2024 National Poetry Month Saturday Matinee, Featuring the Work of Texas Women's University Students4/13/2024 I've been teaching a poetry for children and young adults class to MLIS students at TWU. It's my second year. Thanks to the venerable Dr. Sylvia Vardell, who taught before me, I have had an excellent curriculum to use. For their midterm, students are asked to create a video of a poem which several poetry friends have donated. Originally, I was to teach for just a year and then last fall, I was asked to return and teach. The class was returned to the program. Because of the late notice, I have only had ten students this year. They are a wonderful dedicated group. You know how I love featuring student work of all ages. Today I am featuring:
Welcome to the Poetry Friday Party here! I am so happy to be hosting this Friday. I think the posts are even sweeter during National Poetry Month. I am so excited to share an interview with Carol Labuzzetta, and her newly released book, Picture Perfect Poetry: An Anthology of Ekphrastic Nature Poetry for Students.
(Spoiler alert: I have two poems in the book) The theme of my poetry month is 'doubleheaders". Double interview Fridays and double videos on my Saturday Matinees featuring my TWU students.
JRM: What gave you the idea to curate a picture perfect anthology for students?
CL: My inspiration to create a photography-poetry anthology came from multiple sources. Being part of the Poetry Friday group over the years has impressed me with the quality of poems and the interest in photography many of us share on our weekly posts. I was also inspired to help get quality work published. My experience with submitting to literary magazines, contests, or other calls for submissions has not been positive. Some of you might remember that I even had issues with my own state poetry group due to poor communication regarding submission formats and acceptance or rejection of my work. These experiences led me to want to publish some of the great work I was seeing from other authors/photographers, as well as my own. I have excellent organizational skills and knew I could plan and produce an anthology that would be colorful, engaging, and result in publication for some that have never had work accepted before as well as those that were established authors/poets. My desire to have the work be for students and teachers comes from my own experience of founding and leading a third grade writer’s circle some years ago at our local elementary school. My group was comprised mostly of above benchmark learners, talented and gifted students, and highly motivated ones, willing and able to do more than their usual assignments. One of our month-long units was on poetry. My approach to poetry with the students was to instill confidence with various simple forms such as haiku, diamante, cinquain, and color poems, focusing on creating a picture with words for the reader. We also worked on the use of descriptive words, syllable counting, and not worrying about rhyme (since not all poetry rhymes). This approach seemed to alleviate some pressure for the students that surrounded what seemed like the daunting task of writing poetry. Poetry is scary for students; my aim was to have it not be. The poetry unit ended up being the most popular of our units during our yearlong meetings. I wanted to provide a volume of poetry that could be used as a mentor text, an instructional manual, or a self-instructive text for highly motivated students. Thus, I included back matter that could be referenced easily by teachers, students, homeschool groups, or anyone interested in writing poetry. My hope is that I’ve accomplished that with this anthology. JRM: What draws you to ekphrastic poetry? CL: My formal introduction to ekphrastic poetry occurred in 2021 when I participated in an anthologies webinar by Pomelo Books’ Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell that resulted in the book– Things We Do. Their webinars were informative and after taking Antho101 and 201, I was sure I could publish one of my own using ekphrastic poetry based on photography. Of course, I had heard of ekphrastic poetry before but never tried my hand at it, seriously. I am an avid photographer and often find that my photography informs my writing. There are two ekphrastic poems I’ve written that capture what I saw in my photograph. You can see these on my blog here, and here. These are not part of the anthology. I also feel that this form of poetry is something that students can try without feeling too intimidated. The artform that inspires the poetry, gives them something concrete to work with when writing. Ekphrastic poetry is also inclusive in that you can use a form of poetry that appeals to you to express what you see in the art whether that be a haiku, golden shovel, triolet, nonet, or others. JRM: What surprised you about the submission? CL: I think my timeline for the book worked out well. I provided three months, from August 1st to November 1st, for a submission window. All of the poems in the anthology were submitted and accepted during that time frame. I asked for a $10.00 fee from submitters for up to three poems. Only a few people questioned that fee. In the submission description, I informed those interested that the fee would help cover the cost of color printing and hiring an editor. As well as an indie author, I am an indie publisher–a one woman operation at Northern Loon Press. I created this publishing house when I released my poetry chapbook, Life’s Reflections in Few Words in 2022. In reality, the total of submission fees received covered about 75% of the editor fees. But it helped. I was surprised by the number of people I was able to attract to the anthology. I expected some I knew from the Poetry Friday group to participate but I also got participants from posting the call to twitter and to my state poetry