Joy Harjo – US Poet Laureate – Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harjo is a member of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. She is the author of several books of poetry, including An American Sunrise (W. W. Norton, 2019), and Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (W. W. Norton, 2015). I will talk a bit about Joy in this article… Read more »
Falling In Love I fell in love for the first time in July – there were fireworks (literal and figurative) and I wanted nothing more in my whole thirteen years of living than to kiss that boy. Growing up in a small Atlantic Canadian province I hold snapshots of summer in my memory – the… Read more »
In my last article Poetry Can Change the World, I make an argument about how vital poetry still is, even in our mad-pace world. Or, lately, just our ‘mad’ world, am I right? In this article I am going to compare poetry to espresso. Hear me out. Maybe it’s my lingering ADHD, maybe it’s my… Read more »
Can poetry change the world? Just ask Andrei Voznesensky, a Russian rock-star poet who sold out stadiums for his poetry readings in the 1960s. Yes. Stadiums. Voznesensky said, “If you want to change the world’s spirit, I will suggest that only poetry can do this.” Poetry Is Play Poetry, for the most part, is playful,… Read more »
Five years ago, if someone told me, “You will translate Romanian poetry into English,” I’d have said, “Who? Me?! You’re crazy.” Sadly, I speak only one language – English – fluently. But life and opportunity will forever have their way. Let me tell you a story. In high school, I was a serious student with… Read more »
There are years I barely remember – what happened to all 365 days of grade four? The only thing I remember is Mrs Vanbuskirk getting so mad she yelled at me in front of the class. I remember her white coat with the red embroidered designs of polar bears. She had impossibly black hair and… Read more »
This is not the article I intended to write. But I found, just as likely you, too, that I couldn’t focus on anything other than the viral elephant in our global living room. This coronavirus, COVID-19, won’t let any of us ignore it. Constant news alerts about death, the reality of livelihood loss, and the… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Marilyn Singer. Winner of the National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry, 2015, Marilyn Singer has written more than 100 books in many genres. She created a poetry form, the “reverso,” featured in three of her award-winning collections: Mirror Mirror,… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Sonja K. Solter. Sonja graduated from Stanford University and earned an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University, with a critical thesis on writing trauma in middle grade and young adult realistic fiction. She is currently a creative writing mentor… Read more »
Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jade Dee and Wilnona Marie, the “And I Thought” Ladies! Jade is the 2019 Poet of the Year, and Wilnona is Advocate Awarded. Both ladies recently accepted the job as US correspondents for UK TV show Chrissy B on Sky TV. They recently made… Read more »
