daughter, and a rotating cast of pets.
Read the Kirkus *starred review* of THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH'S.
November 12, 2015
Poetry Friday Special Guest: Caroline Starr Rose
Happy Poetry Friday, everyone. It's been raining here in Maryland, and I'm thinking of the poem "November for Beginners" by Rita Dove.
We stack twigs for burning
in glistening patches
but the rain won’t give...
We sit down
in the smell of the past
and rise in a light
that is already leaving.
Read the full poem at the Poetry Foundation.
This week's Poetry Friday host is Bridget
at Wee Words for Wee Ones.
You'll find a feast of poetry posts there.
We are preparing to "sit down in the smell of the past" at my house. It's less than two weeks until Thanksgiving, when we'll gather together for turkey and treats. The biggest treat of all? Our son is coming home from college for a short visit.
This is the time of year when elementary schoolers engage with the past, often learning about Thanksgiving's roots in the history of the United States. The focus is often on Plymouth Colony. But there were other early colonies that deserve our attention and study as well.
Today, guest blogger and verse novelist Caroline Starr Rose is here to tell us more about one of the earliest English colonies in America, at Roanoke Island.
That historical story is the subject of Caroline's most recent novel-in-verse, BLUE BIRDS.
Find out more about the book
on Caroline's website.
It’s that time of year when thoughts turn toward Pilgrims and Plymouth and America’s beginnings (at least as far as the English go). Most of us remember learning in school that Plymouth wasn’t America’s first English colony. That was Jamestown, established thirteen years earlier in 1607.
But not as many of us recall that twenty years before Jamestown, another English settlement tried to take root and failed. This colony, a collection of 117 men, women, and children, started on Roanoke island, 150 miles southeast of Jamestown. All we know about the colony and its inhabitants took place over a five-week period in the summer of 1587.
The colonists had been promised land in the Chesapeake Bay, perhaps not far from the place that eventually became Jamestown. But throughout the voyage, their leader, Governor John White, fought constantly with ship captain Simon Ferdinando. By the time they arrived in Virginia, Ferdinando was done. He left the colonists at Roanoke, refusing to take them any farther.
This and other drawings
from Roanoke Island
by John White can be viewed
at First Colony Foundation.
This was not the first time the English had visited Roanoke. Explorers had come to the island in 1584, and interactions with the Native population had been positive. But by the time the colonists arrived in 1587, the English were no longer welcome. Those intervening years included the burning of a Native village because of a missing silver cup, the Roanoke’s growing frustration as English soldiers who’d built a fort on their island insisted the tribe provide for them, and English diseases that decimated many of the Native peoples. Then escalating mistrust between the Roanoke and English led to English leader Ralph Lane’s pre-emptive attack on the tribe, killing Wingina, the Roanoke chief. When, days later, the English left, they knew there was no chance at reconciliation.
When the colonists arrived, the stage was set for tragedy, and tragic things happened on both sides. I wanted to show this historical truth in my verse novel, Blue Birds, but I also wanted to breathe into the history my own version of hope: Two imaginary girls destined to be enemies choosing friendship instead.
Alis, who is English, and Kimi, who is Roanoke, face many barriers to their friendship, the first being their own perceptions of each other. Both see the other as foreign, inferior, and strange. Kimi, who has lost family members at the hands of the English, understandably is angry. When an Englishman is killed one week after their arrival, Alis understandably is scared. Yet both girls are curious — Kimi about the English women and children that have come to Roanoke this time, Alis about her new surroundings, including the Roanoke girl.
The girls move from seeing the other as an oddity to understanding the humanity they share.
Soon both girls make excuses to leave their homes so they might meet each other. The closer their bond grows, the more risks they are willing to take. While the adults around them rage, these children find a common ground.
This poem, told in both girls’ voices, illustrates just that:
Alis Kimi
This must
remain secret.
My people
would not understand.
We share
no language.
She does not
know our ways.
Because of her tribe,
we live in fear.
The English
tried to destroy us.
Yet she’s shown
me kindness.
She knows
beauty.
She is Kimi,
a Roanoke Indian,
Alis,
an English girl.
She has
become
my friend.
While Blue Birds is rooted in fact, I’ve used my imagination to fill in the blanks. I hope readers will finish the book interested in learning more about Roanoke, England’s very first New World colony. But I hope even more that Alis and Kimi’s bravery might encourage all of us to discover the commonalities we share with those who feel different from ourselves.
Caroline Starr Rose is the author
of the verse novels
MAY B. and BLUE BIRDS.
Thank you so much for this lovely post, Caroline. Alis and Kimi's friendship is timeless, but fraught with tension because of the time and place where they meet.
For those of you who are interested in the history behind BLUE BIRDS, there have been recent archaeological developments in the search for the Roanoke settlement. Check out this New York Times article from August.
REMINDER to Poetry Friday bloggers:
Spaces are limited for THE LAST FIFTH GRADE book vine. If you’d like a chance to meet Ms. Hill’s fifth grade poets before they debut, read more about it here or sign up now! I’m sending the Advanced Reader’s Copy out on Poetry Friday tour soon.
We stack twigs for burning
in glistening patches
but the rain won’t give...
We sit down
in the smell of the past
and rise in a light
that is already leaving.
Read the full poem at the Poetry Foundation.
This week's Poetry Friday host is Bridget
at Wee Words for Wee Ones.
You'll find a feast of poetry posts there.
We are preparing to "sit down in the smell of the past" at my house. It's less than two weeks until Thanksgiving, when we'll gather together for turkey and treats. The biggest treat of all? Our son is coming home from college for a short visit.
This is the time of year when elementary schoolers engage with the past, often learning about Thanksgiving's roots in the history of the United States. The focus is often on Plymouth Colony. But there were other early colonies that deserve our attention and study as well.
Today, guest blogger and verse novelist Caroline Starr Rose is here to tell us more about one of the earliest English colonies in America, at Roanoke Island.
That historical story is the subject of Caroline's most recent novel-in-verse, BLUE BIRDS.
Find out more about the book
on Caroline's website.
It’s that time of year when thoughts turn toward Pilgrims and Plymouth and America’s beginnings (at least as far as the English go). Most of us remember learning in school that Plymouth wasn’t America’s first English colony. That was Jamestown, established thirteen years earlier in 1607.
But not as many of us recall that twenty years before Jamestown, another English settlement tried to take root and failed. This colony, a collection of 117 men, women, and children, started on Roanoke island, 150 miles southeast of Jamestown. All we know about the colony and its inhabitants took place over a five-week period in the summer of 1587.
The colonists had been promised land in the Chesapeake Bay, perhaps not far from the place that eventually became Jamestown. But throughout the voyage, their leader, Governor John White, fought constantly with ship captain Simon Ferdinando. By the time they arrived in Virginia, Ferdinando was done. He left the colonists at Roanoke, refusing to take them any farther.
This and other drawings
from Roanoke Island
by John White can be viewed
at First Colony Foundation.
This was not the first time the English had visited Roanoke. Explorers had come to the island in 1584, and interactions with the Native population had been positive. But by the time the colonists arrived in 1587, the English were no longer welcome. Those intervening years included the burning of a Native village because of a missing silver cup, the Roanoke’s growing frustration as English soldiers who’d built a fort on their island insisted the tribe provide for them, and English diseases that decimated many of the Native peoples. Then escalating mistrust between the Roanoke and English led to English leader Ralph Lane’s pre-emptive attack on the tribe, killing Wingina, the Roanoke chief. When, days later, the English left, they knew there was no chance at reconciliation.
When the colonists arrived, the stage was set for tragedy, and tragic things happened on both sides. I wanted to show this historical truth in my verse novel, Blue Birds, but I also wanted to breathe into the history my own version of hope: Two imaginary girls destined to be enemies choosing friendship instead.
Alis, who is English, and Kimi, who is Roanoke, face many barriers to their friendship, the first being their own perceptions of each other. Both see the other as foreign, inferior, and strange. Kimi, who has lost family members at the hands of the English, understandably is angry. When an Englishman is killed one week after their arrival, Alis understandably is scared. Yet both girls are curious — Kimi about the English women and children that have come to Roanoke this time, Alis about her new surroundings, including the Roanoke girl.