group (which I had some difficulty with my call). I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the poems and photographs I received as well. Strangers were trusting me with their work and that really surprised as well as pleased me. JRM: What was your process for assembling the collection? CL: As I received submissions, I decided on whether to include the work in the anthology or not. Most, but not all, of what was submitted was accepted. Then, I had to get the photo and first rights releases signed by each author. This was an ongoing process for several weeks. Once I had all the submissions and permissions, I had to decide how I was going to layout (assemble) the book. But first, I had to make sure that submitted photographs were sized with the correct pixelation (minimum 300 dpi). I knew this was important because I had taken a graphic design course (mandatory curriculum) as part of my graduate degree (MS) in Natural Resources. Luckily, I own photography software to help me do this. In addition, I had to reorient some of the photographs. I had asked for portrait orientation in the submission directions but still got many landscapes. When necessary, I worked individually with an author to optimize their photograph(s) for publication. As they started to come in, but after resizing the pixels on the photographs as needed, I started adding them to Canva software for a trade Sized (6” x 9”) book templet. Somehow, I thought adding a colored background to each page based on the colors in the photograph would be nice. At that time, each author’s poems were grouped together, on consecutive pages, and given the same colored background. This changed at the end a bit, as I made sure the two page spreads were side by side. Early on, I decided on the font size and style for the poems, titles, and by-lines. I was careful to keep these consistent throughout. I kept track of all this information on a notepad and a spreadsheet at my desk. My editor, Rachel, Reyes, who I had worked with previously on my chapbook, caught any inconsistencies with font, size, layout, and style. She was a joy to work with and I hope we can work together again. When Rachel was finished editing, I sent most authors a note about what changes were suggested. All of these changes were very small. Most accepted the editor’s suggestions without hesitation. Once the book was reviewed, I reviewed it again and again and again, checking for different things each time. Small tweaks were made. The front and back matter were added. This was all done in Canva. The last piece was the most frustrating and demanded patience. It was uploading the book to KDP and reviewing the format for their trade sized books. The cover is a separate file from the book and the initial draft of the cover took me three days! The inside of the book was less frustrating but unfortunately I had internet issues with a slow and intermittent connection when I was trying to upload the manuscript. Going to my public library solved that issue. After three proof copies, ordered to review the small changes I made because I felt they were necessary to have the book be the best it could be, I pressed the publish button on April 6th. On the morning of the 7th, I woke to a message from Amazon that they had rejected my cover due to some illegible text. After examination It turned out to be the text on the spine of the book. I spent several hours trying to figure out how to fix it, but finally I came across a solution. The book went live that afternoon! JRM: What tips do you have for people who are interested in indie/self-publishing? CL: Each day in April, I am releasing tips on indie publishing on my WordPress blog, The Apples in My Orchard. You can check my posts for more of my process and the tips resulting from it. One thing that should be impressed upon the readers of this interview is that if you have a desire to publish or be published, it is doable with today’s technology. Do not believe everything you read in forums about whether you can or cannot use certain formats to create your book. If I had stopped after reading some of the “advice” online, this anthology would never have come to life! The Picture Perfect Poetry book was laid out in Canva. The files were converted to PDF and uploaded to KDP. Both of these methods were touted as not being possible by people in online forums. Do NOT believe everything you read. Instead, try it for yourself. I am working on finishing the book’s upload to Ingram Spark for it to be distributed to their markets as well as Amazon’s. I hope to have that done soon. However, it is another platform with another learning curve. Bear in mind that you will almost certainly have to do one or more part of a book more than once, unless you are well versed in the self-publishing world, the software you use, and the distribution platform you choose. It is all worth it! I hope the book is widely read and enjoyed. I want to thank Jone for this interview and allowing me to share my perspective on creating a poetry anthology and the field of indie publishing. I enjoyed working with the poet-photographers and plan to do this again in the future. I thank them all for trusting me with their work. I hope they feel that I treated their pieces with reverence. Thank you, Carol, for this encouraging and insightful interview. I for one, have been toying with the possibility of an anthology one day. Below is a sneak peak at one of my poems. I originally had written the seedling poem for submission in one of the Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell books. I went in search of the picture perfect seedling photos. Seedlings are not easy to photograph! And it was quite comical with me on the ground or bent over fallen logs to capture a seedling with my husband , daughter and grand girls on the adventure. I hope that this book reaches a wide audience.
