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Feeling It: Creating emotional depth in your novel
with Karen Krossing & Laura Shovan
Tuesday was the final day of the 2023 February Poetry Project. This year’s theme was STORY. There were so many incredible prompts, dreamed up by the group’s participants. I’ve been thinking a lot about poems and how we use them to tell stories. I’m gearing up to teach my virtual class once again: “Poetry Techniques […]
“It became clear to me very quickly when I started expanding on the ‘waiting for the right resources’ parallel between poems and seeds that spring brought many of the things a seed needs to move from dormancy into active growth. “
My heart is broken. My dear friend and collaborator, the poet Michael Rothenberg, passed away on November 21.
Happy book birthday to Irene Latham! Yesterday was the release date for poet and children’s author (and my dear friend) Irene’s latest collection, This Poem Is a Nest. This book of poems has an exciting concept to wrap your brain around! “We poets spend much of our time nest-building,” Irene explains in the book’s introduction. […]
It’s Poetry Friday! This week’s host is Jama Kim Rattigan at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. She is celebrating National Chocolate Cookie Day. Stop by for some treats and all of this week’s Poetry Friday links. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many events have been cancelled. From big-arena concerts (I had tickets to see Ringo Starr in June) […]
Have you ever picked up a prose novel and — surprise! — at the start of every chapter there’s a poem to greet you? When prose novelists incorporate poetry in any form, I’m happy. In Possession, A.S. Byatt’s wonderful novel, modern literati uncover a secret Victorian romance. The whole story hinges on verses written by […]
I’m on the road today, heading back to Maryland from NerdCampMI. One of the best parts of NerdCamp happens on Day 2 in the afternoon, nErDCampJr. That’s when the kids arrive and have mini-sessions with authors. Because my new book, TAKEDOWN, is about a boy and a girl on a competitive wrestling team, it is […]
Hello, friends and readers. One of my favorite things about being an author is doing research. When my children were in elementary school, I worked part-time as a features writer for Baltimore’s Child magazine and my local edition of The Baltimore Sun. As a newcomer to Maryland, the job helped me get to know my […]
A question came up in one of my kidlit groups the other day: Can young readers handle books with more than one narrator? No surprise, there was a debate among the members. Why make books harder for kids to read by writing in more than one voice? Isn’t that confusing? While I don’t think multiple […]