A big THANK YOU to all the readers who entered our latest giveaway contest--see the end of this post to find out who our winner is. And stay tuned for more fun giveaways in the coming weeks.
As
Mary Ann posted on Monday, this week we're answering an
Ask the TeachingAuthors question submitted by Joanna Cooke. Before I share my comments on the topic, I want to remind readers that if you have a question you'd like us to address, either about writing for children/young adults or about the teaching of writing, you can use the link in our sidebar to submit your own
Ask the TeachingAuthors question. Please keep in mind, though, that our posting schedule is usually set several months in advance, so we may not be able to address your question right away.
Now, back to our current question: Joanna asked us to share some of the pros/cons of getting an MFA. Mary Ann has already discussed one of the biggest advantages: your growth as a writer. I'd been freelance writing for years before entering the
Vermont College MFA program. Like Mary Ann, I'd also attended conferences and taken workshops related specifically to both fiction writing and writing for children and teens. (Unlike Mary Ann, I was already active in the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and had served as publicity chairperson for the Illinois chapter for a number of years. That's how I met Esther Hershenhorn!) Yet I didn't understand just how much I had to learn until I started at Vermont College. I'd enrolled with the intention of polishing a young adult novel I'd already written. After getting my first adviser's feedback on the manuscript, I realized that I wasn't skilled enough as a writer to tackle the major revisions the novel needed. I chose to work on several other projects instead, and eventually wrote a draft of the middle-grade novel that was later published by Candlewick Press,
Rosa, Sola.
So, for me, the number one "pro" of going through the MFA program was learning to be a better writer. When I look back on those two years, I'm still amazed at how much my fiction writing improved in that time, and also at how I learned to read so much more critically. However, another important advantage for me was a HUGE increase in my writing productivity. I wrote more in those two years than in any similar period before or since. In addition to starting and finishing a draft of my novel, I wrote several polished short stories and about five picture book manuscripts--all on top of the program-required critical essays and thesis writing, and teaching part-time. The monthly deadlines, and knowing my adviser was waiting to read and critique what I'd produced, really helped me stay on task.
One of the biggest "cons" of going to graduate school, at least for me, was the cost. It is a significant investment, and not an easy one for me to make. Interestingly, that turned out to also be a "pro" for me--I was determined to get the most for my money! As a result, the expense made it easier for me to say "no" to distractions and other demands on my time, thus raising the priority of fiction writing in my life. That, too, contributed to my productivity.
I could say plenty more about considerations when deciding on pursuing an MFA, but I'll leave that for April and Jeanne Marie who will also be blogging on the topic. Meanwhile, I want to remind readers that we have links to information about MFA programs in our sidebar, under the heading "Graduate Programs in Writing for Children and Young Adults." As Mary Ann mentioned, when we started at Vermont College, it was the only school that offered a graduate program devoted to writing for children and young adults. That's no longer the case. If you know of any programs we missed in the sidebar, please let us know and I'll add links to them as well.
And now, time to announce the winner of an autographed copy of
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems, edited by Heidi Roemer and Carol-Ann Hoyte. Our winner is:
Karen Casale
Congratulations, Karen! (Please respond to the email I sent you so we can get the book in the mail right away.)
If you didn't win, I hope you'll consider buying a copy of
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems. As I mentioned
in my interview post, a portion of the proceeds from both the paperback and e-book editions will be donated to
Right to Play, an international organization that uses sports and games to educate and empower children facing adversity. The book is now available for purchase
directly from the publisher, FriesenPress. If you're a librarian or bookseller, you can also order the book through Ingram. For more ordering information, see the official
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems website
And stay tuned for more fun book giveaways here in the coming weeks!
Happy writing!
Carmela
Hi Everyone,
As Esther mentioned on Wednesday, this week we're participating in Random Acts of Publicity 2012. Unlike Esther, who introduced you to some new books, I want to remind you about three books published earlier this year that we've already mentioned here but that you may not have gotten around to reading yet.
Back in May, I celebrated the release of my good friend
Karen Schreck's new book,
While He Was Away (Sourcebooks Fire), with a guest
TeachingAuthor interview. I have to confess--I'd read Karen's manuscript quite some time ago, but I didn't have a chance to read the final book until just last week. While I loved the original story, I think the revisions brought more depth to both the characters and the plot. Even though I knew how the story would turn out, it still brought tears to my eyes. Well done, Karen!