Next up is Liz Garton Scanlon's new book and interview. Please leave your link with Mr. Linky. NOTE: Mr. Linky is cranky. You need to have a small image to upload. Elect the image, when you push enter and it says close, close it and refresh your page, your link should be there.
Note: Please link at Mr. Linky in Part 1 of Poetry Friday. Welcome back to part two of my poetry author’s interviews. I was very happy that Anne Irza-Leggat connected me with Liz and her new book, Everyone Starts Small. JRM: Where did the seed for this book come from? LGS: I love the wordplay you embedded in this question, Jone -- thank you! I write a lot about the natural world because of how enraptured I am with it and, also, how worried I am for it. This particular manuscript was inspired by two books -- The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben and Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, both of which are chock-full of fascinating and heartening stuff, but are decidedly for grown-up readers. I wanted to grab the essence of what I learned from those books and translate it into something accessible and alive for young readers. JRM: What kind of research did you do? What information did you have to leave out? What was the most surprising tidbit of information from the research? LGS: When I dug into the interconnected lives of trees and fungi, I was utterly wowed by how smart and resilient these living worlds are, and what impeccable examples they offer of how to protect and lift one another other up. There was so much information I couldn't include -- like the fact that trees form intricate networks for sharing nutrients and messages and support, via chemical compounds and scent and even sound! But I was able (I hope) to evoke the reality that (as Peter Wohlleben said in The Hidden Life of Trees) "a tree can be only as strong as the forest that surrounds it." We are, none of us, as safe or well alone as we are together. JRM: Was there a verse you wanted to include but had to cut? LGS: Not a particular verse, but the tenor of the piece changed quite a bit. The early drafts leaned into a friendly competition between tree and water, and who could grow bigger and stronger, faster. There is still a hint of that, in the final book, but I became much more interested in how everything -- tree and water and bug and berry -- grows together. The threat or competition really isn't between them so much as an external thing being imposed upon them, thanks to the impact of human activity and climate change. JRM: Would you have an early draft of a poem and then the final draft so readers can take a peek at the process? LGS: My poet-friends Laura Purdie Salas and Tanita Davis are both amazing at capturing their own processes -- sometimes even via video. I'm envious because I'm less organized or maybe less conscious of the discreet steps of my process. But here's an example of a poem from a small collection I've been working on. You'll see that as it evolved, it became way more specific and, to my mind at least, child centered. JRM: Would you have a tip for teachers on how to use this book? LGS: I hope it will be read and enjoyed as "just a story" but also that students will notice that the "characters" in the book, while not human, are very much alive and engaged with the world and with one another! Tree has been given the primary speaking voice here, but I'd love for students to empower the other natural elements to speak, too! What would Wind say if we were listening? What might Bug wish for? What is Berry afraid of? The more empathy we build in this way, the more motivated we'll be to serve and stand up for and save the planet. I really believe that. JRM: What advice might you have for aspiring young poets of any age? LGS: Read your work aloud. Write and then read it aloud, then revise and read it aloud, then tweak and tweak again and read it aloud. Every time I do this I hear what's there, what's missing, and what I ought to do next. It's magic. JRM: How can readers support our environments? LGS: There are all sorts of hands-on ways for kids to engage their inner environmentalists, from picking up litter, to planting for pollinators, to helping compost food waste. Bigger picture? Reading and learning about our wild planet is the first step toward activism. To really know the Earth is to love her, to love her is to ensure she survives. And then, as Tree says in the book, Everyone Wins.
I do hope you will return on Saturdays to see the Saturday Matinee featuring my TWU student poetry videos. Here is last week: 2024 National Poetry Month Saturday Matinee, Featuring the Work of Texas Women's University Students.