The girls move from seeing the other as an oddity to understanding the humanity they share.
Soon both girls make excuses to leave their homes so they might meet each other. The closer their bond grows, the more risks they are willing to take. While the adults around them rage, these children find a common ground.
This poem, told in both girls’ voices, illustrates just that:
Alis Kimi
This must
remain secret.
My people
would not understand.
We share
no language.
She does not
know our ways.
Because of her tribe,
we live in fear.
The English
tried to destroy us.
Yet she’s shown
me kindness.
She knows
beauty.
She is Kimi,
a Roanoke Indian,
Alis,
an English girl.
She has
become
my friend.
While Blue Birds is rooted in fact, I’ve used my imagination to fill in the blanks. I hope readers will finish the book interested in learning more about Roanoke, England’s very first New World colony. But I hope even more that Alis and Kimi’s bravery might encourage all of us to discover the commonalities we share with those who feel different from ourselves.
Caroline Starr Rose is the author
of the verse novels
MAY B. and BLUE BIRDS.
Thank you so much for this lovely post, Caroline. Alis and Kimi's friendship is timeless, but fraught with tension because of the time and place where they meet.
For those of you who are interested in the history behind BLUE BIRDS, there have been recent archaeological developments in the search for the Roanoke settlement. Check out this New York Times article from August.
REMINDER to Poetry Friday bloggers:
Spaces are limited for THE LAST FIFTH GRADE book vine. If you’d like a chance to meet Ms. Hill’s fifth grade poets before they debut, read more about it here or sign up now! I’m sending the Advanced Reader’s Copy out on Poetry Friday tour soon.
November 5, 2015
Laura's Bookshelf: THE GIRL WHO FELL
Happy Poetry Friday. I've got a terrific YA novel and poem pairing to share with you this week.
Katya at Write. Sketch Repeat. is hosting
this week's Poetry Friday link up.
One of the best parts
about being a debut novelist has been connecting with other children's authors
in the class of 2016.
I loved THE GIRL WHO FELL by S.M. Parker. It’s
contemporary YA about Zephyr, a star field hockey player who has her life
together and her college plans in place, until she meets a boy. At first, it’s all racing
heart beats and cute kissing at the playground after dark, but over
time Alec goes from needy, to possessive and manipulative, to full on abusive
stalker.
I have to admit that this book was difficult
to read because of my own history. When I was in high school, an ex-boyfriend
stalked me for several months. You can read about it here (scroll down to the UPDATE).
I had to take it
slow – a chapter or a few pages at a time. There were many times when I
wrote Zephyr a note in the book: “No, Zee!” and “Wake up, Zephyr!” I was so
invested in her character and in Zephyr finding her way back to herself.
Pre-order from your local indie bookstore
via Indiebound.
This contemporary YA launches on March 1, 2016. Here
is the blurb from Goodreads:
His obsession.
Her fall.
In this dark kissing book, high school senior
Zephyr Doyle is swept off her feet—and into an intense relationship—by the new
boy in school.
Zephyr is focused. Focused on leading her team to
the field hockey state championship and leaving her small town for her dream
school, Boston College.
But love has a way of changing things.
Enter the new boy in school: the hockey team’s
starting goaltender, Alec. He’s cute, charming, and most important, Alec
doesn’t judge Zephyr. He understands her fears and insecurities—he even shares
them. Soon, their relationship becomes something bigger than Zephyr, something
she can’t control, something she doesn’t want to control.
Zephyr swears it must be love. Because love is
powerful, and overwhelming, and…terrifying?
But love shouldn’t make you abandon your dreams,
or push your friends away. And love shouldn’t make you feel guilty—or worse,
ashamed.
So when Zephyr finally begins to see Alec for who
he really is, she knows it’s time to take back control of her life.
If she waits any longer, it may be too late.
THE GIRL WHO FELL is appropriate for high
schoolers and up.
Who will like it?
·
Teens who like edgy
romance.
·
Athletes and kids who
struggle to balance social life with commitments.
·
Readers who love first
person narrators.
What will readers learn
about?
·
Abuse is complicated.
A victim can feel attracted to, and have a healthy sex life with, an abuser.
·
Indicators that
someone has the potential to be abusive or controlling, e.g. forbidding you to
spend time with other friends and family.
·
Especially for teens,
the importance of putting your own needs first, before those of your romantic
partner.
The poem I'm pairing with THE GIRL WHO FELL
was published in Little Patuxent Review
(the literary journal for which I edit poetry) earlier this year. It’s by
Maryland poet and educator Rachel Eisler.
If I were Zephyr’s teacher, this is the poem I
would hand to her, to remind her how strong she is as an athlete and as a young
woman.
I shared the poem with Shannon Parker, who
said, “I love how this turns objectification on its head and makes women have
all the power.”
It’s Lovely to Watch Young Women
By Rachel
Eisler
It’s lovely
to watch young women
elbow
opponents as they strive
in each
others’ shining faces to make the shot.
They pound
down the boards,
dribbling
and swiveling, seek allies,
in the
frantic five.
It’s lovely
to watch young women,
so
passionate and cool,
as the fouls
squeak silent, the lines fade
into
screens, fake-outs, and passes
to move and
seize the ball.
Their pure
ferocity
the urge to
wrest
something
from someone
because you
want it more
right then
and you
better best
them.
Someday, it
may get old or tame
headlong
lose or wild win,
both such
cool water to a woman
parched by
politeness,
hungry for
this fight.
Rachel Eisler teaches Upper School English at Garrison Forest School, working closely with colleagues in Grades Six through Twelve. She received her B.A. in English from Yale College and her M.A. in Poetry from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Before joining the GFS faculty in 2010, she taught at The National Cathedral School, The Bryn Mawr School, The Writing Seminars, and The University of Baltimore. Her poems have been featured on WYPR’s The Signal, and have appeared in The Baltimore Sun, The New York Times, and The Urbanite. Her first chapbook of poems was published in fall 2009.
Thanks to Shannon
and Rachel for their contributions to this post.
REMINDER to Poetry Friday bloggers:
I still have a few spaces left for THE LAST FIFTH GRADE book
vine. If you’d like a chance to meet Ms. Hill’s fifth grade poets before they
debut, read more about it here or sign up now! I’m sending the Advanced Reader’s Copy out on Poetry
Friday tour soon.
Katya at Write. Sketch Repeat. is hosting
this week's Poetry Friday link up.
One of the best parts
about being a debut novelist has been connecting with other children's authors
in the class of 2016.
I loved THE GIRL WHO FELL by S.M. Parker. It’s
contemporary YA about Zephyr, a star field hockey player who has her life
together and her college plans in place, until she meets a boy. At first, it’s all racing
heart beats and cute kissing at the playground after dark, but over
time Alec goes from needy, to possessive and manipulative, to full on abusive
stalker.
I have to admit that this book was difficult
to read because of my own history. When I was in high school, an ex-boyfriend
stalked me for several months. You can read about it here (scroll down to the UPDATE).
I had to take it
slow – a chapter or a few pages at a time. There were many times when I
wrote Zephyr a note in the book: “No, Zee!” and “Wake up, Zephyr!” I was so
invested in her character and in Zephyr finding her way back to herself.
Pre-order from your local indie bookstore
via Indiebound.
This contemporary YA launches on March 1, 2016. Here
is the blurb from Goodreads:
His obsession.
Her fall.
In this dark kissing book, high school senior
Zephyr Doyle is swept off her feet—and into an intense relationship—by the new
boy in school.
Zephyr is focused. Focused on leading her team to
the field hockey state championship and leaving her small town for her dream
school, Boston College.
But love has a way of changing things.
Enter the new boy in school: the hockey team’s
starting goaltender, Alec. He’s cute, charming, and most important, Alec
doesn’t judge Zephyr. He understands her fears and insecurities—he even shares
them. Soon, their relationship becomes something bigger than Zephyr, something
she can’t control, something she doesn’t want to control.
Zephyr swears it must be love. Because love is
powerful, and overwhelming, and…terrifying?
