Welcome back to Teachers Write, friends! I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to write. This week, we’ll be focusing on haiku, a form many of us learned in grade school, but now it’s time to take our three-line poems to another level. Mentor poet Joseph Bruchac joins us for today’s mini-lesson! 

Attempting Haiku

Let’s try writing haiku. It’s something that I do often. I’ve attempted to write at least one haiku every day for the last three years.

Haiku? Are you kidding me?

Yes, I know, it’s probably something you’ve already done. Haiku is perhaps the most used —or, perhaps, overused — poetic form in the world today. But let’s look at it another, fresher way. See it as my first haiku teacher Tai-yuk Kim did in a class I took from him 50 years ago. Not just an exercise in syllables but an interaction with the natural world — of which we are a part.

Not something devoid of meaning such as this 

I can write haiku.
Just 17 syllables 
there, see I did it.

No, I didn’t.

I’m sitting right now on my porch. It’s easy for me to write haiku here. Our cabin is in the middle of a 20-acre nature preserve that includes a 7 acre pond. It’s only 3 miles from the hill where my grandfather was born. I’m not just surrounded by inspiration, I’m almost drowned in it.

So, let me write (actually, to be honest, dictate into my phone) something that reflects what I’m seeing right now.

Chestnut leaves flutter.
Pine trees dance in summer wind.
Green everywhere. 

I am using the 5-7-5 syllable form that has become so common in English haiku. A total of 17 syllables. It’s the form used in haiku written in Japanese haiku–though not as three lines, but as one single line. 

I’m not always satisfied with the translations from Japanese to English. For one, they usually don’t sound anything at all like the original. Let’s take the most famous poem by Basho about that frog jumping into a pond and making a sound. I bet you’ve seen translations of it. But have you ever looked at it in the original Japanese 17 syllables and read it aloud? Here it is: 

furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto

The way a haiku sounds is as important to me as the way it looks. And by the way it looks I don’t mean just that it’s in 17 syllables, but that a picture is painted, and that there is a moment in that picture that was described to me as the “ah-ness moment.” (Which, the first time I heard it said to me in the slightly accented English, but absolutely correct English of Tai-yul Kim I heard it as the “honest moment” Neat, eh. Actually, that could be another subject for poetry. A poem written based on hearing something and misunderstanding it.)

Here are some of some of the “rules” that might be followed when writing a haiku in English.“ (Although, of course, some rules are made to be broken. In many haiku in Japanese, you’ll find the word “kana,” which has no literal meaning–but just adds two more syllables, is commonly used.)

1. It represents an experienced moment.
2. No similes or metaphors. Nothing is compared to anything else, but is itself.
3. Draw from nature.
4. Paints a verbal picture or a series of pictures.
5. It may lead to a moment a bit like that called “Beginner’s Mind” in Zen Buddhism, seeing things as if for the first time. 
6. 17 syllables in 3 lines, written 5-7-5. (This is the “rule” most often ignored.)

In writing your own haiku you might even try, as I do, to avoid the use of articles. Words such as “the,“ “a” and so on. You don’t find those words used in a lot of languages, such as Japanese, Chinese, and the Abenaki language my Native ancestors spoke and my son Jesse teaches. (We also do not have sexist pronouns, just using the word awani, but that’s another story.)

Though you may not live as I do, remember that everywhere we go nature is with us. Pay attention to the smallest things and you may see what I mean. Everything, from your heart beat to the tiniest insect buzzing to get out through your windshield, is linked to that great continuum.

So, here’s your exercise. Take a deep breath, look and listen. Then attempt a haiku.

Writer, musician, and traditional storyteller Joseph Bruchac is a citizen of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation and member of their Elders Council. His honors include a NYS Poetry Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, the American Book Award, the NEA Civil Rights Award, the National Wildlife Federation Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas. He’s written over 180 books, including Code Talker, which was selected by Time magazine in 2022 as one of the 100 best YA books of all time.