This Saturday, April 13, 2024, the videos will feature poems by Jay Brazeau and Sally Murphy will be featured. You may want to check in on the 2024 Progressive Poem. It’s at Buffy Silverman on April 11 and Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise on April 12. There is still time to share your favorite poem or poet by filling out this form. We all have more than one poem or poet we love, probably we have many mentor poems. Don’t overthink it, just share one. Note: Please link at Mr. Linky in Part 1 of Poetry Friday 2024 National Poetry Month Saturday Matinee, Featuring the Work of Texas Women's University Students4/6/2024
, I've been teaching a poetry for children and young adults to MLIS students at TWU . It's my second year doing so. Thanks to the venerable Dr. Sylvia Vardell, who taught before me, I have had excellent curriculum to use.
For their midterm, students are asked to create a video of a poem which several poetry friends have donated. Originally, I was to teach for just a year and then last fall, I was asked to return and teach. The class was returned to the program. Because of the late notice, I have only had ten students this year. They are a wonderful dedicated group. You know how I love featuring student work of all ages, Today I am featuring Sea Dance by Theresa Gaughan created by Miranda F. and Grape by Sandy Brehl created by Alisha G.
"Sea Dance" written by Theresa Gaughan, created by Miranda F.
"Grape" written by Sandy Brehl, video created by Alisha G.
n Thanks to Irene at Live Your Poem for hosting the first Friday of National Poetry Month. The theme of my poetry month is 'doubleheaders". Double interview Fridays and double videos on my Saturday Matinees featuring my TWU students. World Aquatic Animal Day was April 3 so the first two books feature sea animals. Part II, is an interview with Randi Sonenshine and her gorgeous book The Den That Octopus Built. The book birthday is set for May 21, 2024. JRM: From a lodge built by a beaver to a den built by an octopus, how did you decide on the octopus to be the next book? RS: My agent, Kendra Marcus of BookStop Literary, called me one night and told me I had to watch My Octopus Teacher because it was going to be my next book. She was right, of course! I was spellbound! Octopuses are such fascinating creatures, and though we have learned a lot about them, there is still so much we don’t know. They have an uncanny intelligence and an almost universal appeal. Their dens, though not elaborate structures like the wren’s nest or beaver’s lodge, are unique and central to the life cycle of an octopus. JRM: Are you creating a series? What will be next? RS: I think there’s potential for additional books in the animal habitats series, but there are none in the works at the moment. Currently, I’m working on another project, also a lyrical exploration of one aspect of the animal world, but wholly different from this series. JRM: I am sure you researched octopi in depth. What information did you have to leave out? What was the most surprising tidbit of information from the research? RS: I try to integrate as much of my research as I can within the main text, but given that the text is poetic and spare, that's a challenge, which is why I include back matter. With this book, though, there was so much I wanted to include, I couldn’t fit it all in the back matter. I would love to have included more about their hunting techniques, which I find fascinating. I mention the pounce attack in one of the verses, but they sometimes even trick their prey by reaching all the way around with one arm to tap it. When the backs up, thinking the danger is in front of it, it backs right into the octopus, where it is quickly trapped in the webbing between the cephalopod’s arms. To add insult to injury, the octopus then injects it with a paralyzing neurotoxin from its beak. Of all the fascinating things I learned, though, the most surprising had to do with words. Like you, I always thought the plural of octopus was octopi, but it’s octopuses or octopus. JRM: Wow RS:It has Greek roots rather than Latin. Also, its limbs are not called tentacles. They are arms. Squids have tentacles, which are long and stringy with suckers only on their clubbed ends, while octopus arms are shorter, muscular, and have rows of suckers all along their length. JRM: I love the pattern from the classic This is the House that Jack Built. What was your process for getting the rhyming and the cadence to flow and to include the information about the octopus? RS: As this is the third companion book, the cadence is very natural to me. In fact, while I’m in the writing phase, I often think in that rhythmic pattern, even when I’m not actually writing! While I’m researching, I also jot down words, phrases, and sometimes lines that are evoked by what I’m learning. Those words and the meter are constantly percolating in my brain, and as phrases or lines come to me (usually in the car, the shower, or right before I fall asleep!) I jot them down in the notes app on my phone. I’m a stickler for meter and rhyme, so I will obsess over every syllable until these are perfect. Sometimes that means changing a word or phrase or inverting the two clauses that make up the couplet. Two absolute essentials during this phase of the work are RhymeZone