But love shouldn’t make you abandon your dreams,
or push your friends away. And love shouldn’t make you feel guilty—or worse,
ashamed.
So when Zephyr finally begins to see Alec for who
he really is, she knows it’s time to take back control of her life.
If she waits any longer, it may be too late.
THE GIRL WHO FELL is appropriate for high
schoolers and up.
Who will like it?
·
Teens who like edgy
romance.
·
Athletes and kids who
struggle to balance social life with commitments.
·
Readers who love first
person narrators.
What will readers learn
about?
·
Abuse is complicated.
A victim can feel attracted to, and have a healthy sex life with, an abuser.
·
Indicators that
someone has the potential to be abusive or controlling, e.g. forbidding you to
spend time with other friends and family.
·
Especially for teens,
the importance of putting your own needs first, before those of your romantic
partner.
The poem I'm pairing with THE GIRL WHO FELL
was published in Little Patuxent Review
(the literary journal for which I edit poetry) earlier this year. It’s by
Maryland poet and educator Rachel Eisler.
If I were Zephyr’s teacher, this is the poem I
would hand to her, to remind her how strong she is as an athlete and as a young
woman.
I shared the poem with Shannon Parker, who
said, “I love how this turns objectification on its head and makes women have
all the power.”
It’s Lovely to Watch Young Women
By Rachel
Eisler
It’s lovely
to watch young women
elbow
opponents as they strive
in each
others’ shining faces to make the shot.
They pound
down the boards,
dribbling
and swiveling, seek allies,
in the
frantic five.
It’s lovely
to watch young women,
so
passionate and cool,
as the fouls
squeak silent, the lines fade
into
screens, fake-outs, and passes
to move and
seize the ball.
Their pure
ferocity
the urge to
wrest
something
from someone
because you
want it more
right then
and you
better best
them.
Someday, it
may get old or tame
headlong
lose or wild win,
both such
cool water to a woman
parched by
politeness,
hungry for
this fight.
Rachel Eisler teaches Upper School English at Garrison Forest School, working closely with colleagues in Grades Six through Twelve. She received her B.A. in English from Yale College and her M.A. in Poetry from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Before joining the GFS faculty in 2010, she taught at The National Cathedral School, The Bryn Mawr School, The Writing Seminars, and The University of Baltimore. Her poems have been featured on WYPR’s The Signal, and have appeared in The Baltimore Sun, The New York Times, and The Urbanite. Her first chapbook of poems was published in fall 2009.
Thanks to Shannon
and Rachel for their contributions to this post.
REMINDER to Poetry Friday bloggers:
I still have a few spaces left for THE LAST FIFTH GRADE book
vine. If you’d like a chance to meet Ms. Hill’s fifth grade poets before they
debut, read more about it here or sign up now! I’m sending the Advanced Reader’s Copy out on Poetry
Friday tour soon.
October 29, 2015
Poetry Friday: Announcing a LAST FIFTH GRADE Book Vine
H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N
Carving by Dan Szczepanski
Hey, all you trick or treaters, head to Jone MacCulloch's house for some poetry goodies. She's left the lights on at Check It Out, so you know it's safe to ring the doorbell.
I've been away from the Poetry Friday party for a few weeks, but I'm making it up to you with something extra special. THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY is going on an ARC tour!
Cover Snark called THE LAST FIFTH GRADE
"rather macabre." Now Mr. Poe wants to read it
to find out if she was serious. (She wasn't.)
I'm so grateful for everyone in the Poetry Friday community who has followed the progress of my middle grade novel-in-verse and cheered me on over the years. The book doesn't come out until April 12, but here is your chance for a sneak peek.
I'm sending THE LAST FIFTH GRADE on a book vine, especially for Poetry Friday bloggers. You'll find the sign-up form by clicking on THIS LINK. Simply fill out the form to participate. Once twelve people have signed up, I will contact everyone by email with the details.
And here is a Halloween poem that was cut from the book -- a special little Halloween treat just between us ghouls.
Halloween
By
Brianna Holmes
My favorite
day is Halloween.
I
get to be a wicked queen,
a
princess who’s got lots of cash,
a
zombie dancing Monster Mash.
I’ll
be a vampire, dressed in black,
blood
on my sleeves, lace down my back
and make
the little kids afraid,
marching
in the school parade.
I’ll
trick or treat in neighborhoods
where
it’s safe and the candy’s good.
I
thought Hannah would go with me
if I
made her a witch’s dress for free.
But
she said Halloween is dumb
walking
‘til your feet are numb,
lugging
all the treats you’re taking,
eating
‘til your stomach’s aching.
What’s
up with her? How can it be?
I
thought Hannah was just like me.
P.S. Are you checking out the cover to see which character is Brianna? She's in the bottom row in her snazzy beret.
P.P.S. Check out yesterday's post for a very cool pairing of a book (Jeff Garvin's SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN) and a poem by one of the HUMANS OF NEW YORK. Your teens will thank you.
Carving by Dan Szczepanski
Hey, all you trick or treaters, head to Jone MacCulloch's house for some poetry goodies. She's left the lights on at Check It Out, so you know it's safe to ring the doorbell.
I've been away from the Poetry Friday party for a few weeks, but I'm making it up to you with something extra special. THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY is going on an ARC tour!
Cover Snark called THE LAST FIFTH GRADE
"rather macabre." Now Mr. Poe wants to read it
to find out if she was serious. (She wasn't.)
I'm so grateful for everyone in the Poetry Friday community who has followed the progress of my middle grade novel-in-verse and cheered me on over the years. The book doesn't come out until April 12, but here is your chance for a sneak peek.
I'm sending THE LAST FIFTH GRADE on a book vine, especially for Poetry Friday bloggers. You'll find the sign-up form by clicking on THIS LINK. Simply fill out the form to participate. Once twelve people have signed up, I will contact everyone by email with the details.
And here is a Halloween poem that was cut from the book -- a special little Halloween treat just between us ghouls.
Halloween
By
Brianna Holmes
My favorite
day is Halloween.
I
get to be a wicked queen,
a
princess who’s got lots of cash,
a
zombie dancing Monster Mash.
I’ll
be a vampire, dressed in black,
blood
on my sleeves, lace down my back
and make
the little kids afraid,
marching
in the school parade.
I’ll
trick or treat in neighborhoods
where
it’s safe and the candy’s good.
I
thought Hannah would go with me
if I
made her a witch’s dress for free.
But
she said Halloween is dumb
walking
‘til your feet are numb,
lugging
all the treats you’re taking,
eating
‘til your stomach’s aching.
What’s
up with her? How can it be?
I
thought Hannah was just like me.
P.S. Are you checking out the cover to see which character is Brianna? She's in the bottom row in her snazzy beret.
P.P.S. Check out yesterday's post for a very cool pairing of a book (Jeff Garvin's SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN) and a poem by one of the HUMANS OF NEW YORK. Your teens will thank you.
Laura's Bookshelf: SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN
One of the best parts about being a debut novelist has been connecting with other children's authors in the class of 2016.
SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN by Jeff Garvin was a book that I immediately passed to my teen. It's a must-read contemporary YA with a heart-breakingly real protagonist.
Pre-order from Indiebound
This contemporary YA launches on February 2. Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
The first thing you’re going to want to know about me is: Am I a boy, or am I a girl?
Riley Cavanaugh is many things: Punk rock. Snarky. Rebellious. And gender fluid. Some days Riley identifies as a boy, and others as a girl. The thing is . . . Riley isn’t exactly out yet. And between starting a new school and having a congressman father running for reelection in uber-conservative Orange County, the pressure—media and otherwise—is building up in Riley’s so-called “normal” life.
On the advice of a therapist, Riley starts an anonymous blog to vent those pent-up feelings and tell the truth of what it’s REALLY like to be a gender-fluid teenager. But just as Riley’s starting to settle in at school—even developing feelings for a mysterious outcast—the blog goes viral, and an unnamed commenter discovers Riley’s real identity, threatening exposure. Riley must make a choice: walk away from what the blog has created—a lifeline, new friends, a cause to believe in—or stand up, come out, and risk everything.
