Julie Hedlund interview and Renee LaTulippe’s Poet-a-Palooza

BULLETIN: For fans of POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL, you’re in for some fun at Renee LaTulippe’s No Water River today. With her usual mastery of the form, Renee has put together a thoroughly entertaining presentation that includes an interview with Mary Skelly, a wonderful teacher who is passionate about teaching poetry to her fourth graders PLUS new videos by some of the poets in the book: George Ella Lyon, Joy Acey, Heidi Bee Roemer, Heidi Mordhorst, and me (playing my trombone — sort of). Click here to visit Poet-a-Palooza (Part I). http://www.nowaterriver.com/national-poetry-month-the-poetry-friday-anthology-for-middle-school-poet-a-palooza-part-1/#comments-wrap

REMINDER: In case anyone missed it yesterday, the word for April is FRAGRANCE. Let the sweet smelling poetry begin!

Hi everyone,

Today it’s my privilege to be interviewed by Julie Hedlund who, hardly two hours after posting her effort, left the country for Italy. She called the other day on Skype and we had a pleasant talk. Later she divided our discussion into segments according to theme. If you care to check the interview on her site, I hope you’ll find something to enjoy.  Here’s how.

http://www.juliehedlund.com/julies-blog

Available Now! A TROOP IS A GROUP OF MONKEYS
Creator, Template for Storybook Apps
Founder, 12 x 12 in 2012 PB Writing Challenge
Leader, Writer’s Renaissance Retreat in Florence, Italy

Many of you know Julie and follow her site. She also attended the poetry workshop last year that was co-led by Eileen Spinelli, Rebecca Dotlich, and me. Julie, many thanks. I had a good time visiting with you and hope you enjoy Florence.

David

No Sunday Poets

Hi everyone,

I had hoped to see poems posted by many poets on the Sunday Poets feature. Alas, nothing is coming in and I have no Plan B. I suppose I could go back to publishing one of my own poems each Sunday but I was getting bored with that. I’m open for ideas.

You do seem to like writing captions for Rob Shepperson’s delightful drawings so I’ll give you another one to play with this coming week.

I’ve invited Jill Corcoran for one day this week to tell us more about the book she edited, DARE TO DREAM: CHANGE THE WORLD. I look forward to that. We’ve already talked about AND THE CROWD GOES WILD, edited by Carol-Ann Hoyte and Heidi Bee Roemer, and we’ve talked about the latest masterpiece by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell, THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY. I’ve talked about my upcoming picture book, A PERFECT HOME FOR A FAMILY, as well as my e-book, GOOSE LAKE, either too much or too little.

I hope you all have an enjoyable week in store. I hope to finish the final poems for a new book for 4th graders. It has forty poems in it. In January I’ll fly to California to record one hundred poems that I wrote for a five-book set with Mary Jo Fresch.

David

The Word of the Month for November is . . .

ANNOUNCEMENT: Yesterday’s mail brought my copy of AND THE CROWD GOES WILD, the sterling, international collection of poets and their poems about sports. I’m delighted to be in the book and grateful to Carol-Ann Hoyte and Heidi Bee Roemer for creating this idea and bringing it to life.

Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago I sent a note to our friend, Rachel Heinrichs and asked her to give us the word for November. Rachel is a talented student, so guess what word she chose for us? TALENT. Okay. Deal with that this month. If we’re talented enough, I expect to see a bumper crop of fresh poems inspired by Rachel’s word. Go!

David

And the Crowd Goes Wild!

Hi everyone,

Another great new book just out is THE CROWD GOES WILD! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems , which went on sale September 4. It’s edited by Carol-Ann Hoyte and Heidi Bee Roemer and is all about sports as told by 50 poets in 10 countries.

For the time being, the general public can purchase the book (in paperback or electronic format) from FriesenPress bookstore (www.friesenpress.com/bookstore ). It will be another few weeks before the paperback version of the anthology becomes available on other vendor sites (Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk).

Congratulations to Carol-Ann and Heidi. It’s a terrific idea and bound to be a success.

David

Announcing a new collection of poetry

Hi everyone,

I’m pleased to be included in a new collection of poems that celebrate sports. Heidi Bee Roemer and Carol-Ann Hoyte edited the selections, which include fifty poets in ten countries. The name of the book will be AND THE CROWD GOES WILD! A GLOBAL GATHERING OF SPORTS POEMS. My congratulations to the editors and everyone included in the collection. I’ll tell you more shortly. Heidi and Carol-Ann will be interviewed on Sylvia Vardell’s wonderful blogsite on April 13. Don’t miss that!

On the home front, we have a mother goose sitting on her nest (basiclly a large, flat rock at the foot of our yard beside the lake). She has five eggs. I saw them briefly yesterday when some teenage boys wanted to fish too close to her and she left her eggs. I spoke to the boys, who moved farther away, and the goose was soon back. I’m eager to see her goslings before long. Meanwhile, papa swims nearby and does what he can to look protective. Spring is here for sure. Yesterday I saw my first Tiger Swallowtail of the year and last night a Red Admiral landed a few feet away on the patio.

David