and thesaurus.com. I also read the verses out loud over and over and have others read them aloud. If anyone stumbles over a line or forces the meter, I know it needs work. JRM: Research or create the rhymes? What is your favorite? RS: I love the research, but it can take me down a long and winding rabbit hole! Once I start to write, though, it’s such an exciting challenge. It’s like a puzzle; I need to find just the right “piece” to fit in that poetic space.I also love revising for other sound and meaning elements to make the text as musical and lyrical as I can. With each revision pass, I layer and refine elements like alliteration, assonance, figurative language, and sensory images to create something that’s rich in both sound and meaning. JRM: Was there a verse you wanted but had to cut? RS: I wanted to include a verse that showed her using a shell or some kind of vessel as a temporary shelter: This is the shell she squeezes inside/ a quick, makeshift shelter to rest in and hide/ while far from the den that Octopus built. Instead, I opted for the verse in which she uses shells around her as armor: These are the shells she wears like a sheath/ keeping her safe from Tiger Shark’s teeth/ when she’s far from the den that Octopus built. JRM: How can readers support our aquatic environments? RS:: That’s a great question! First, it’s important for readers to understand that the ocean supports humans, just as it does aquatic life. In fact, about ten percent of people in the world depend on the ocean for their livelihood, and there is a limited supply of that water. The easiest and most important thing we can do is use less water. Taking shorter showers, turning off the water when we brush our teeth, and making sure we don’t have leaks are all great ways to conserve water. Also important is reducing the amount of contamination in our oceans, especially plastics. Recycling, using reusable water bottles, and using less disposable plastics like take-out cutlery, straws, and containers will go a long way towards reducing this threat to our aquatic life. JRM: Thank you for your wonderful interview. I was unaware of the plural of octopus and that they are limbs. JRM: Would you have an early draft of a poem and then the final draft so readers can take a peek at the process? RS: Well, my process is (literally) all over the place! First, I jot down verses and partial verses in my notebook and/or on my brainstorming document on my computer, as well as in the notes on my phone, so I have snippets and scraps in multiple places before I stitch them together into a cohesive draft. Before I draft, I put the rough verses (usually multiple options) on color-coded notecards to help group them and determine the sequence, all the while playing with the language and sentence structure, so by the time I draft the manuscript, I have worked through a lot of revisions, and the changes after that are not as extreme. To show that evolution, I’ve added some of those early octopus “inklings’ to my first draft to share with you and your readers. Please stop by for the Double Feature Saturday Matinee featuring my TWU Students. And I host next Friday.
Thanks to Irene at Live Your Poem for hosting the first Friday of National Poetry Month. The theme of my poetry month is 'doubleheaders". Double interview Fridays and double videos on my Saturday Matinees featuring my TWU students. World Aquatic Animal Day was April 3 so the first two books feature sea animals. First up is an interview with David Elliott and his gorgeous new book, At the Poles. JRM: What was the seed for writing poems about the two poles? DE: At the Poles is the eighth book in the series, so it might be more fruitful for your readers to understand how it all began. Some years ago, a book friend, through no fault of her own, was in a bit of financial trouble. So someone – I can’t remember who – came up with the idea of New England authors writing a short piece that would be illustrated by local artists. The finished work was framed, hung in a gallery, and auctioned off, the proceeds going to our friend. My contribution was: The Robin/ sings from her branch/but wants to roar./Small cousin of the dinosaur./ This was early(ish) on in my career, 2006 or so. At that point, I hadn’t written a lot of verse. But the exercise opened a door for me. “Hmmm,” I thought. ”I wonder if I can write more of these.” As it turned out, I could. Who knew? The result was On the Farm, published by Candlewick in 2008 and illustrated by the late and irreplaceable Holly Meade. I included that robin poem in the original draft of OTF, but Liz Bicknell, the fabulous editor of the series, nixed it -- can’t remember why, but I know she was right. But all was not lost. A version of the poem found its way into the fourth book, On the Wing, beautifully illustrated by then newcomer, Becca Stadtlander. On the Farm did well (still selling, and is now available as a board book) and led to In the Wild and In the Sea, both illustrated by Holly, who was also under contract for the next two – On the Wing and In the Past – when she was diagnosed with the illness that eventually took her from us. Our hearts broke the day we got her note saying she was no longer able to work. The rest, as they say, is history. Becca bravely took up her brush for On the