This chart is oversimplified, but it's a start!
From Transstudent.org
I ached for Riley, who must wake up every morning and discover who they are and how they are going to navigate the world. (Yes, the pronoun is intentional. I'm learning from my teen that pronouns are a big issue for people in the LGBT+ community and their allies. Read more about that at the U. Milwaukee LGBT Resource Center page.) The friends Riley makes at their new high school are also well-drawn, appealing characters who accept Riley for who they are, inside and out, and offer support when Riley is struggling with a threatening stalker.
SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN is appropriate for mature middle schoolers and up.
Who will like it?
Teens who want to know more about the gender spectrum.
Anyone who has felt out of place at school (who hasn't?).
Readers who love first person narrators.
What will readers learn about?
Even people who are "different" aren't alone. Opening up to others is a way to find friends and support.
The power of speaking up and speaking out.
The importance of being true to yourself.
The poem I'm pairing with SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN was first posted as part of the "Humans of New York" series of photographs and interviews. The author is a teen named Puck.
The NY skyline swirls around me,
Cars and brick and tree trunks
mashing together,
glass windows gnash jagged teeth
The body of a dead girl was
found earlier today,
bleeding out on the sidewalk.
Rising from her body came
an awkward boy,
stammering and confused
and full of wonder
and terror all at once
The boy’s grandparents keep
a photo of the boy in a
dark chestnut wig,
all made up and dressed to the 9’s
(They believe her to still be alive)...
Read the rest of the poem at the Humans of New York Facebook page.
And you can read more about Puck at GLAAD.
SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN is available for pre-order at Amazon. Thank you to Jeff Garvin for making the ARC available.
SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN by Jeff Garvin was a book that I immediately passed to my teen. It's a must-read contemporary YA with a heart-breakingly real protagonist.
Pre-order from Indiebound
This contemporary YA launches on February 2. Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
The first thing you’re going to want to know about me is: Am I a boy, or am I a girl?
Riley Cavanaugh is many things: Punk rock. Snarky. Rebellious. And gender fluid. Some days Riley identifies as a boy, and others as a girl. The thing is . . . Riley isn’t exactly out yet. And between starting a new school and having a congressman father running for reelection in uber-conservative Orange County, the pressure—media and otherwise—is building up in Riley’s so-called “normal” life.
On the advice of a therapist, Riley starts an anonymous blog to vent those pent-up feelings and tell the truth of what it’s REALLY like to be a gender-fluid teenager. But just as Riley’s starting to settle in at school—even developing feelings for a mysterious outcast—the blog goes viral, and an unnamed commenter discovers Riley’s real identity, threatening exposure. Riley must make a choice: walk away from what the blog has created—a lifeline, new friends, a cause to believe in—or stand up, come out, and risk everything.
This chart is oversimplified, but it's a start!
From Transstudent.org
I ached for Riley, who must wake up every morning and discover who they are and how they are going to navigate the world. (Yes, the pronoun is intentional. I'm learning from my teen that pronouns are a big issue for people in the LGBT+ community and their allies. Read more about that at the U. Milwaukee LGBT Resource Center page.) The friends Riley makes at their new high school are also well-drawn, appealing characters who accept Riley for who they are, inside and out, and offer support when Riley is struggling with a threatening stalker.
SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN is appropriate for mature middle schoolers and up.
Who will like it?
Teens who want to know more about the gender spectrum.
Anyone who has felt out of place at school (who hasn't?).
Readers who love first person narrators.
What will readers learn about?
Even people who are "different" aren't alone. Opening up to others is a way to find friends and support.
The power of speaking up and speaking out.
The importance of being true to yourself.
The poem I'm pairing with SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN was first posted as part of the "Humans of New York" series of photographs and interviews. The author is a teen named Puck.
The NY skyline swirls around me,
Cars and brick and tree trunks
mashing together,
glass windows gnash jagged teeth
The body of a dead girl was
found earlier today,
bleeding out on the sidewalk.
Rising from her body came
an awkward boy,
stammering and confused
and full of wonder
and terror all at once
The boy’s grandparents keep
a photo of the boy in a
dark chestnut wig,
all made up and dressed to the 9’s
(They believe her to still be alive)...
Read the rest of the poem at the Humans of New York Facebook page.
And you can read more about Puck at GLAAD.
SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN is available for pre-order at Amazon. Thank you to Jeff Garvin for making the ARC available.
October 1, 2015
Poetry Friday: Monsters
It’s the first Poetry Friday
of Halloween month. Today I’m going to tell you about great Halloween read for
teens. There will be a poem, too. We’ll save that for last.
Heidi Mordhorst is kicking off
our Happy Halloween season
at My Juicy Little Universe.
The book in question is a
horror novel, one I loved, even though I almost never read horror. I am not
brave when it comes to scary books. Or movies. Or TV shows. If you insist on
watching the Halloween episode of “Little House on the Prairie,” I will quietly
disappear from the room before things get intense.
But I made an exception for
the YA novel SHALLOW GRAVES by my fellow 2016 debut author, Kali Wallace. I
bravely signed up to read Kali’s ARC. I took a funny picture of my dog freaking
out with fear.
No dogs were harmed in the taking of this picture.
Rudy just looks ridiculous when he yawns.
To explain why I fell in love
with the story of a Breezy Lin, a teenage revenant (not “zombie,” please, our
protagonist is neither mindless nor is she into eating brains), I have to tell
you a true story.
Last weekend, my friend’s niece was in a terrible car accident. Although she survived, one of her friends was killed. How will this teenager cope? Witnessing the death of a classmate will irrevocably change who she is and how
she interacts with the world.
So, my question is, how do
teens begin to recover from this kind of intense trauma? The same question
is at the heart of SHALLOW GRAVES. The more I thought about the novel, the more I realized that -- like the best science fiction and fantasy books -- the story serves as a metaphor for difficult things that we confront in real life.
Pre-order from Amazon.
A year after she is murdered,
seventeen-year-old Breezy Lin wakes up in a shallow back-yard grave. The
circumstances of her revival are mysterious, magical, and as violent as her
initial death.
Although she wants nothing
more than to return, alive, to her life as it was, Breezy is fundamentally a different
person because of the trauma she has experienced. She can’t go back to her
family or be her old self. Instead, she has to let go of the labels with which
she once defined herself (future astronaut – that’s not going to happen) and
find new, more complex ways of understanding who she is. METAPHOR.
Breezy’s quest to find out
what she is and how she came to be undead takes her to some truly frightening
places. Along the way, Breezy is forced to learn how to tell the difference
between those who want to help her and those who want to hurt her (a great cast
of religious fanatics, ghouls, and one ancient creature so evil, your skin will
crawl), a skill she did not have when she was alive.
SHALLOW GRAVES was recently
reviewed by Kirkus. Check out what they had to say here.
Breezy is courageous in her willingness to confront
the truth. Underneath this tale of imagined monsters is a real road map for survivors. Because the paranormal elements are a metaphor, a lens for looking at real human experience, the reader follows along as Breezy copes with trauma, recognizes that it has changed her forever, and begins the process of being comfortable with who she is now.
I wanted to find the perfect
poem to read alongside Kali’s wonderful book. And here it is…
Monsters
By Dorothea Lasky
This is a world where there are monsters
There are monsters everywhere, raccoons and skunks
There are possums outside, there are monsters in my bed.
There is one monster. He is my little one.
I talk to my little monster.
I give my little monster some bacon but that does not satisfy him.
I tell him, ssh ssh, don’t growl little monster!
And he growls, oh boy does he growl!
And he wants something from me,
He wants my soul.
Read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.
Stay spooky.
of Halloween month. Today I’m going to tell you about great Halloween read for
teens. There will be a poem, too. We’ll save that for last.
Heidi Mordhorst is kicking off
our Happy Halloween season
at My Juicy Little Universe.
The book in question is a
horror novel, one I loved, even though I almost never read horror. I am not
brave when it comes to scary books. Or movies. Or TV shows. If you insist on
watching the Halloween episode of “Little House on the Prairie,” I will quietly
disappear from the room before things get intense.
But I made an exception for
the YA novel SHALLOW GRAVES by my fellow 2016 debut author, Kali Wallace. I
bravely signed up to read Kali’s ARC. I took a funny picture of my dog freaking
out with fear.
No dogs were harmed in the taking of this picture.
Rudy just looks ridiculous when he yawns.
To explain why I fell in love
with the story of a Breezy Lin, a teenage revenant (not “zombie,” please, our
protagonist is neither mindless nor is she into eating brains), I have to tell
you a true story.
Last weekend, my friend’s niece was in a terrible car accident. Although she survived, one of her friends was killed. How will this teenager cope? Witnessing the death of a classmate will irrevocably change who she is and how
she interacts with the world.
So, my question is, how do
teens begin to recover from this kind of intense trauma? The same question
is at the heart of SHALLOW GRAVES. The more I thought about the novel, the more I realized that -- like the best science fiction and fantasy books -- the story serves as a metaphor for difficult things that we confront in real life.
Pre-order from Amazon.
A year after she is murdered,
seventeen-year-old Breezy Lin wakes up in a shallow back-yard grave. The
circumstances of her revival are mysterious, magical, and as violent as her
initial death.
Although she wants nothing
more than to return, alive, to her life as it was, Breezy is fundamentally a different
person because of the trauma she has experienced. She can’t go back to her
family or be her old self. Instead, she has to let go of the labels with which
she once defined herself (future astronaut – that’s not going to happen) and
find new, more complex ways of understanding who she is. METAPHOR.
Breezy’s quest to find out
what she is and how she came to be undead takes her to some truly frightening
places. Along the way, Breezy is forced to learn how to tell the difference
between those who want to help her and those who want to hurt her (a great cast
of religious fanatics, ghouls, and one ancient creature so evil, your skin will
crawl), a skill she did not have when she was alive.
SHALLOW GRAVES was recently
reviewed by Kirkus. Check out what they had to say here.
Breezy is courageous in her willingness to confront
the truth. Underneath this tale of imagined monsters is a real road map for survivors. Because the paranormal elements are a metaphor, a lens for looking at real human experience, the reader follows along as Breezy copes with trauma, recognizes that it has changed her forever, and begins the process of being comfortable with who she is now.
I wanted to find the perfect
poem to read alongside Kali’s wonderful book. And here it is…
Monsters
By Dorothea Lasky
This is a world where there are monsters
There are monsters everywhere, raccoons and skunks
There are possums outside, there are monsters in my bed.
There is one monster. He is my little one.
I talk to my little monster.
I give my little monster some bacon but that does not satisfy him.
I tell him, ssh ssh, don’t growl little monster!
And he growls, oh boy does he growl!
And he wants something from me,
He wants my soul.
Read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.
Stay spooky.
September 24, 2015
Spending Poetry Friday at the Baltimore Book Festival
Writerly Friends, it's Baltimore Book Festival weekend!
Janet at Poetry for Children is hosting
this week's Poetry Friday festival of posts.
I'll be reading, writing, and speaking down at Baltimore's Inner Harbor all weekend. I'll catch up on the Poetry Friday festivities later.
The list of featured authors includes several poets and children's authors I hope to see:
Kwame Alexander
Katherine Applegate
Sandra Beasley
Celeste Doaks
Frederick O. Foote
Erin Hagar
Meg Medina
E. Ethelbert Miller
Laura Shovan
Carole Boston Weatherford
Did you see a familiar name on there? Here's where you can find me:
Saturday, 1 PM at the CityLit Stage
Chapbook Champions: Winners of the Harriss Poetry Prize
Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the Harriss Poetry Prize is a chapbook competition open to poets nation-wide who have not published a book-length collection. Named in honor of the patron saint of Maryland poetry and independent publishing, Clarinda Harriss, and published under the CityLit Press imprint, the prize has been judged by acclaimed poets such as Dick Allen, Marie Howe, Tom Lux, and Michael Salcman, who serves as the series editor.
Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka (Oblige the Light) is the author of Face Half-Illuminated, a book of poems, translations, and prose. Her poems, translations, essays, and interviews have appeared in Akcent; Driftwood Press; International Poetry Review; Lalitamba; Little Patuxent Review; Loch Raven Review; Notre Dame Review; Passager; Przegl?d Polski, Nowy Dziennik; and The Baltimore Review, and elsewhere.
Rebekah Remington (Asphalt) holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from the University of Michigan. Her poetry has appeared in Linebreak, The Missouri Review, Ninth Letter, Bellingham Review Online, Hayden Ferry’s Review, Smartish Pace, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of two Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in poetry.
Bruce Sager (Famous) works as a corporate officer in a systems integration firm. He has been the recipient of Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in both fiction and poetry, a Baltimore City Arts Grant in poetry, and the 1986 Artscape Literary Arts Award in poetry, judged by William Stafford. Prior chapbooks include Nine Ninety-Five and The Pumping Station.
Laura Shovan (Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone) is poetry editor for the literary journal Little Patuxent Review. She edited the Maryland Writers’ Association anthology Life in Me Like Grass on Fire: Love Poems. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, her novel-in-verse for children, will be published next year.
Sunday, 12 PM at the CityLit Stage
The Poet's Response: A Conversation on Social Justice and Poetics (Little Patuxent Review and Split This Rock)
Co-Sponsored by Little Patuxent Review and Split This Rock, the D.C.-based national network of socially engaged poets, this panel and poetry reading explores how poets respond to issues of social justice, and how activism shapes, informs, and invigorates the poet's craft. The conversation is co-moderated by Sarah Browning, executive director of Split This Rock, and Steven Leyva, editor of Little Patuxent Review.
Mahogany L. Browne is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem and Poet’s House, and is the current curator and host for the Friday Night series at the Nuyorican Poet’s Café in New York. Her most recent projects include Redbone: A Biomythography, #Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out Online in 140 Characters or Less, and Swag.
zakia henderson-brown currently serves as Associate Editor at The New Press and on the board of the Brooklyn Movement Center. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming inBeloit Poetry Journal, North American Review, and Vinyl. zakia is a Cave Canem fellow and resides in her native Brooklyn.
Goldie Patrick has been a feature poet and performer at several poetry venues nationwide. Most recently named one of the top 40 under 40 by the Envest Foundation, Goldie is a self-proclaimed “hip-hop womanist,” inspired to create conversations and movements that empower and liberate the stories of Black women and girls.
Laura Shovan is poetry editor for Little Patuxent Review and editor of two poetry anthologies. Her chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone, won the inaugural Harriss Poetry Prize. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, her novel-in-verse for children, will be published in 2016.
If you're going to BBF, look for the SCBWI table!
This is the first year that our local region will be represented at the festival.
Check out our local authors on Friday, 4 pm at the Inner Harbor Stage.
So You Want to Write a Children’s Book
Introduced by: Joyce Garczynski, Research and Instruction Librarian, Towson University
Members of the MD/DE/WV region of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators share their paths to publication in a panel discussion.
Panelists: Timothy Young, Ann McCallum, Laura Gehl and Rebecca Evans.
I'm excited to meet Laura Gehl, who has been featured here at Author Amok.
I can't leave without sharing a poem.
E. Ethelbert Miller's website has a wonderful selection of his poems. "Circus Animal" is a powerful short poem. I think this is a great one for eliciting a powerful discussion with your high school students. You'll find the poem here.
Janet at Poetry for Children is hosting
this week's Poetry Friday festival of posts.
I'll be reading, writing, and speaking down at Baltimore's Inner Harbor all weekend. I'll catch up on the Poetry Friday festivities later.
The list of featured authors includes several poets and children's authors I hope to see:
Kwame Alexander
Katherine Applegate
Sandra Beasley
Celeste Doaks
Frederick O. Foote
Erin Hagar
Meg Medina
E. Ethelbert Miller
Laura Shovan
Carole Boston Weatherford
Did you see a familiar name on there? Here's where you can find me:
Saturday, 1 PM at the CityLit Stage
Chapbook Champions: Winners of the Harriss Poetry Prize
Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the Harriss Poetry Prize is a chapbook competition open to poets nation-wide who have not published a book-length collection. Named in honor of the patron saint of Maryland poetry and independent publishing, Clarinda Harriss, and published under the CityLit Press imprint, the prize has been judged by acclaimed poets such as Dick Allen, Marie Howe, Tom Lux, and Michael Salcman, who serves as the series editor.
Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka (Oblige the Light) is the author of Face Half-Illuminated, a book of poems, translations, and prose. Her poems, translations, essays, and interviews have appeared in Akcent; Driftwood Press; International Poetry Review; Lalitamba; Little Patuxent Review; Loch Raven Review; Notre Dame Review; Passager; Przegl?d Polski, Nowy Dziennik; and The Baltimore Review, and elsewhere.
Rebekah Remington (Asphalt) holds a BA from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from the University of Michigan. Her poetry has appeared in Linebreak, The Missouri Review, Ninth Letter, Bellingham Review Online, Hayden Ferry’s Review, Smartish Pace, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of two Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in poetry.
Bruce Sager (Famous) works as a corporate officer in a systems integration firm. He has been the recipient of Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in both fiction and poetry, a Baltimore City Arts Grant in poetry, and the 1986 Artscape Literary Arts Award in poetry, judged by William Stafford. Prior chapbooks include Nine Ninety-Five and The Pumping Station.
Laura Shovan (Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone) is poetry editor for the literary journal Little Patuxent Review. She edited the Maryland Writers’ Association anthology Life in Me Like Grass on Fire: Love Poems. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, her novel-in-verse for children, will be published next year.
Sunday, 12 PM at the CityLit Stage
The Poet's Response: A Conversation on Social Justice and Poetics (Little Patuxent Review and Split This Rock)
Co-Sponsored by Little Patuxent Review and Split This Rock, the D.C.-based national network of socially engaged poets, this panel and poetry reading explores how poets respond to issues of social justice, and how activism shapes, informs, and invigorates the poet's craft. The conversation is co-moderated by Sarah Browning, executive director of Split This Rock, and Steven Leyva, editor of Little Patuxent Review.
Mahogany L. Browne is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem and Poet’s House, and is the current curator and host for the Friday Night series at the Nuyorican Poet’s Café in New York. Her most recent projects include Redbone: A Biomythography, #Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out Online in 140 Characters or Less, and Swag.
zakia henderson-brown currently serves as Associate Editor at The New Press and on the board of the Brooklyn Movement Center. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming inBeloit Poetry Journal, North American Review, and Vinyl. zakia is a Cave Canem fellow and resides in her native Brooklyn.
Goldie Patrick has been a feature poet and performer at several poetry venues nationwide. Most recently named one of the top 40 under 40 by the Envest Foundation, Goldie is a self-proclaimed “hip-hop womanist,” inspired to create conversations and movements that empower and liberate the stories of Black women and girls.
Laura Shovan is poetry editor for Little Patuxent Review and editor of two poetry anthologies. Her chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone, won the inaugural Harriss Poetry Prize. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, her novel-in-verse for children, will be published in 2016.
If you're going to BBF, look for the SCBWI table!
This is the first year that our local region will be represented at the festival.
Check out our local authors on Friday, 4 pm at the Inner Harbor Stage.
So You Want to Write a Children’s Book
Introduced by: Joyce Garczynski, Research and Instruction Librarian, Towson University
Members of the MD/DE/WV region of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators share their paths to publication in a panel discussion.
Panelists: Timothy Young, Ann McCallum, Laura Gehl and Rebecca Evans.
I'm excited to meet Laura Gehl, who has been featured here at Author Amok.
I can't leave without sharing a poem.
E. Ethelbert Miller's website has a wonderful selection of his poems. "Circus Animal" is a powerful short poem. I think this is a great one for eliciting a powerful discussion with your high school students. You'll find the poem here.
September 17, 2015
Poetry Friday: Under the Surface
Happy Poetry Friday!
Your host is Michelle Heidenrich Barnes
at Today's Little Ditty. Stop by TLD
for all of this week's poetry links.
This week, there was a story in the news that settled down in mind to sit. I don't know what it will lead to -- a poem, an idea for a story -- but I want to know more about the young man whose skeleton was part of a tree.
Read about it at io9.
The medieval skeleton was discovered in Ireland when violent storm uprooted a 200 year old beech tree. The journal Irish Archaeology describes it thus, "In a scene that must have been quite macabre, the upper part of the skeleton was found raised in the air within the tree’s root system, while the legs remained in the ground." Who was he? What is his story?
For me, the news isn't just about a skeleton. Part of the story's pull is the storm powerful enough to uproot a tree. I have deep memories of just such a storm, a hurricane, that blew through our town when I was in second grade. Trees were uprooted in our yard. It was a wonder to see the exposed roots in all of their complicated tangle. And what a gift to me and my brothers -- where the rain filled in the hole at the base of the tree, there were tiny ponds to play in.
In a lightning strike of serendipity, I've been reading GOOD WITH ORANGES (Broadkill River Press) this week. It is a collection of poems by my friend Sid Gold.
Order the book
at Broadkill River Press.
Check out "Clear Intent."
Clear Intent
by Sid Gold
The other night a storm
buzzsawed through & brought down
that 40-foot beech with a crack
like a hammer & chisel carving stone.
A spear of lightning struck it
near ground level, splitting the trunk
along its height like a gutting knife
& now the limbs lay splayed
& bleaching like some monstrous skeleton,
the bones, perhaps, of an untold constellation.
Soon a work crew will arrive, men
of clear intent carrying chains & saws
like briefcases, their tongues
still sour with sleep. Hired for a task
of someone else's choosing, they may
have room for nonsense in their hearts,
but have learned to keep it close
while on someone else's clock.
That towering beech, some of us
surely believe, still had much to say
about things for which we often
cannot find the proper words.
Others, living in some other moment,
prefer to turn a deaf ear.
About this poem, Sid explains, "I live in an aging apt. complex (1943), which, I'm told, displaced untouched forest land. The buildings are old enough to have been the products of architects, who designed the layout of the property so as to allow for a number of original growth trees to grace the lawns fronting the building entrances. Unfortunately, a few years ago, two large, very old & diseased trees positioned not far from my own entranceway had to be cut down & limbs & pieces of their trunks, etc., lay on the lawn for some days until carted away. One of the trees was struck by lighting & some heavy limbs came down. That's probably how the disease was discovered. There's more to the poem, of course, but that's one place it started. I have photos of the trees, luckily, but I still miss them."
Sid Gold's third book is GOOD WITH ORANGES (Broadkill River Press, 2015). He is a two-time recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award for Poetry. His poems have appeared in journal such as Poet Lore, the Southern Poetry Review and Tar River Poetry. A native New Yorker, he lives in Hyattsville MD.
Sid is very active in my local literary community -- a mentor to and encourager of his fellow poets. You can read a full interview with Sid Gold at Delphi Quarterly.
Thank you, Sid, for allowing me to share this poem today. I'm still thinking about that skeleton.
Your host is Michelle Heidenrich Barnes
at Today's Little Ditty. Stop by TLD
for all of this week's poetry links.
This week, there was a story in the news that settled down in mind to sit. I don't know what it will lead to -- a poem, an idea for a story -- but I want to know more about the young man whose skeleton was part of a tree.
Read about it at io9.
The medieval skeleton was discovered in Ireland when violent storm uprooted a 200 year old beech tree. The journal Irish Archaeology describes it thus, "In a scene that must have been quite macabre, the upper part of the skeleton was found raised in the air within the tree’s root system, while the legs remained in the ground." Who was he? What is his story?
For me, the news isn't just about a skeleton. Part of the story's pull is the storm powerful enough to uproot a tree. I have deep memories of just such a storm, a hurricane, that blew through our town when I was in second grade. Trees were uprooted in our yard. It was a wonder to see the exposed roots in all of their complicated tangle. And what a gift to me and my brothers -- where the rain filled in the hole at the base of the tree, there were tiny ponds to play in.
In a lightning strike of serendipity, I've been reading GOOD WITH ORANGES (Broadkill River Press) this week. It is a collection of poems by my friend Sid Gold.
