Happy National Poetry Month, everyone! Today, I’m kicking off my NPM 2017 series on verse novelists with my friend, poet and author Jeannine Atkins. In addition to answering five questions about their work, I’ve asked each author to share a photograph of a poem from her book, so we can get a peek at how the […]
Laura's Blog
Monday, 3 April 2017
Thursday, 30 March 2017
Happy Poetry Friday, everyone! Are you ready to celebrate National Poetry Month 2017? Like many Poetry Friday bloggers, I do an annual project for NPM. This year, my theme is novels-in-verse. I’ve got a great line-up of authors, ready to talk about the art and craft of the verse novel. But, before the line-up, a […]
Thursday, 23 February 2017
Happy Poetry Friday. It’s been a while since we visited my bookshelf, friends. In Bookshelf posts, I pair a middle grade or young adult novel with a poem, to be read and enjoyed side by side. Earlier this month, my friend Jeff Giles visited Maryland as part of his book tour. Jeff’s debut novel, THE […]
Thursday, 16 February 2017
Dear Friends and Poetry Friday bloggers, I have to begin this post with a thank you. On Tuesday, I learned that THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY is the 2016 CYBILS award-winner for poetry. Many of you have cheered on my novel-in-verse for years — commenting on drafts of the poems on my blog, […]
Thursday, 2 February 2017
Happy February, everyone. This week, we kicked off my annual poem project, which has moved over to Facebook. This year’s theme is #10FoundWords. We have a daily news story, speech, or current event selected by a project member. That person chooses 10 words from the news source, which makes up our word bank for the […]
Thursday, 26 January 2017
It’s the last Poetry Friday of January. That means I am gearing up for the annual February daily poem project. This year, I’m encouraging participants to engage with current events, news articles, political speeches, and interviews. Each day, we’ll be using 10 Found Words from a news-related source and building our poems around those words. […]
Wednesday, 25 January 2017
We’re coming up on the last Poetry Friday in January. You know what that means. It’s almost time for our annual daily writing workout! For the past four years, my blog has hosted a community poetry project. This started as a birthday project. In 2013, I wrote every day in response to vintage postcards. I mailed […]
Thursday, 19 January 2017
Well, here we are. It’s really happening. First, I’d like to thank all of you for your comments on the press conference found poems. Several Poetry Friday regulars have been engaging with transcripts of the president-elect’s words. By paring away (or emphasizing) the fluff, these poems help us expose problems with the way language is […]
Saturday, 14 January 2017
I’m still mining this week’s pre-inaugural press conference for found poetry. Today’s poem is pulled word for word, unabridged from an exchange between the president-elect and a reporter. In addition to the repetitiveness of Trump’s speech (repetition *is* a poetic technique, after all), the contrast between the two speakers, and the irony of Trump’s use […]
Friday, 13 January 2017
The pen is a mighty weapon, according to the old saying. To help kick off inauguration week in the spirit of activism, poets and authors all over the U.S. are performing at WRITERS RESIST events. You can read about the movement at PEN America. Writers Resist has its own website with a listing of readings across […]
Laura Shovan is the author of the award-winning middle grade novel, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary. Her second book, Takedown, is a Junior Library Guild and PJ Our Way selection. Look for A Place at the Table, co-written with Saadia Faruqi, in 2020. Laura is a poet-in-the-schools Maryland.
