Wednesday, May 01, 2013

P*CON at TLA 2013

The whole P*CON poet crew and me!

Michael Salinger

Rebecca Dotlich

Jane Yolen

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

Charles Waters

Robert Paul Weston

Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Jane and Rebecca discuss collaborating on GRUMBLES FROM THE FOREST
Will Richey and teens rock the house; volunteers step up to participate

Our enthusiastic audience; Jane and Charles talking about process; poets in the audience

Thanks to the poets who spoke so eloquently and each stayed for the entire 4 hour institute. Thanks to Penguin and Boyds Mills Press for bringing several of our poets. Thanks to our lovely audience who were so committed, open, and enthusiastic. And special thanks to Dr. Marianne Follis, Chair of the Children's Round Table (of the Texas Library Association) for conceiving of P*CON (the poetry version of Comic Con!) and for all her support. This was TLA's FIRST post-conference institute and I think it was a big hit! One participant said it was the highlight of her entire conference experience!


Image credit: SylviaVardell

Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2013. All rights reserved.

8 comments:

Janet Wong said...

It looks like it was TONS of FUN! (And I love this 3 photos "photo booth" format!)

skanny17 said...

Wish I could have been there. This looks like it would have been a super highlight for me, too! I am going to the Highlights Poetry Workshop in May with Rebecca. Count me smiling! I just chaired this year's CNY Pen Women's Poetry Contest and Award Ceremony on Sat. and some of my poetry is hanging in a PW art and letters show in a library in our area! I love being surrounded by such literary delights as I find in your books,(yours and Janet Wongs!) blogs and Poetry Friday Anthologies as well as on Poetry Friday online!
Janet F.

Renee LaTulippe said...

Love this peek into what goes on when you all get together. What a dream it would be to join you one day!

MariannetheLibrarian said...

This was such a great event. I loved hearing the different voices of the poets...and then to have the teen speakers at the end, was just amazing.

Thanks for being our poetic leader SV!

Charles Waters said...

Isn't this great! Thank you again Sylvia. I agree with Janet that the photo booth format is excellent.

laurasalas said...

Oh, this looks amazing! A four-hour institute? Wow. I hope to get back to TLA some day. It was one of my favorite conferences ever:>) Love the pics.

Robyn Hood Black said...

Oh, what a party!!! Thanks for sharing, Sylvia. Almost as good as being there, but not q-u-i-t-e.... Love the idea of P*CON!

Amy LV said...

We are so darn lucky to have you in our lives, Sylvia. Thank you for all of it. I learned so much, and these photos are a riot!