If you missed my interview with Karen, here's her summary of the book's plot:
While He Was Away (Sourcebooks Fire), is about an eighteen-year old girl, Penna Weaver, whose boyfriend, David O’Dell, is deployed to Iraq. Penna and David are deeply in love, and commit to be true to each other while he’s away, but Penna quickly realizes that the realities of David’s situation will make this more challenging than either of them expected. Lonely and isolated, it seems Penna’s world is falling apart, until she works to solve a family mystery, hidden for half a century, about love in wartime, and ultimately learns some powerful truths about love and forgiveness.
Karen
recently posted on her blog that the book has already gone into a second printing. I encourage you to read Karen's book if you haven't already so you can understand why.
Another book I'd like to recommend that I've just recently read myself is the latest release of my fellow
TeachingAuthor, Mary Ann Rodman. Her picture book,
The Roller Coaster Kid (Viking) came out in July and received some lovely reviews. No surprise if you've read the book, which does a wonderful job of weaving together several different themes. As
Mary Ann said in her three-part series celebrating the book's release :
The heart of The Roller Coaster Kid is learning to face fear, whether it is of riding a roller coaster, or of the death of a loved one.
If you know any young readers who have lost a grandparent, you may want to consider sharing Mary Ann's book with them.
And finally, just last week
I posted a guest TeachingAuthor Interview with poet, author, teacher, and now editor,
Heidi Bee Roemer to celebrate the release of the anthology she co-edited with Carol-Ann Hoyte:
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems (FriesenPress). I'm proud to have one of my poems included in this terrific anthology, and to know that a portion of the proceeds will be donated to
Right to Play, an international organization that uses sports and games to educate and empower children facing adversity. We're currently running a giveaway where one lucky
TeachingAuthors follower can win an autographed copy.
See my interview post to enter. Or, if you can't wait, the book is now available for
purchase as either an e-book or paperback directly from FriesenPress. And if you have time, I hope you'll visit us at one of the upcoming launch events:
U.S. LAUNCHES
Wednesday, September 26 at 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Mokena Library
11327 W. 195th Street
Mokena, Illinois 60448
Tuesday, October 16 at 7 p.m.
Anderson’s Bookshop
123 W. Jefferson Ave.
Naperville, IL 60540
Saturday, November 3 at 1 p.m.
The Arlington Heights Library
500 N Dunton Ave.
Arlington Heights, IL
Saturday, November 17 at 1 p.m.
The Magic Tree Book Store
141 N. Oak Park Ave.
Oak Park IL, 60301
CANADIAN LAUNCHES
Saturday, October 13 at 2 p.m.
Sunnyside Branch -- Ottawa Public Library
1049 Bank Street, Ottawa
Friday, November 9 at 5:30 p.m
Northern District Branch -- Toronto Public Library
40 Orchard View Blvd., Toronto
(just north of Yonge and Eglinton)
Finally, if you'd like to celebrate any 2012 books that may not have received as much attention as they deserved, please share their titles in the comments. And after you're done entering our giveaway, head on over to
Write. Sketch. Repeat. to celebrate Poetry Friday!
Happy reading AND writing!
Carmela
Happy Poetry Friday, Everyone!
Today we're celebrating by featuring a guest TeachingAuthor interview with the wonderful poet, author, teacher, and now, editor, Heidi Bee Roemer. And I'm THRILLED to announce the forthcoming release of the brand new poetry anthology edited by Heidi and Carol-Ann Hoyte: And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems--ATCGW for short. The anthology, which is illustrated by Kevin Sylvester, includes 50 sports-related poems by poets from ten countries. I am honored to be one of those poets, and I have to say that I'm in some pretty amazing company, including Charles Ghigna, J. Patrick Lewis, David L. Harrison, Avis Harley, Priscilla Uppal, and my former fellow TeachingAuthor, JoAnn Early Macken. ATCGW is geared for children ages 8-12, and showcases nearly 30 different poetry forms. A portion of royalties from both the paperback and e-book editions will be donated to Right to Play, an international organization that uses sports and games to educate and empower children facing adversity.
And great news for our TeachingAuthors readers: you can enter our drawing for a chance to win your own paperback copy of this terrific anthology, autographed by Heidi (or her co-editor, Carol-Ann, if you live in Canada). See details at the end of this post. If you don't win our contest, see the official CrowdGoesWild website for information on how to a copy. (The e-book is only $3.99!)
