That Poetry Madness Thing

As I mentioned, I signed up to participate in Ed DeCaria’s Poetry Madness contest — maybe you never knew poetry could be competitive!

Please stop by and vote – you can help score points! Take ‘em to the hoop!

To recap from Ed’s website:

The Poets’ Challenge: Each poet is assigned a single word based on their bracket seed, ranging from 1 (intuitive) to 16 (seemingly impossible). Poets must write a kid-appropriate poem using the prompted word in under 36 hours. Once both final poems have been received, they will be pasted into the body of this post, and then the reader poll will be open for voting.

Voter Instructions: Read each poem as many times as you’d like. Then use the poll to express your preference. Votes are counted in real time and cannot be changed once entered. As a guideline for voting, consider the criteria on which the contestants on the cooking show “Chopped” are evaluated: presentation, taste, and creativity. Translated roughly into poetry terms, presentation might include technical aspects such as meter, rhyme, form/shape, etc.; taste might be the net effect — did the poem move you to laugh, cry, think, kill, etc.; and creativity might include the poet’s approach toward a certain subject, image evocation, clever wordplay, etc.

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I’ve been given the 16th seed – the one he calls “seemingly impossible” so that’s confidence building!

With poetry in mind… for teachers of older – middle school and high school students wanting to teach a poetry writing unit, I highly recommend Kathi Appelt’s Poems From Homeroom.

This book has been divided into two sections. Part One contains poems written by Kathi Appelt. She explains that for this particular collection, she chose to write each poem about a person. She says in her introduction, “When we create a character, the essential thing we must figure out is what motivates that character, what drives that person to do whatever it is he or she chooses to do. “

In Part Two, Ms. Appelt provides background information about each poem – and the particular longing she felt motivated the character. Longing is an excellent place to start to write a poem.

Hmmm… wondering what seemingly impossible word I’ll be assigned!

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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Read Loud and Proud!

Last week I attended the UCSD Extension Creative Writing Showcase.

Students from various creative writing classes offered through UCSD Extension read from their works-in-progress. Such a fun experience to hear from so many talented writers!

Reading aloud – and listening to other writers read their work – is part of the Vermont College experience. Reading an excerpt of your work is a graduation requirement. Students read from a podium, using a microphone, and to a receptive audience. Smaller, practice type reading opportunities are offered earlier throughout each residency to help prepare for this exhilarating, and potentially terrifying, experience.

Faculty members also read – occasionally from published work, but raw drafts are shared too. Some favorite memories of pre-published readings include Rita Williams-Garcia changing stance and body language, as well as voice and cadence as she read the different voices in Jumped; Tim Wynne-Jones had us all roaring with laughter as he read an early version of Rex Zero and the End of the World; but some people sobbed through Kathi Appelt’s lyrical reading of The Underneath.

Magic!

I think reading aloud is such a powerful tool for writers. I also think writers need to read their  writing out loud to themselves as part of the revision process, but this kind of reading – to an audience – is a separate animal completely.

If you are planning a working retreat, or simply want to build community and support for writers, I encourage you to consider readings as part of the experience. Five minutes allows for a good sense of a story – and can include a scene and/or entire picture book. Maybe allow up to ten minutes if it’s a small group or special event. It’s like having a recital to celebrate hard work!

Things to consider when selecting what to read:

• It doesn’t have to be the opening scene.
• Choose an entire scene to read.
• Select a scene with emotion and intensity.
• Humor is always appreciated by audiences.
• Action, too.
• It’s better to read less than the allotted time than more.
• Practice!

Thank you to all the brave and gifted writers I heard last week!

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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Hybrid Fiction: Linked Short Stories

Building on yesterday’s thoughts…

I absolutely adore linked short stories. Also known as story cycles or novels in story; these are collections of short stories with a common something – place, time, characters – and these stories somehow interconnect and overlap each other. Characters pop in and out of the various stories creating alternate perspectives and deeper understanding. I find these type of story collections to be a hybrid – they contain the brilliant moments of illumination and revelation best shown through short stories as well the more lasting nestling into the world of a novel.

Two of my absolute favorites are written for adults: OLIVE KITTERIDGE by Elizabeth Strout and LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN by Colum McCann.

I recently read THE STRANGE CASE OF ORIGAMI YODA by Tom Angleberger (Who was kind enough to allow an author spotlight, thanks to my SBB). Although I haven’t heard it described as such, I see this book as a collection of linked short stories. Different students take turns sharing their experiences with Dwight and his Origami Yoda finger puppet. Each chapter is essentially a short story from a different point of view – with comments and illustrations added. The fun is seeing all the different people that Origami Yoda has influenced – and seeing how the characters see each other. It’s brilliant and thoughtful and hilarious. (And Mom, if you are reading this, Tom A. lives in Christiansburg!)

One of the best ones I’ve read for teens/upper middle grade is KISSING TENNESSEE and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance by Kathi Appelt. Each story revolves around a different character – and then each one ends up at the Stardust Dance together. So so satisfying.

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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Hunger Mountain

I got lost on Hunger Mountain yesterday. Wow, there’s a lot to think about there. Kathi Appelt’s Blurring the Lines is an absolute must read. She made me laugh and cry and want to write and create. My head and heart are full of her words and I love it.

And if you are in the mood for some healthy competition… The guidelines for the Hunger Mountain annual contest (known as the Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing)  are here! You can even read the winner of last year’s contest – Crazy Cat, a short story by Liz Cook – it’s fun and surprising and sweet.

From the Hunger Mountain website:

Hunger Mountain is both a print and online journal of the arts. We publish fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, visual art, young adult and children’s writing, writing for stage and screen, interviews, reviews, and craft essays. Our print issue comes out annually in the fall, and our online content changes on a regular basis.

The Hunger Mountain editorial offices are located at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in historical Montpelier, Vermont. Vermont College of Fine Arts is the first college devoted entirely to low-residency, graduate fine arts programs, offering an MFA in Writing, MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults and MFA in Visual Arts.

It’s a good place to get lost.

Sarah Wones Tomp

WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK

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