Looking forward to Honesdale

Hi everyone,

That’s Kent Brown, mastermind behind these workshop opportunities. Three more poets have signed up for my workshop next month. This brings us to ten, a good number, and they are coming from California, New York, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Illinois. It isn’t too late if anyone is still thinking it over. I’ve started the process of getting acquainted with the folks who are coming and yesterday I made good progress making notes and handouts. For each half-day segment I’ll present handouts specific to that topic while I’ve giving my talk. The handouts will include descriptions and examples plus prompts to help get the poets started on writing their own. We’ll tackle free verse, unrhymed verse forms, short rhymed verse forms, long rhymed verse forms, and even try a rhymed picture book story. Should be fun.

Today I’ll spend some time considering what we might do as a group on Monday and Tuesday evenings after dinner. Traditionally we gather on the patio, sit around in chairs, and take turns entertaining ourselves reading and/or performing poetry. One year Jeanne Poland brought some rhythm instruments and we all had a good time playing with them. Matt Forrest showed us how to make his favorite recipe for smores one evening around the fireplace. Joy Acey, you’ve always had good ideas for the evening activities. Too bad you’re not able to get there this year, but I’m sure you’ll be with us in spirit.

http://tinyurl.com/poetspublish

Introducing my 2016 Poetry Workshop

Hi everyone,

I told you in February that I’d agreed to do another workshop for poets at The Barn near Honesdale, Pennsylvania. It’s part of the ongoing series of workshops hosted by Highlights Foundation under the leadership of Kent Brown. I’ve been waiting for the names and bios of some of my guest speakers to go up on the site, and now I can tell you more about the event, which is set for August 21-24.

There will be a LOT of writing going on at this workshop. I’ve scheduled us for three hours each morning and each afternoon, and I’ll be there throughout to act as sounding board, mentor, facilitator, and coach. After two full days, each poet will have at least four poems, each in a different subgenre.

On the third morning we’ll hold a critique session so that participants can leave with some honest feedback to take home and guide further revisions if thought necessary.

Here’s where this workshop offers valuable added value, thanks to the input of previous participants. Every poet dreams of being published and agonizes over how difficult it can be to figure out how to do it. That’s why I’m so delighted to introduce the four key guests who have accepted my invitation to speak.

On Day One, our two speakers (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) come from the magazine side of Highlights. Allison Kane is the editorial assistant at Highlights Magazine and edits most of the poetry as well as numerous other publications. Patrick Greenwish is Art Director for Highlights Magazine for Children. Patrick can provide insight about the importance of writing with an artist in mind.

For Day Two our speakers will represent the book side. Mary Colgan is Senior Editor for Highlights Press, the book-publishing division of Highlights for Children. Mary can answer questions about the whole range of books the company publishes. Rebecca Davis is a senior editor for Boyds Mills Press and for Wordsong, the only imprint in the United States dedicated to children’s poetry.

How’s that for a lineup of people who can tell it like it is? This is a perfect chance to learn firsthand from editors what they look for and how the process of reviewing poetry and deciding whether or not to accept it for publication works. We have to be good and hone our work till it’s ready, but we also need to be savvy about how this publishing business works. That knowledge can save a lot of heartache and wasted effort. For more complete information, here’s the link. https://www.highlightsfoundation.org/workshops/how-do-poets-get-published-learning-what-it-takes-2016 .

August will roll around before you know it. If this sounds interesting to you or you know someone who might like to come, please contact Jo Lloyd (Jo.Lloyd@highlightsfoundation.org at the Foundation for more information.

Winding down

Hi everyone,

This will be my last day to write until next Wednesday. I rarely get anything done on the weekend and on Monday we head for home, a two day drive. This morning there’s no wind but the forecast calls for showers. We haven’t walked the beach much but hope to between showers over the next three days. The water has been rough most of this week.

Today I’ll focus on the poetry chapter. I have a long way to go there but hope to have enough down before we get away to think about during the 14-hour drive home.

One week from Monday I’ll drive to Warrensburg, Missouri to be in the annual Children’s Literature Festival so I’m looking forward to that. Some years 6,000 or more students attend that along with 1,200 or so adults. Then it will suddenly be April and that’s shaping up to be a busy month.

Poetry workshop

Hi everyone,

I’m sitting out this year so there’s only one poetry workshop currently on record hosted by Highlights Foundation at the Barn near Honesdale, Pennsylvania.

Rebecca Dotlich will lead it (April 19-21) and if you’d like more information about that one, here’s a link. http://www.highlightsfoundation.org/3897/one-poets-story .

 
For those who sign up for Larry Dane Brimner’s workshop, “Capturing the Spotlight: Getting the Gigs 2015” (April 26-29), I’ll be one of Larry’s Skype guests. I accepted his invitation to “spend an hour talking about blogging, blogging without a huge investment of time/effort, and what you perceive as the benefits vis a vis developing a following and getting speaking engagements.” Here’s Larry’s link. http://www.highlightsfoundation.org/workshops/getting-the-gigs-2015/

Poetry workshop

ANNOUNCEMENT: CAVE DETECTIVES, my nonfiction book about the ice age cave discovered in Springfield, Missouri on 9/11, has just been released as an e-book. I’m delighted to have this book available again. It became a Junior Library Guild Selection when it was released in print in 2007. The cave contains the oldest known ice age fossils discovered so far on the North American continent. I hope you’ll check it out. Here’s the B&N link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cave-detectives-david-l-harrison/1110846985?ean=9781452135533 and here’s the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Cave-Detectives-Unraveling-Mystery-Ice-ebook/dp/B00I5X4UIW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392561575&sr=8-1&keywords=cave+detectives.

Hi everyone,

I’m still away from my office but now and then I have a chance to get online for a while. I want to remind anyone who is considering my Highlights Foundation poetry workshop this fall (September 29 – October 2) to start the process of registering. Last year the event was filled by March and I hope to see that happen again for 2014.

Contact Jo Lloyd (jalloyd@highlightsfoundation.org ) for the details. Here’s the link to the workshop.http://www.highlightsfoundation.org/workshops/poetry-for-the-delight-of-it-2014/

My special guests this year include poetry editor Rebecca Davis and Skype appearances by Jane Yolen and U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt. I hope to see you there.

David