In case you don't know Heidi Bee Roemer, here's an excerpt from her bio: With nearly 400 poems, articles, and stories in various children’s magazines and anthologies to her credit, Heidi is also a song lyricist and children’s book reviewer. Her debut book, Come to My Party and Other Shape Poems, (Henry Holt) received starred reviews and was nominated for several awards. Her newest books are both from NorthWord Press: What Kinds of Seeds are These? and Whose Nest is This? Heidi is a former instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature, and currently serves as a writer-in-residence for several Chicago Public schools.
I had the privilege of taking a poetry class with Heidi a few years ago, and I can tell you from experience that she's a great teacher--several of the poems I wrote while in her class were eventually published in children's magazines or anthologies. When I saw Heidi's call for submissions for ATCGW, I initially submitted a couple of reworked poems from that class. Then Heidi sent a follow-up call, asking specifically for poems about paralympic athletes--athletes with physical limitations. My first thought was: How can I write about a paralympic athlete when I don't know any? Then a few days later I remembered watching my son run his first marathon, and how inspired I was by all the paralympic athletes who participated. One runner in particular, a British man who ran on two prosthetic limbs, had left such an impression on me that I still recalled the awe and respect I felt watching him. So I wrote a list poem called "At the Chicago Marathon" as a tribute to him, and that was the poem accepted into And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems. I don't want to make this post too long, so I'll share just the first stanza of my poem here:
At the Chicago Marathon
The crowd roars as another runner rounds the bend.
I stretch on tiptoes to see:
white visor,
dark sunglasses,
rope necklace,
muscled arms,
red-white-and-blue shirt—the British flag, not ours,
four black numbers on a white rectangle: 1776,
same as the year our country declared independence from his.
. . .
poem excerpt © 2012 Carmela Martino. All rights reserved.
(Note: You can see a photograph of Richard Whitehead, the inspiration for this poem, running in that race here. That day he completed 26.2 miles in 2 hours, 42 minutes, and 52 seconds, setting the world marathon record for a leg amputee and placing 212 out of over 36,000 finishers. He will be running in the 100m and 200m races at this week's 2012 London Paralympic Games. According to the official website, those events will be held on Sept. 7 and Sept 1, respectively. You can read more about him at his website.)
And now, for the interview:
Heidi, will you tell us how you became a TeachingAuthor?
My “on the job training” experience as a teacher is based on nearly 300 school presentations and library visits. As a poet-in-residence for Chicago Public Schools I learned how to make poetry lessons informative, lively and fun! In 2001 I was accepted as an instructor for
The Institute of Children’s Literature, a college-credited correspondence course for adults who want to write for children. I also teach poetry to adults and children in various local venues.
What's a common problem/question that your students have and how do you address it?
New poets often write rambling, overly-long poems and approach revision with reluctance. Most rookie poets need guidance on how to trim, tighten, and tweak their words. Someone wisely wrote: “Poetry is a can of frozen orange concentrate. Add three cans water and you get prose.” I agree! Want practice writing succinctly? Write terse verse because it contains only a few words per line. Children’s terse verse may be sprinkled with rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and wordplay. Closing lines should illicit a response from the reader—a sigh, gasp, smile or giggle. To understand how to write stellar poems for children in any poetic form, I often direct aspiring poets to magazines such as
High Five, Babybug, Ladybug, Spider, Hopscotch, Boy’s Quest, Fun for Kids, Turtle, and
Humpty Dumpty. Those wishing to be published in these specific magazines should study not just one issue, but two or more years of back issues.
Would you share a favorite writing exercise for our readers?
Try writing terse verse—it’s not as easy as it looks! Short lines force the writer to trim excess words. Focus on a single age-appropriate topic using mostly concrete nouns and vivid verbs. Establish a word pattern and engage your young reader by incorporating a lighthearted, playful tone. Terse verse, also called cryptic rhyme, was popularized by author Verla Kay in
Orphan Train,
Gold Fever and other books. Writers who wish to master this poetry form should read Verla’s complete cryptic collection. I’m pleased to say that ATCGW contains a delightful terse verse written by U.S. author, Ellen Ramsey. I won’t give away her surprise ending, but here are a few opening lines:
“What Do You Do With….”
A weight?
Lift it.
A racquet?
Swing it.
A rope?
Climb it.
A bike?
Ride it. . . .
poem excerpt © 2012 Ellen Ramsey. All rights reserved.
Do you have any suggestions for teachers on how they might use And the Crowd Goes Wild! in the classroom?
