I took my handy dandy FlipCam with me to the 8th annual ALSC Poetry Blast and made short one minute (more or less) movies of the poets reading their works to share with you. Next: Alan Katz.
Here's the short, lovely intro written and presented by host and poet Marilyn Singer and used with permission.
Question: How would you describe perfect happiness?
Answer by Alan Katz: Perfect happiness is the moment when all my kids have done their homework and are busy with pre-bedtime activities that are personally satisfying and enriching for them, yet not overly noisy. I've never actually experienced that moment, but I hear it's wonderful.
Alan Katz says that he’s “majored in silliness” for more than thirty years. During that time, he’s written for a bunch of Emmy-nominated TV shows such as The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Taz-Mania, Disney’s Raw Toonage, and Goof Troop, several editions of the Grammy Awards and Tony Awards, Kids Are People Too, and a slew of Nickelodeon projects including Whoopi’s Littleburg. He’s also authored many articles and created hundreds of comic books, trading cards, web videos, and other special projects for kids and their parents.
Oh—and he’s written books, too. Lots of them, including Oops!; Don’t Say That Word; and Take Me Out of the Bathtub, winner of four state awards and the Publisher’s Weekly Cuffie Award for Funniest Book.
A resident of Connecticut, Alan says that his “proudest achievement is the brilliance of Simone, Andrew, Nathan, and David, the children my wonderful wife Rose and I ‘co-authored.’ They have taken me to new heights of silliness, and they are the reason I'm a happy man.”
Here, Alan shares his poem, "The English Teacher," a clever riff on teaching and punctuation!
Image credit:
Sylvia Vardell
Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2011. All rights reserved.
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