Order the book
at Broadkill River Press.
Check out "Clear Intent."
Clear Intent
by Sid Gold
The other night a storm
buzzsawed through & brought down
that 40-foot beech with a crack
like a hammer & chisel carving stone.
A spear of lightning struck it
near ground level, splitting the trunk
along its height like a gutting knife
& now the limbs lay splayed
& bleaching like some monstrous skeleton,
the bones, perhaps, of an untold constellation.
Soon a work crew will arrive, men
of clear intent carrying chains & saws
like briefcases, their tongues
still sour with sleep. Hired for a task
of someone else's choosing, they may
have room for nonsense in their hearts,
but have learned to keep it close
while on someone else's clock.
That towering beech, some of us
surely believe, still had much to say
about things for which we often
cannot find the proper words.
Others, living in some other moment,
prefer to turn a deaf ear.
About this poem, Sid explains, "I live in an aging apt. complex (1943), which, I'm told, displaced untouched forest land. The buildings are old enough to have been the products of architects, who designed the layout of the property so as to allow for a number of original growth trees to grace the lawns fronting the building entrances. Unfortunately, a few years ago, two large, very old & diseased trees positioned not far from my own entranceway had to be cut down & limbs & pieces of their trunks, etc., lay on the lawn for some days until carted away. One of the trees was struck by lighting & some heavy limbs came down. That's probably how the disease was discovered. There's more to the poem, of course, but that's one place it started. I have photos of the trees, luckily, but I still miss them."
Sid Gold's third book is GOOD WITH ORANGES (Broadkill River Press, 2015). He is a two-time recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award for Poetry. His poems have appeared in journal such as Poet Lore, the Southern Poetry Review and Tar River Poetry. A native New Yorker, he lives in Hyattsville MD.
Sid is very active in my local literary community -- a mentor to and encourager of his fellow poets. You can read a full interview with Sid Gold at Delphi Quarterly.
Thank you, Sid, for allowing me to share this poem today. I'm still thinking about that skeleton.
September 12, 2015
Guest Post for 9/11: Talking MG and Loss with Kerry O'Malley Cerra
Coping with loss is a difficult issue in middle grade. Critics have asked: Do 8 to 12-year-olds really need another book about losing a beloved pet? A parent? (Check out this Dead Parent Society of Middle Grade page on Goodreads.) But these books can be powerful reflections for young readers, providing guidance and a model for how to survive grief.
In the shadow of yesterday's 9/11 anniversary, I'd like to welcome middle grade author Kerry O'Malley Cerra to Author Amok. Kerry is guest posting, courtesy of the Bookish Babes blog.
The Thing about Loss and Middle School Kids…
By: Kerry O’Malley Cerra- Author of the middle-grade book Just a Drop of Water
When I agreed to write an article focusing on grief and loss
in the middle school years, I was excited. Then I sat down to write it and
wondered what I’d gotten myself into. Kids—like all people—are complex
creatures, but throw in hormones and bewilderment of where they fit in with the
world and any parent will confirm that it can be a touchy three to four year
span. Suffering a loss during these already emotional years can escalate a
pre-teen’s grief exponentially.
I’ve heard the phrase, “Kids are resilient,” more times than
I can possibly count. As a former educator, the words were sometimes thrown around
the teachers’ lounge each time a student-related tragedy occurred. This isn’t
to say those teachers were heartless—quite the contrary. They showed genuine anguish
right along with the kids. But in the back of the teachers’ minds, they assumed
that in the end the kids would bounce back.
This mentality often freaked me out. What if a kid didn’t
bounce back? What if one suicide spawned another? What if the loss of a parent,
friend, boyfriend, pet, or home made the black hole in a student’s heart deepen
until it completely sucked them in? Sadly, I’ve seen it happen.
Loss, especially when encountered during the fragile
pre-teen and teen years, can be all-consuming. At an age where a simple change
of schools can be traumatic, a loss of life can feel like an insurmountable
obstacle in getting back to living. It’s just too big, too heavy, too much for
an adolescent to deal with alone.
You see, the thing about grief, in my experience, is that it
has only one cure: hope. When things seem like they cannot possible get any
worse, hope carries a person through darkness. The thought that someday—even if
it’s far down the road—things will eventually get better can be the difference
between life and death. A drug addict enters rehab because they have hope that
things can get better. A child in despair over the loss of a pet or over a bad
breakup eventually gets back to their daily routine, because there is hope that
tomorrow it might not hurt as much. There’s hope that the grief will dissipate
over time.
I researched many hours trying to find a middle-grade book
in which the main character—despite some sort of loss or experiencing some form
of grief—didn’t bounce back by the end. While I did find a few young adult
books like this, and I did find some open-ended middle grade books, I didn’t
find a single one that left the main character completely broken. Even the
legendary, heart-wrenching books Old
Yeller and Bridge to Terabithia
take a slight turn for the positive at the very end. In the former, Travis
eventually adopts one of Old Yeller’s puppies and names it Young Yeller. In the
latter, Jesse, though distraught over the loss of his friend Leslie, manages to
build a bridge for himself and his sister to cross over to Terabithia safely.
Both of these books provide a hopeful ending. It seems that all middle-grade
novels do. And, I began to wonder why. At first it seemed too neat. Too
unrealistic. I had, after all, seen kids whose happy endings never came.
But it hit me that books for this age group have a job…to
give hope. A kid who is experiencing a traumatic event doesn’t need to read a story
with a depressing ending. They need to root for the characters’ lives to get
better so they, themselves, will have hope for the same outcome. This is
probably why I love middle-grade so much. It’s probably why I’ve felt compelled
to write for kids this age. With their whole lives still ahead, the world is
theirs for the taking, and with hope, they have a chance to make of it what
they want.
And on that note, I want to share some of my favorite
middle-grade novels that deal with themes of loss.
Loss of a loved one:
Because of Winn Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo
A Dog Called Homeless
by Sarah Lean
Kira-Kira by
Cynthia Kadohata
Loss of a lifestyle and/or home:
One for the Murphys
by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
The Red Umbrella
by Christina Gonzalez
Chained by Lynne
Kelly
Shooting Kabul by
NH Senzai
Loss of childhood innocence (forced to see the world in a
new way):
Glory Be by
Augusta Scattergood
Nature Girl by
Jane Kelley
Loss of friends:
Breaking the Ice by
Gail Nall
Pack of Dorks by
Beth Vrabel
Personal, physical loss:
El Deafo by Cece
Bell
The Honest Truth
by Dan Gemeinhart
Thank you for a thoughtful post, Kerry. These books are great resources.
Kerry O'Malley Cerra is the author of the award-winning, middle-grade novel Just a Drop of Water.
Find it on Indiebound.
Inspired by a deeply personal experience following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, this book has won a Florida State Book Award, the Crystal Kite Award, made the Maine state reading list, and was named to VOYA’s Top Shelf Fiction for Middle Readers’ 2014 list. Though she'll always consider Philly her home, she currently lives in Florida with her husband, kids, and three poorly behaved dogs.
Let's close with the trailer for Kerry's book, Just a Drop of Water.
In the shadow of yesterday's 9/11 anniversary, I'd like to welcome middle grade author Kerry O'Malley Cerra to Author Amok. Kerry is guest posting, courtesy of the Bookish Babes blog.
The Thing about Loss and Middle School Kids…
By: Kerry O’Malley Cerra- Author of the middle-grade book Just a Drop of Water
When I agreed to write an article focusing on grief and loss
in the middle school years, I was excited. Then I sat down to write it and
wondered what I’d gotten myself into. Kids—like all people—are complex
creatures, but throw in hormones and bewilderment of where they fit in with the
world and any parent will confirm that it can be a touchy three to four year
span. Suffering a loss during these already emotional years can escalate a
pre-teen’s grief exponentially.
I’ve heard the phrase, “Kids are resilient,” more times than
I can possibly count. As a former educator, the words were sometimes thrown around
the teachers’ lounge each time a student-related tragedy occurred. This isn’t
to say those teachers were heartless—quite the contrary. They showed genuine anguish
right along with the kids. But in the back of the teachers’ minds, they assumed
that in the end the kids would bounce back.