Educators will find ATCGW an easy fit with school curriculum. One suggestion is to engage students in related physical activities. For example, Laura Purdie Salas’s roundel is about goalball, an official sport of the Paralympics games; visually impaired players chase a ball that contains a bell inside. Using a cat toy with a bell inside, let blindfold students try to toss and catch the toy, aided only by the ringing sound. Patricia Cooley’s free verse about chess, “The King’s Gambit,” can also be creatively adapted. Students can hold large cardboard replicas of chess pieces (rook, pawn, bishop, etc) and play a life-size game of chess.
ATCGW can be used as a study of various poetry forms. The end pages identify nearly 30 poetic forms found in the anthology, such as haiku, limerick and shape poems, as well as less familiar forms: cleave, etheree, and palindrome. Keeping a poetry journal, students can study the various forms and write a new poetry form each week.
ATCGW also introduces students to poets featured in the book. Some contributing poets are recognized and revered around the world, others are just at the cusp of their writing careers. Students can visit the poet’s website or blog. If the poet has published other books, students might read those as well. Geography can play a role in classroom studies, too! Students can use pushpins and a world map to indicate where each poet lives. Once the study is done, students may write an email or letter to their favorite poet.
ATCGW is your first project as editor. What’s the experience been like? Would you do it again?
My dream job is to be a poetry editor for a children’s magazine. So when the book’s creator, Carol-Ann Hoyte of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, asked me to be part of this international “Olympic-related” sports poetry project, I jumped at the chance. It’s an exciting experience to discover new talent and see a book come to life. Yes, I would love to edit another poetry anthology—or children’s poetry magazine, for that matter!
I know you’ve lined up a number of events to promote ATCGW around the world involving some of the contributors (including ME!). Would you tell us about some of those events?
Carol-Ann and I are excited about our upcoming book launches this fall. The U.S. launches will feature eight Illinois poets. ATCGW’s official “Poetry Team U.S.A.” includes contributors Cathy Cronin, Patricia Cooley, Heather Delabre, Claudia Kohlbrenner, Eileen Meyer, Patricia Murphy, Heidi Bee Roemer, Michelle Schaub, and (yay!) today’s
TeachingAuthor interviewer, Carmela Martino! My heartfelt thanks, Carmela, for letting me tell your dedicated followers and fellow poets about
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems. I hope your readers will check the listings below and join us for an hour of poetry, poets, prizes and fun surprises!
Thank you, Heidi, for this great interview, and for allowing me to be part of
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems. Below is information about the book's first two launch events. I'll be posting additional dates and times next Friday. Meanwhile, don't forget to enter our contest for your chance to win an autographed copy. See the details at the end of this post.
First two launch events for And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems:
In Canada:
Thursday, September 13 at 7 p.m.
Selwyn House School
95 Cote St. Antoine Road, Westmount, Montreal
In the U.S:
Wednesday, September 26 at 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Mokena Library
11327 W. 195th Street
Mokena, Illinois 60448
Finally, details on entering our giveaway:
You must follow our
TeachingAuthors blog to enter for a chance to win an autographed paperback copy of
And the Crowd Goes Wild! A Global Gathering of Sports Poems. If you're not already a follower, you can sign up now in the sidebar to subscribe to our posts via email, Google Friend Connect, or Facebook Network blogs.
There are two ways to enter:
- by a comment posted below OR
- by sending an email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com with "Book Giveaway" in the subject line.
Whichever way you enter, you
MUST give us your name
AND tell us how you follow us. If you enter via a comment, you
MUST include a valid email address (formatted like: teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com) in your comment. Contest open only to residents of the United States and Canada. Incomplete entries will be discarded. For complete giveaway rules, see our
Book Giveaway Guidelines.
Entry deadline is 11 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012 (Central Standard Time). The winner will be chosen in a random drawing and announced on Sept. 12.
Good luck!
And after you've entered, don't forget to check out this week's Poetry Friday round-up at
Poetry For Children.
Happy Writing!
Carmela
I am embarrassed to admit that I won your giveaway of Karen's book & finally it has risen to the top of my TBR list. Thanks for a re-telling about that story. The others look great too, Carmela. Thanks for the re-sharing.
Hope you enjoy Karen's book, Linda.
The Roller Coaster Kid has been on my list for a while and I have friends with stories in The Crowd Goes Wild, so that's a definite. Thanks for these recommendations!
Thank YOU for sharing with us, Julie.