YALSA Poets: The Movie

Just a few weeks ago, I was at the YALSA Symposium in Austin TX-- such a great event. I was lucky to gather a fantastic panel of poets and authors (Janet Wong, KA Holt, Michael Salinger, Sara Holbrook, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, and Jacqueline Woodson) all talking about their work and reading and performing excerpts. I was able to videotape a few nuggets to share with you here. Enjoy!

K A (Kari) Holt talking about her new novel in verse, Rhyme Schemer

We gave audience participants a sample page from Rhyme Schemer-- where the protagonist, Kevin, takes a page from an "old" book and turns it into a poem-- 

and challenged the audience to turn a page from A Wrinkle in Time into their own original "found" poems. Here's one fun example:

Jacqueline Woodson reads an excerpt from Brown Girl Dreaming

Guadalupe Garcia McCall shares her poem, "The Cafe," from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School.

Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger read from More Than Friends (by Sara Holbrook and Allan Wolf) [an excerpt]

And here's a quick shot of Janet (Wong) and me horsing around:

There will be another YALSA Symposium next year and it will be held in Portland, OR in 2015. The focus will expand to include literature, programming AND youth services. Should be fun!