Workshop News!

Just found out we *are* talking walk-in registrations for my fall CityLit Project workshop. Drop me a comment if you’re interested…or just show up! Poetry Café: Small Plates to Tempt Your Writing Palate 8 Mondays: September 14 – November 2, 7-9 PM Howard County Arts Council, Ellicott City, MD Registration Fee: $175 You don’t have to be a gourmet to enjoy good food. Sample a variety of poetic styles and forms in this workshop for beginners. The Poetry Café is dishing out model poems and writing exercises for you to try. Through reading and writing, you’ll discover new tastes and flavors to add to your own literary menu. Your server is Laura Shovan -- a poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council’s Artist-in-Education program. Her poetry has been published in literary journals, anthologies and children’s magazines. Her author website is http://www.laurashovan.com/.

Registration forms are at http://www.citylitproject.org/ Look at the Write Here, Write Now schedule.

Poetry Friday -- How Poetry Comes to Me

CityLit Project is taking registrations for my fall poetry workshop. It's through the Write Here, Write Now program.

Poetry Cafe runs eight weeks (first session is Sept. 14). We'll talk about where poems come from, imagery and poems of childhood, list poems, using simile and metaphor, and how to build your own prompt.

Here's a model poem I'll be bringing to our first session, "How Poetry Comes to Me," by Gary Snyder.

How Poetry Comes to Me

It comes blundering over the

Boulders at night, it stays

Frightened outside the

Range of my campfire

The rest of the poem and a bio of Snyder are here.

Want more poetry to come to you? Visit Kate at Book Aunt http://bookaunt.blogspot.com/ -- our Poetry Friday host this week.

Want more info on my workshop?

Poetry Café: Small Plates to Tempt Your Writing Palate

Dates: September 14, 21, 28, October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 7-9 PM

Location: Howard County Center for the Arts

Registration: $175

The Poetry Café is dishing out model poems and writing exercises for you to try.

Instructor: Laura Shovan's poetry has appeared in Lips, The Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, Paterson Literary Review, The Little Patuxent Review, and Joyful online.

Registration forms are here:

http://www.citylitproject.org/index.cfm?page=writeherewritenow

Amok in Spring Workshops

I'm offering two writing workshops for adults this spring. One is an ongoing class. The other is a full day workshop with author Edie Hemingway at her fab log cabin. With a campfire lunch! First, the class: I'm back at Baltimore's CityLit Project, this time at their home base, the Creative Alliance. You'll love this course description for Write Here, Write Now: Poetry Café: Small Plates to Tempt Your Writing Palate You don’t have to be a gourmet to enjoy good food. Sample a variety of poetic styles and forms in this workshop for beginners. The Poetry Café is dishing out model poems and writing exercises for you to try. Through reading and writing, you’ll discover new tastes and flavors to add to your own literary menu. Yummy! (I must be hungry.) My class is running 8 Thursday evenings beginning in late March. Visit CityLit's website for details and registration info. Those new to writing poetry are especially welcome. On to the workshop. To celebrate National Poetry Month, novelist Edie Hemingway and I are offering an all-day poetry workshop for writers of all genres. It's on Saturday, April 18. Spring Cleaning: Finding a Fresh Literary Vision Through Poetry The workshop includes a campfire lunch and four sessions. Edie (whose middle grade novel "The Road to Tater Hill" is coming out from Delacorte in September!!!) is doing sessions on poetic language and "disconnecting habitual ways of thinking and writing." I'll be doing a session on simple odes and leading haiku hike -- nature walk and writing. Both forms focus on calling the writer (and reader) to attention. Edie's place is a beautiful log cabin in Frederick, MD -- wooded, mountains. Plus, did I mention the campfire lunch? Visit Edie's website for info. This one has a maximum enrollment of 15 and we've got 10 signed up already, so get going! Children's authors -- I'll be posting info soon about the MD/DE/WV Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conferences for 2009. The March 7, one day conference brochure is posted here. Registration deadline is 2/22, but if you want a critique send your stuff in sooner. (I'll be working registration and moderating the faculty panel discussion.) The regional SCBWI annual two-day shindig will be in mid-July. If you're a fan of the Purple Crayon website, you'll want to be at that conference (hint, hint). Hope to see you this spring!