This mentality often freaked me out. What if a kid didn’t
bounce back? What if one suicide spawned another? What if the loss of a parent,
friend, boyfriend, pet, or home made the black hole in a student’s heart deepen
until it completely sucked them in? Sadly, I’ve seen it happen.
Loss, especially when encountered during the fragile
pre-teen and teen years, can be all-consuming. At an age where a simple change
of schools can be traumatic, a loss of life can feel like an insurmountable
obstacle in getting back to living. It’s just too big, too heavy, too much for
an adolescent to deal with alone.
You see, the thing about grief, in my experience, is that it
has only one cure: hope. When things seem like they cannot possible get any
worse, hope carries a person through darkness. The thought that someday—even if
it’s far down the road—things will eventually get better can be the difference
between life and death. A drug addict enters rehab because they have hope that
things can get better. A child in despair over the loss of a pet or over a bad
breakup eventually gets back to their daily routine, because there is hope that
tomorrow it might not hurt as much. There’s hope that the grief will dissipate
over time.
I researched many hours trying to find a middle-grade book
in which the main character—despite some sort of loss or experiencing some form
of grief—didn’t bounce back by the end. While I did find a few young adult
books like this, and I did find some open-ended middle grade books, I didn’t
find a single one that left the main character completely broken. Even the
legendary, heart-wrenching books Old
Yeller and Bridge to Terabithia
take a slight turn for the positive at the very end. In the former, Travis
eventually adopts one of Old Yeller’s puppies and names it Young Yeller. In the
latter, Jesse, though distraught over the loss of his friend Leslie, manages to
build a bridge for himself and his sister to cross over to Terabithia safely.
Both of these books provide a hopeful ending. It seems that all middle-grade
novels do. And, I began to wonder why. At first it seemed too neat. Too
unrealistic. I had, after all, seen kids whose happy endings never came.
But it hit me that books for this age group have a job…to
give hope. A kid who is experiencing a traumatic event doesn’t need to read a story
with a depressing ending. They need to root for the characters’ lives to get
better so they, themselves, will have hope for the same outcome. This is
probably why I love middle-grade so much. It’s probably why I’ve felt compelled
to write for kids this age. With their whole lives still ahead, the world is
theirs for the taking, and with hope, they have a chance to make of it what
they want.
And on that note, I want to share some of my favorite
middle-grade novels that deal with themes of loss.
Loss of a loved one:
Because of Winn Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo
A Dog Called Homeless
by Sarah Lean
Kira-Kira by
Cynthia Kadohata
Loss of a lifestyle and/or home:
One for the Murphys
by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
The Red Umbrella
by Christina Gonzalez
Chained by Lynne
Kelly
Shooting Kabul by
NH Senzai
Loss of childhood innocence (forced to see the world in a
new way):
Glory Be by
Augusta Scattergood
Nature Girl by
Jane Kelley
Loss of friends:
Breaking the Ice by
Gail Nall
Pack of Dorks by
Beth Vrabel
Personal, physical loss:
El Deafo by Cece
Bell
The Honest Truth
by Dan Gemeinhart
Thank you for a thoughtful post, Kerry. These books are great resources.
Kerry O'Malley Cerra is the author of the award-winning, middle-grade novel Just a Drop of Water.
Find it on Indiebound.
Inspired by a deeply personal experience following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, this book has won a Florida State Book Award, the Crystal Kite Award, made the Maine state reading list, and was named to VOYA’s Top Shelf Fiction for Middle Readers’ 2014 list. Though she'll always consider Philly her home, she currently lives in Florida with her husband, kids, and three poorly behaved dogs.
Let's close with the trailer for Kerry's book, Just a Drop of Water.
September 10, 2015
Poetry Friday: First Generation
Robyn Hood Black is hosting
this week's round up of poetry
at Life on the Deckle Edge.
I was listening to news of the European refugee crisis on the radio today. The crisis touches me in several ways. First, when I was in Italy this summer for the 100 Thousand Poets for Change world conference, several poets from Africa were denied entry into Italy. Why? For fear that they weren't really coming for a conference, but instead were refugees. Then my good friend, poet Richard Paa Kofi Botchwey of Ghana, was harrased as he passed through Germany on his trip home from Italy.
But the story also touches me because I am a first generation American. My mother came to the United States in 1966, when she married my father. Even though my mom is British and shares a common language with us Yanks (as my uncle used to tease), there are a million small ways that she didn't fit in, didn't understand how things worked, felt isolated and alone. These small things are embedded in my childhood memories.
Leaving one's country is never an easy choice. I can't imagine what it must be like for families caught up in the current refugee crisis. Even if they make it to a country that offers asylum, there are a million small ways that they will remain outsiders. Integration into a new culture is gradual and often painful.
I'm so glad to introduce you to the poet Leona Sevick.
Leona and I first met at the 2013 Gettysburg Review Conference for Writers. Like me, she is bi-cultural and a first-generation American. Her poem "Lion brothers" walks the fence that immigrants must walk: acceptance lies on one side, maintaining one's home culture and sense of self lies on the other.
Lion brothers
by Leona Sevick
Sometimes they sent her home early,
her hand bandaged tight where a needle
had pierced her. Home from school,
we found her curled on the floor, watching.
She woke early to put on her face
before we could see it for what it
wasn't, round and smooth and yellow.
Her legs tucked under her,
she held the mirror in her tiny hand
and painted on the jungle colors:
blacks and blues. At the factory
she tied tools around her waist,
slimmer than any boy's, though her arms
were knotted in muscles. She climbed up
beside the men, four feet above ground
on their vibrating monsters, machines
that worked like animals. Like pieces
of thread cut from the loom and dropped
clean, their words gathered around her feet.
Chink.
It seemed like a child's word
if you didn't know the meaning.
Originally published in Frontiers: A Woman's Journal (Univ. Nebraska Press).
I asked Leona to tell us about the genesis of this powerful poem.
Lion Brothers is the name of a factory in Taneytown where my mother worked for 25 years. She made patches there--the kind that are sown on uniforms of every type (military, athletic teams, Boy Scouts, etc.). Every morning she woke up at 5 am to "put on her face." I thought of her makeup as her armor. She was the first non-white person to work at the factory. While she had a couple of very good women friends who worked alongside her in that ugly place, she also worked with many bigots and rough men. In time, many of them accepted her as well, though she never called them friends.
I remember that, Leona. Although she didn't work in a factory, my mother had a very hard time making friends after she emigrated. I don't think she had real group of girlfriends until my brothers and I were in our twenties.
Classroom teacher friends: I think "Lion brothers" would be a wonderful discussion prompt to get your upper middle school or high school class talking about stereotypes and the power of words, especially ethnic slurs.
And here's a little gift from Leona. This poem is for everyone who's using this weekend to recover from the first week of school.
Leona says, "Every day as I drive to work I pass a herd of 'Oreo' cows--Belted Galloways. One particularly dreary morning when I faced a task at work I wanted to avoid, I fantasized about being one of those cows. I know almost everyone can relate."
Belted Galloway
from AntietamFarm.com.
Cow
by Leona Sevick
Weeks like this one make me wonder how nice
it might be to be a cow just chewing, slowly moving
my jaws in clockwise angles. Frothing green trickles
between my teeth and at the drooping corners of my
single-minded mouth, I could lie down and rest
on legs not asked to move except to escape the winds
and stinging rain that come up from the south sometimes.
Or maybe I'd just stand here, letting the water wash my
tough hide--brown rivers of yesterday's dirt rolling
inevitably down into the holes I'm standing in--
thinking of nothing and no one in particular.
Leona Sevick's work appears in The Journal, Barrow Street, Potomac Review and is forthcoming in Poet Lore. She is the 2012 first place winner of the Split This Rock Poetry contest, judged by Naomi Shihab Nye. Her first chapbook, Damaged Little Creatures, was published in 2015 by FutureCycle Press (www.leonasevick.com). She is associate provost and associate professor of English at Mount St. Mary's University.
Buy it on Amazon.
