Writing about Bill Anderson

Hi everyone,

This week it’s full speed ahead on an article about Bill Anderson for an upcoming issue of Our America Magazine, a historical publication that grew from the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield, Missouri.

Bill has responded to a list of questions and provided other helpful information and I already have a good start on the article so I’m shooting for the end of the week to finish the piece of get close to it.

Many of you know Bill personally and/or through his wonderful books. He and I have been friends forever, dating back decades through our association at the annual Children’s Literature Festival in Warrensburg, Missouri. To many thousands of children who sat in his audiences he’s best known for his books about Laura Ingalls Wilder, and quite deservedly so, but there is SO much more to know about Bill Anderson! It is my privilege to be asked to write this article.

New article in Children’s Book Insider

Hi everyone,

I heard yesterday from Kimberly M. Hutmacher that her new article, “Poetry Anthologies: Bringing Big Ideas and Big Conversations to Young Audiences,” has just come out in CHILDREN’S BOOK INSIDER, published in Ft. Collins, Colorado by Laura Backes.

To write the article, Kimberly interviewed four of us, Heidi Roemer, Sylvia Vardell, Janet Wong, and me. She included poems we selected asked us to discuss briefly our thoughts about the poems and why they are relevant for young readers.

My thanks to Laura Backes, Kimberly, and to my fellow poetry lovers in the article. CHILDREN’S BOOK INSIDER is a subscription publication and well worth adding to your reading library.

A nice thing

Hi everyone,

My thanks to Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong for publishing a page from POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR SCIENCE TAKE 5! in SCIENCE & CHILDREN (a National Science Teachers Association publication). The page includes a poem of mine, “My Robot,” with practical suggestions on activities based on the message. It’s a handsome magazine and I’m delighted to be in it. Thank you, Sylvia and Janet!

Post Road #26

Hi everyone,

When I opened my mail yesterday, I was delighted to find my contributor’s copies of POST ROAD, winter issue #26, which runs 296 pages. POST ROAD is published by Boston College and attracts quite a readership. Here’s something from the site description.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Road_(magazine)
“Post Road is an American literary magazine founded in 1999 that publishes fiction, nonfiction, criticism, poetry, art, and theatre. In addition to these traditional genres, the magazine also features a “Recommendations” section in which established writers suggest their favorite work and an “Etcetera” section which presents literary curiosities such as letters, reprints, and interviews. Post Road is published biannually by the Department of English at Boston College. Many prominent writers have had work published in Post Road, including Rick Moody, Tom Perrotta, Edith Pearlman, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Maile Chapman, Barry Gifford, Michael Lowenthal, and Jonathan Ames. Other established writers, for example Robert Pinsky and Annie Proulx, have contributed recommendation pieces to the magazine. In 2008, the Boston Globe identified Post Road as one of the top ten literary journals in New England because it “publishes a great mix of high-quality writing while maintaining its cutting-edge voice.”

This issue includes poems by former U.S. Poets Laureate Billy Collins and Robert Pinsky along with numerous contributions in fiction, nonfiction, criticizm, poetry, theatre, recommendations, and guest folio.

My own contribution is in the recommendations section and is titled, “Q&A Reflections.” The subject is the work of E. B. White. My thanks to my editor, Daniel Cattolica and Managing Editor Christopher Boucher. I’m glad to appear in this fine magazine.