A Tasty Treat for Poetry Friday

Last week, I led my final ekphrastic poetry workshop for the Maryland Humanities Council program, "Totally Ekphrastic: Picturing America through Poetry." The poetry sessions were an off-shoot of the NEH's Picturing America art curriculum.

It's sad to say goodbye to my good friend, the American Flamingo. We laughed together. (One student said, "It reminds me of cotton candy." Another: "It looks like it's doing yoga.") We cried together. (Kids asked me, "Can flamingos fly?" Since they are no longer wild in the U.S., I'd never seen one in flight. We had to look up the answer -- they can.)

As I worked with the image, John James Audubon's biography, and kids, I found myself discussing American history with students -- Audubon recording birds when much of our country was wilderness, his role as a naturalist, the fact that flamingos now live only in captivity.

A discussion about art that leads naturally into learning about American history -- that's what this program was supposed to be all about. There's a great George F. Will article about "Picturing America." He praises the program as the type of low-cost, high benefit initiative our government should do more often.

In my workshops, I heard a lot of elementary schoolers' poems about flamingos, wolves, elephants -- whatever animals struck their imagination.

One thing that definitely caught their attention: I shared Laura Purdie Salas' book, "A Fuzzy Fast Blur: Poems about Pets" as a model of poems about animals.

The hands-down favorite poem was, "Come in, Come in!" which Laura gave me permission to share today. (The snake below isn't the snake from her book, BTW. You have to check that one out -- it's grinning as it eats its dinner.)

Come in, Come in!

by Laura Purdie Salas

I'll make it easy

I'll open wide

I'll hope that you

will slide inside

Snakes eat mice

Some find that sad

But here's the truth:

They don't taste bad!

Had to include this photo. At least this mouse gets the last laugh!

You can read Laura's post about "A Fuzzy Fast Blur" here. She happens to be hosting Poetry Friday today, so stop by for more poetry.

Amok in Odes, Part 1

Ode to a Wrestler’s Parents' Nerves

DJRobMan is at the Cougar wrestling tournament in Thurmont, MD tonight. He made it all the way to the final round! I’m waiting for a phone call to hear how he did. He was pretty pumped about one of his matches – he won by tech fall.

To help me bide the time, here is an ode by Gary Soto that I’ve been using with middle schoolers.

Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes They wait under Pablo’s bed, Rain-beaten, sun-beaten, A scuff of green At their tips From when he fell In the school yard. He fell leaping for a football That sailed his way. But Pablo fell and got up, Green on his shoes, With the football Out of reach. Now it’s night. Pablo is in bed listening To his mother laughing To the Mexican novelas on TV. His shoes, twin pets That snuggle his toes, Are under the bed. He should have bathed, But he didn’t (Dirt rolls from his palm, Blades of grass Tumble from his hair.) He wants to be Like his shoes, A little dirty From the road…

You can find the poem in Soto’s collection, “Neighborhood Odes.” I got it from my favorite kids’ book on poetic form, "A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms," edited by Paul B. Janeczko.

Do a search on the title of the poem and you’ll find lesson ideas for “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes,” including classroom reproducibles from Scholastic.

Last week, I took this lesson to Bonnie Branch Middle’s GT Writers’ Guild.

(There's a description of Howard County, MD's G/T Writers' Guild program at this school website. It's not Bonnie Branch, but you'll get an idea of what the program is about. Full disclosure -- I co-chair the county's G/T Advisory Committee.)

Janene Sharbaugh is the G/T Resource Teacher at Bonnie Branch, which is in Ellicott City. We chose a lesson on odes because she wanted students to work on word choice.

In this lesson, we use the celebratory wording and grand metaphors of an ode to describe common objects. The exercise shows students that the words we select can shift the readers’ point of view.

Our discussion of “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes” and a writing exercise for middle schoolers tomorrow.

P.S. He won first place!