Poetry news nuggets

Once again, a variety of poetry items have crossed my desk, so I thought I'd gather and share them here. Plus, please indulge a bit of self-promotion of a variety of poetry projects I have in development with colleagues and students. More to come!

Poetry at the Kennedy Center
Don't miss Caroline Kennedy's POETS AND PRESIDENTS featuring poets Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, Charles R. Smith, Jr., and Marilyn Singer (thanks for the info, Marilyn) interviewed by Maria Salvadore on Friday, Jan. 21. It was part of the Kennedy Center Performing Arts Program and is now available as a free video download for educators. There is also an educator's guide available. Register, download, and view for free at:
http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/pwtv/

CLPE Poetry Award News from IBBY Ireland
IBBY Ireland recently announced that the 2010 CLPE Poetry Award was won by Carol Ann Duffy for her anthology, New and Collected Poems for Children, illustrated by Alice Stevenson. The shortlist for the Award, which was generously sponsored by Travelling Books, included James Carter and Graham Denton's Orange Silver Sausage, Adrian Mitchell's Umpteen Pockets, illustrated by Tony Ross, Michael Rosen’s A-Z; The Best Children’s Poetry from Agard to Zephaniah and Kit Wright's The Magic Box, illustrated by Peter Bailey. The judges were John Agard, Andrew Lambirth and Lindsay MacRae. The chair of the judges was Margaret Meek Spencer.

FYI from the award website: The CLPE Poetry Award for a book of poetry for children was launched by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) in 2003. Winners have included John Agard, Grace Nichols, Roger McGough and Carol Ann Duffy. In establishing this award we wanted to highlight an important branch of children’s literature and ensure that it receives proper recognition. The award is presented annually for a book of poetry published in the preceding year.

Upcoming British Conference:
Children's Playground Games and Songs in the New Media Age
This conference on Tuesday 15th March 2011 in the British Library Conference Centre, London will launch a new British Library website: Playtimes: A Century of Children’s Games and Rhymes. The website contains new material collected during the project, selections from the Library’s ‘Opie Collection of Children’s Games and Songs’ and films and photographs from other nationwide archives. The conference also involves the launch of the associated AHRC-funded research project and a keynote address by Professor Michael Rosen, former children’s laureate.

CYBILS Awards Announced Monday
Cybils Awards in each genre category will be announced on Monday, Feb. 14. The poetry finalists once again were:

• Borrowed Names by Jeannine Atkins
• Dark Emperor by Joyce Sidman
• Mirror, Mirror by Marilyn Singer
• Scarum Fair by Jessica Swaim
• Sharing the Seasons edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins
• Switching on the Moon edited by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters
• Ubiquitous by Joyce Sidman

Next Children’s Poet Laureate
The next Children's Poet Laureate will be announced at the Poetry Foundation's "Lily/Pegasus Awards" presentation to be held at "The Arts Club" in Chicago on May 11. Previous Laureates include Mary Ann Hoberman and Jack Prelutsky.

New Poetry e-Resources Coming
I’m getting my students this spring semester involved in helping to research and contribute to several poetry promotion projects debuting in April, including:


• Creating web sites for children’s poets who don’t already have one (such as Valerie Worth, Aileen Fisher, David McCord)
• Creating an electronic resource with readers guides and digital trailers for books that have won Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry award and honor distinctions
• Posting daily reviews of 2011 poetry titles in my Poetry Tag Reviews series

I'll let you know when all these resources go public.

Bookbird April 2011
I’m so excited about the April issue of Bookbird, the journal of international children’s literature that I co-edit. The entire issue is focused on the topic of poetry for children and includes 9 fascinating articles about poetry in Korea, France, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Greece, Slovakia, Romania, Spain, and the U.S. To subscribe to Bookbird, go here.

We have tried to include many actual poems and poem excerpts in both the original language and English wherever possible. We are so pleased to feature the poetry of JonArno Lawson, Helen Frost, Alain Serres, Iordan Chimet, Oton Župančič, Niko Grafenauer, Miroslav Košuta, Dane Zajc, Yiannis Ritsos, Dimitris Manthopoulos, Pavlina Pampoudi, Theti Chortiati, Daniel Hevier, Elena Čepčeková, Krista Bendová, Ľubomír Feldek, Miroslav Válek, Dong-min Ju, Pablo Neruda, Shuntaro Tanikawa, and even by children themselves throughout the pages of this issue.

TLA Poetry Round Up
Once again (for the 7th year in a row), I’ll be hosting the Poetry Round Up (modeled after the ALSC Poetry Blast) at the annual Texas Library Association conference in Austin on April 15. Participating poets include: Calef Brown, Julia Durango, Margarita Engle, Helen Frost, Kristine O’Connell George, Marilyn Singer, Robert Paul Weston, and Lisa Wheeler. Come join us, if you can. TLA puts on an amazing conference, if I do say so myself! Plus, I'll share more info about this session, even if you can't join us, I promise.

PoetryTagTime
Poet and friend Janet Wong and I are launching the first-ever electronic-only poetry anthology for children debuting on Kindle on April 1. It’s called PoetryTagTime and features 30 poems for children (ages 0-8) by 30 different prominent poets who “tagged” each other, one at a time, offering poems connected one to another. Lots more info about this special project coming soon.

 We are very excited about it!

Meanwhile, head on over to Carol's (Rasco) at RIF (Reading is Fundamental) for this week’s Poetry Friday gathering.

Image credit: 



poetry foundation, IBBYIreland, CYBILS, Kennedy Center, St. Peters College

Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2011. All rights reserved.