Wyatt Townley coming to Poetry from Daily Life

Hi everyone,

We have yet another treat coming up this weekend on Poetry from Daily Life. My guest will be Kansas Poet Laureate Emerita, WYATT TOWNLEY. Wyatt has written poetry since childhood, from free verse to villanelles to pattern poems. Favorite book projects include The Afterlives of Trees and most recently, Rewriting the Body.

Wyatt and I have a good start on a manuscript together. As soon as we find an editor, we’ll finish it. Thank you in advance, Wyatt, for adding your voice to the conversation.

I’m going to be on The Children’s Hour

Hi everyone,

I told you sometime ago that I’m going to make a guest appearance at this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield, Missouri. That’s coming up this Saturday, the 27th. Here are a couple of the promotional pieces.

The idea is for me to read a story to the audience during Aunt Norma’s show, and I’ve chosen an old favorite of mine, Little Turtle’s Big Adventure. Maybe I’ll see some of you there on the 27th. I hope so.

NCTE with earmuffs?

Hi everyone,

I’m happy that our proposal to present at NCTE has been accepted. MARY JO FRESCH, TIM RASINSKI, and I submitted the proposal, with an abstract title of “Building Students’ Literacy and Language Strengths with Collaborative, Engaging, and Empowering Experiences.”

SONY DSC

As much as I look forward to attending the conference and seeing old friends, Boston in late November? Really? Temperature highs may be in the 40s and lows in the 30s. Really?

Article in SCBWI Insight

Hi everyone,

Last month I had an article in Insight Newsletter, a publication of SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). As one of the only children’s poets appointed as a state poet laureate (maybe the only one), I wanted to encourage other children’s poets to consider making the effort to represent their own state. SCBWI has 22,000 members so I thought that was a good place to make my pitch. I think the whole article might be a bit long to post here but this link will take you there if you’re interested.

https://www.scbwi.org/become-a-state-poet-laureate

If you know someone to whom this might appeal, I hope you will share the link. Thank you.

New anthology, in South Korean

Hi everyone,

The book I’ve been waiting to see arrived on Friday. It’s a 387-page collection of poems and artwork reminiscent of JAN GREENBERG’S book, Heart to Heart, in which my poem in this South Korean book originally appeared.

This new book is all in South Korean, including the names of the poets and artists, so unless I recognize someone by his or her picture, or pick out their names in the credits, I’m stuck. I do recognize a few, though, enough to appreciate that I’m in good company, and I can read the poems, which are in English on the left side of the spread and South Korean on the right. Forgive the hurried pictures. The book is tightly bound and hard to keep open with one hand and shoot with the other.