Wing, and the incredible Matthew Trueman signed on for In the Past. It was the dinosaur book, too, where we began to add backmatter with notes on each of the animals. Next the consummate artist, Rob Dunlavey applied his wonderful story-telling art to In the Woods. Amy Schimler-Safford’s luminous art was perfect for At the Pond. That brings us to At the Poles. (Finally! I hear you saying.) Without ever making an actual decision, we had begun to look at our planet’s biomes as the settings for the books, and so the poles seemed like the next logical choice. The book, like each in the series, had its particular challenges. In this case, it was the extreme climate, which makes the animals who live there somehow more distant from us. (Think of the difference in how you might feel about a panda, say, and an elephant seal.) This is just one of the reasons why I am so grateful to Ellen Rooney. The warmth she brought to the fauna of the poles is exactly what was needed. These artists! They’re amazing! There are two more books in this series on the way. In the Desert, illustrated by the young British artist, Gordy Wright, and the final volume, At the Edge, poems about those strange creatures that live at the edge of our imaginations, animals like the axolotl and the pangolin. I’m over the moon to share that Clover Robins will do the art. By the time all ten books are published, I will have written over 150 poems about the other lives with which we share the planet. Reading, and then writing, about these amazing animals has been one of the greatest privileges of my writing life. JRM: When you wrote Antarctic Shag, did the words look as they do on the finished page with the illustration? (It’s one of my favorite pages) how much say do you have for the way the poem is placed on the page with the illustration? DE: Yes, the physical form of the poem is exactly as I wrote it and is as much a part of the poem as its vocabulary. One of the most difficult things for young writers to learn is that everything on the page conveys meaning. Everything! Every word. Every line break. Every comma. Every period. Every capitalization. Everything. And that includes empty space. Liz is an editor who understands that and gives me a lot of freedom. JRM: What was the most surprising tidbit of information from researching these animals? DE: One of the great pleasures in writing these books is what I have learned about the fauna that tread the earth’s surface, sleep in its caves, burrow into its soil, swim in its waters, fly through its skies. I was well into my sixties when I was working on In the Wild. From my earliest days, I had seen photos of lions, paintings of lions, lions in cartoons, lions in picture books, lions in zoos, in films, in wild animal parks. These magnificent creatures have populated my life since childhood, and yet my learning about them seems to have been arrested nearly from the time I knew they existed. To write about the lion, I had to make up for my many years of ignorance. Now I know that along with tigers, leopards, jaguars,lions are one of the four great cats. And why? Because they are the only cats that can roar. I love to think about the Greenland shark, one of the animals featured in At the Poles and the longest-living vertebrate on Earth. Scientists estimate these fish live between 250 and 500 years. Think of it! There are Greenland sharks swimming today that were around when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine chapel. I love Ellen’s shark, by the way. We often talk about how books change readers. But they change their authors as well. Writing these books has taught me that every creature on the planet, from the magnificent elephant to the tiny dung beetle deserves my admiration and respect. If we knew more about our fellow creatures, perhaps we wouldn’t be so intent on their destruction, destruction, which will, of course, bring about our own. JRM: Students asked, “Why is narwhal only a two line poem?” DE: But they might just as easily have asked, “Why does the narwhal get to be a two-line poem?” In other words, they could also see the brevity of that poem as a way of honoring the narwhal rather than some kind of diminution. The books in the series are about the animal world, for sure, and I hope they will help young readers get closer to, respect, have admiration for, and even learn to love all of life in its infinite forms. But the books are also about our language, its power, its buoyancy, its playfulness, its malleability. The narwhal is only seven words, but hopefully those words carry with them many layers of meaning. That kind of surprise is what our language can deliver. I hope teachers who use the books in their classrooms will help their students understand that their language, English, is a precious gift, and one which will help them to discover who they are in this wide and wonderful world. By the way, Candlewick has created a fantastic Teachers’ Guide for the series. It’s jam packed with exercises and ideas for classroom activities, all aligned with Common Core standards. Beautifully designed, too. Downloadable and free. Anyone who wants a copy can email me, and I’ll send them a copy tout suite. JRM: Was there an animal/poem you wanted but had to cut? DE: The opposite really. Because the conditions at the