Guest Post: Joan Bransfield Graham and AWESOME EARTH

I'm so happy to share this space with poet Joan Bransfield Graham as she debuts her new poetry collection, AWESOME EARTH: Concrete Poems Celebrate Caves, Canyons, and Other Fascinating Landforms. It is illustrated by Tania Garcia and published by Clarion/HarperCollins on Feb. 18. Here Joan writes about how this book came to be and what influenced her writing of it. 

From Joan: 

At the end of Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day,” she asks, 

young Joan

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with this one wild and precious life?” As someone who grew up on a barrier island at the southern tip of New Jersey, where the waves whispered, “See the world, go beyond the horizon,” I wondered will I ever see what is on the other side of this huge ocean?  Yes!

Eventually, I found that not only did I want to see the world, I wanted to capture it, write about it, photograph it, embrace it. With poetry and photography, you can capture a moment in time, a place, a new perspective. 

The inspiration for this book happened one day when I was in my yoga class.  The teacher asked us to do the “Mountain” pose (Tadasana), to feel its power and majesty.  And I did!  I started to write a poem in my head in the voice of the mountain, a mask poem.  What I scribbled down on a scrap of paper, evolved into my “Mountain” poem. Later I thought about all the amazing landforms on our Earth and realized what better way to write about all these awesome shapes than with shape itself--concrete poetry. This picture book combines poetry, science, art, and the art of words to explore what creates landforms from “Mountain,” “Glacier,” and “Volcano” to “Island,” “Hills,” & “Hoodoos” -- artistic wonders that cover our Earth’s surface.

I did a great amount of research and had learned much from all of my travels.  I have snorkeled in Bora Bora and the Galapagos Islands, hiked on the Great Wall of China and in Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains. I’ve sailed on the Yangtze River and on the Nile.  I’ve gone black water rafting and cave tubing in Waitomo, New Zealand & much more. What I wrote as sidebars became back matter, along with my glossary, and my additional resources. Of the 16 photos that I submitted, they were able to fit in six.

Artist Tania García, from Barcelona, Spain did a fantastic job with a palette of luscious, jewel-toned colors, creating a glorious, inviting environment for the poems! I love the cover, the whole jacket! ¡Muchas Gracias, Tania—magnífica! And, of course, abundant accolades to my editors Ann Rider (now retired) and Lynne Polvino and the whole team at Clarion/HarperCollins for their awesomeness! 💖

 

Joan with her painting 

Interestingly, many years ago after my second year of teaching, I took a Summer Session Abroad through the University of San Francisco. Majorca, an island in the Balearic archipelago off the east coast of Spain, is almost directly across the ocean from where I grew up. I lived with a Spanish family there and took classes in Landscape Painting and Drawing.  Later I toured through Spain and Portugal and visited Barcelona.  I certainly did get to see what was on the other side of that huge Atlantic Ocean and am so grateful.

Now I am 15-20 minutes from the Pacific Ocean in California. I’ve lived in the north, south, east, and west US and have visited about 50 countries. I want to see as much of our planet as I can and want to open the world for curious, creative children everywhere to enjoy and embrace this Awesome Earth we all share.  As I say on my website, “A good poem surprises your senses, shakes you awake, stirs your emotions, and startles your imagination. Each poem is an act of discovery. Poetry helps us widen our vision and our hearts.”

 

Thanks for helping me celebrate, Sylvia, and for all you do to bring a “passion of poets” together—such an incredible community! Enjoy all of your many travels! ❤️

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AWESOME EARTH -- BLOG/MEDIA TOUR, Feb. 17 – Feb. 21— Pub Date: Feb. 18

Monday, Feb. 17-- Poetry for Children -- Dr. Sylvia Vardell, Professor Emerita, Texas Woman's University, Past President of IBBY, author, and publisher, a look behind-the-scenes (here!).

Tuesday, Feb. 18 – Georgia Heard, poet, educator, author, and inventor of Heart Maps ®, 2023 NCTE Excellence in Poetry for Children Award here and here.

Wednesday, Feb. 19-- Simply 7 Interviews -- Jena Benton Lasley, Alaska SCBWI Illustrator Coordinator, author-illustrator, poet, teacher; interview, plus giveaway:  .

Thursday, Feb. 20-- The Miss Rumphius Effect -- Dr. Patricia M. Stohr-Hunt, Chair, Education Dept., University of Richmond, VA; President, VA Association of College and Teacher Educators (VACTE):  

Friday, Feb. 21-- Jama’s Alphabet Soup — Jama Kim Rattigan, Virginia-based author, blogger, foodie, alphabet lover, picture book nerd; review of book, recipe, plus giveaway: