The Crafty Poet: The Contributors & a Contest

I am so very proud of the cast of poets who have contributed to my almost-here book, The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop. In fact, I think this is such an impressive list that my publisher and I decided to use their names on the book's back cover instead of blurbs. A total of fifty-six poets contributed the 27 Craft Tips, the 10 Poet on the Poem Q&As, and the 27 model poems that go with the prompts.

Among these 56 poets are 13 former and current state Poets Laureate. Now here's the contest: the first person to match up the 13 Poets Laureate with their respective states will win a free copy of the book. I'm going to switch comments to moderation, so post your answers in the Comments section. Once there's a winner, I'll post the correct answers and announce the winner.

An additional 45 poets contributed the sample poems written in response to the prompts. This is also an impressive list—and not surprisingly, the poems they contributed are also impressive. I'll post those names another time.

Some Nice Tidbits

Do you need to spend more time reading blogs? Then you'll be happy to know that Online Colleges has assembled a list of the 50 Best Blogs to Follow For National Poetry Month. You might want to bookmark the link as these are poetry blogs you can read throughout the year. I'm happy to find Blogalicious listed there.

We have a winner in the Book Giveaway drawing. It's Tamam Kahn. A copy of Rip the Page! will start making its way to her in California tomorrow morning. Tamam is a poet and the author of a new collection, Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad. The book is sitting on my table waiting for me to make my way to it. Just glancing through the book, I'm intrigued by the format—a combination of prose sections and poems. A combination of history and poetry.

What's better than poetry? Poetry and jazz! You can now get this combination on a weekly website radio show. Social Media Director Avi Ben-Zvi describes this site as "a music / culture website in New York called BreakThru Radio (BTR). Here at BTR we have a diverse range of shows: music, comedy, art, and book review. Brand new to BreakThru Radio, "Writer's Block" is a poetry and spoken arts show pulling from the finest and sharpest writers from New York City and beyond. It's this last part, the new show, that I want to make you aware of. The show is a great mix of poetry and music. Click for a sample of a full show of Writer's Block. Or click here if you'd just like to hear a sample poetry clip, this one from Jamie Martin.

Book Giveaway: Rip the Page!

Shambhala Publications has invited me to offer a giveaway of one of their books for Poetry Month. This is the same press that published Natalie Goldberg's influential Writing Down the Bones. This new book, Rip the Page! by Karen Benke, is geared towards children, but might also stimulate some new work from adult readers.

The book is full of ideas to unleash poems and free-write exercises to stimulate children’s natural ability to be creative. Kids will learn to play with words in precisely the same way that many published poets do to warm up for writing. Along the way, they will read notes of encouragement from famous authors like Lemony Snicket and Lucille Clifton.

Here's the product description from Amazon: Here are the ideas, experiments, and inspiration to unfold your imagination and get your writing to flow off the page! This is the everything-you-need guide to spark new poems and unstick old stories, including lists of big, small, gross-out, and favorite words; adventurous and zany prompts to leap from; dares and double dares to help you mash up truths and lies into outrageous paragraphs; and letters of encouragement written directly to you from famous authors, including: Annie Barrows, Naomi Shihab Nye, Lemony Snicket, C. M. Mayo, Elizabeth Singer Hunt, Moira Egan, Gary Soto, Lucille Clifton, Avi, Betsy Franco, Carol Edgarian, Karen Cushman, Patricia Polacco, Prartho Sereno, Lewis Buzbee, and C. B. Follett.

This is your journal for inward-bound adventures—use it to write, brainstorm, explore, imagine—and even rip!

If you'd like to toss your hat into the ring, just post a note in the Comments section of this post. Be sure to let me know how I can contact you if you win. One week from today—that's Monday, April 18—I will randomly select a winner. US residents only, please. Once I have a winner, I'll mail the book to that person.

Last Chance for the Book Giveaway

Don't forget to enter the Free Book Giveway at Jama Rattigan's blog, Alphabet Soup. Jama is giving away a signed copy of her children's book, Dumpling Soup, a copy of my poetry book, Temptation by Water, and a t-shirt. All you have to do is go to the feature of my poem, No soup for you!, and in the Comments section leave the name of your favorite soup. How easy is that! Giveaway ends on Monday, February 28.

Jama's cover. Illustrations by Lillian Hsu-Flanders are also wonderful!

Bear modeling free t-shirt

I read Jama's book this weekend. It's wonderful. It's a great story, with much to be learned about the importance of culture and traditions and family values. Wonderful illustrations, too. As a poet, I really appreciated the metaphors in the story.