poles are so harsh, there were fewer animals to pick from. Unlike say, the Amazon which has over 10,000 species of beetles alone. Choosing the animals for each book has been an interesting exercise. On the Farm was relatively simple. You can ask any child anywhere in the U.S. what animals live on a farm and they will shout “Horse!” “Pig!” “Cow!” But think of undomesticated creatures. Now it gets complicated. A quick Google search will tell you that scientists estimate there are close to nine million wild animal species living on earth. Which of them should be included in a thirty-two page book, a picture book where each creature will appear on a double spread. In practical terms, that means somewhere around fifteen animals per book. Fifteen vs. nine million. You see the problem, right? The animals had to speak to me. But in each of the books, I also had to be aware of the illustrator’s job. Was I able to choose animals of different sizes, with a variety of forms, and shapes? This was especially challenging in books like In the Sea and At the Poles, where the setting and palette was nearly the same for each animal, water in the first case, ice and snow in the second. On the surface, picture books seem so simple. In fact, their production is an amazingly complicated process, requiring so much consideration and decision-making on the part of the author, the illustrator, the editor, and the designer. It’s this collaborative effort that makes a good book. It’s one of the reasons I love to write them. JRM: Would you have an early draft of a poem and then the final draft so readers can take a peek at the process? DE: This is difficult since I revise as I go along. That is, I don’t finish a poem, put it aside, and then go back to it. Well, that’s not entirely true. I do return to each poem. Again and again. But the poem I go back to has already been rewritten many, many times. I’ve already edited, amended, subtracted from, added to, and in general fiddled with hundreds of times. For better or worse, I don’t save each draft. But it’s an interesting thing to think about, revision. Emerging writers often don’t understand it, thinking that it means changing where a comma might go, or replacing one word with another. But revision means to see again. And often when you do that. Everything shifts. For example, here is the first poem I wrote about the Emperor Penguin, a poem by the way that went through many revisions. Some might say you are absurd -- a bird who cannot fly, a blooper in the history of feathered aviation. But you’ve acquired other skills on which you can rely and are a master of the art of close cooperation. Not bad, I guess. But then I started to think about the penguin’s name. Emperor penguin, and I re-saw the poem, capitalizing on the idea of emperor, which led to the poem we see in the book, and is, I hope, a much better tribute to the bird. JRM: What is it like to go between writing a novel in verse and a collection of poems? Do you have both projects happening at the same time? DE: Here, I’ll paraphrase what my good friend and writer (for adults) Hester Kaplan says about the difference between a short story and a novel. A collection of poems is like a date, or more accurately a series of dates, but a novel in verse is like a marriage. To continue with that simile, as in my actual marriage, I don’t cheat. JRM: What do you have in the works currently? DE: Maybe the easiest thing to do here is make a list.
JRM: Thank you David, for your thorough and insightful answers. I love this : If I’m not writing or thinking about writing. I’m not myself. I may not be talented, but I am dogged. Next up, an interview with Randi Soenshine. And I am hosting Friday, April 12.
|
AuthorAll photos and poems in these blog posts are copyrighted to Jone Rush MacCulloch 2006- Present. Please do not copy, reprint or reproduce without written permission from me. Categories
All
Archives
March 2024
2023 Progressive Poem
April 1 Mary Lee Hahn, Another Year of Reading April 2 Heidi Mordhorst, My Juicy Little Universe April 3 Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference April 4 Buffy Silverman April 5 Rose Cappelli, Imagine the Possibilities April 6 Donna Smith, Mainely Write April 7 Margaret Simon, Reflections on the Teche April 8 Leigh Anne, A Day in the Life April 9 Linda Mitchell, A Word Edgewise April 10 Denise Krebs, Dare to Care April 11 Emma Roller, Penguins and Poems April 12 Dave Roller, Leap Of Dave April 13 Irene Latham Live You Poem April 14 Janice Scully, Salt City Verse April 15 Jone Rush MacCulloch April 16 Linda Baie, TeacherDance April 17 Carol Varsalona, Beyond Literacy Link April 18 Marcie Atkins April 19 Carol Labuzzetta at The Apples in My Orchard April 20 Cathy Hutter, Poeturescapes April 21 Sarah Grace Tuttle, Sarah Grace Tuttle’s Blog, April 22 Marilyn Garcia April 23 Catherine, Reading to the Core April 24 Janet Fagal, hosted by Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference April 25 Ruth, There is no Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town April 26 Patricia J. Franz, Reverie April 27 Theresa Gaughan, Theresa’s Teaching Tidbits April 28 Karin Fisher-Golton, Still in Awe Blog April 29 Karen Eastlund, Karen’s Got a Blog April 30 Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, and Writing |