Note from Kate: Teachers Write has always been and will always be free, but it does take many hours of work from me and our guest authors. Please say thanks by buying our books! 

Welcome back, campers! Did you get a chance to play around with a found poem or two after Monday’s post? If not, no worries – you can return to earlier posts any time throughout the summer and beyond. Today, mentor poet Laura Ruby joins us with another challenge to experiment with poetic forms. 

Hermit Crabs and Angry Food 

When I was young, my mom would sometimes cook angry food for dinner. What is angry food, you ask? Well, angry food is food made with the weariness that comes from having to plan and prepare meals every day plus resentment that you’re the one tasked with the job in the first place. Angry food came in the form of casseroles made with Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup and Minute Rice, meatloafs like oversized, overcooked, under-seasoned burgers, flabby purple canned beets—always beets; to this day I can’t eat them—gray beans so soft you could suck through your teeth. Not every meal featured angry food. Only those times when my mother was most overworked and aggravated did she start slinging the casseroles and the (endless) canned beets. But I never forgot any of it.

My mom’s been sick lately, so I’ve been staying with her. It’s become my job to plan and make dinner. Though she generally enjoys my food, she still prefers her vegetables to be steamed soft and nearly colorless. We had an argument over how to cook broccoli. (She won). I wanted to write a poem about this, and about angry food in general, but I wasn’t sure how to approach it. Nothing seemed to work. My poem about angry food was not tender or wise or revealing, it was just…cranky.

And then I remembered a Lantern Review post a friend in my MFA program recommended. In this post, the poet Rick Barot wrote about a type of poem he called the “hermit crab poem.” From the post: “The prompt is a simple one. Write a poem that utilizes the structure of another text: one page of a screenplay, a multiple-choice quiz, an entry from the Oxford English Dictionary, and so on.” Using the form/format of another type of writing to contain your poetic material is a way to both get some distance on that material AND get at the emotional truth of the material. In other words, it’s an effective way of telling your story “slant.” 

I love writing hermit crab poems. I especially like writing  poems in the form of lists, but I’ve also written poems in the form of lab reports, recipes, travel guides, endnotes, etc. 

Ready to experiment with a hermit crab poem of your own?  

Some potential “crab shells” that you might want to try: a speech, list of rules, a disclaimer, fine print, field notes, recipes, dictionary entry, encyclopedia entry, multiple choice test, grocery list, owner’s manual, building instructions, letters of recommendation, ads, jingles, doctor’s note, scientific abstract, playlist, or even a weather report. 

Example “hermit crab” poems:

Recipe poems from students at the Chicago Poetry Center

Instructions on How to Leave a Town, BY GABRIEL JESIOLOWSKi

DICTIONARY (AS THE MAP OF OBSTACLE) BY M. ALEXANDER TURNER

A two-time National Book Award Finalist and long-time teacher, Laura Ruby writes fiction and poetry for adults, teens and children. She is the author of the Printz Medal Winning novel Bone Gap, as well as Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All. Other works include the Edgar®-nominated children’s mystery Lily’s Ghosts, the ALA Quick Pick for teens Good Girls (2006), and the York trilogy. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Diode, Sugar House Review, Fantasy Magazine, Poetry South, The Dallas Review, The Nassau Review, Passengers Journal, Prism Review, and Clackamas Literary Review. She is on the faculty of Queens University’s MFA program and Hamline University’s MFAC program. She makes her home in the Chicago area. 

Note from Kate: Teachers Write has always been and will always be free, but it does take many hours of work from me and our guest authors. Please say thanks by buying our books! 

 

Happy Summer, friends! Our new session of Teachers Write begins on Monday, and I couldn’t be more excited about the summer of writing that’s in store. Our focus this year is Poetry and Play. I’ll be kicking off the summer with a mini-lesson on found poems that includes a sneak-preview excerpt from my current work in progress, a novel-in-verse called The Trouble with Heroes . But I’m even more excited to introduce you to the amazing mentor poets who will be joining us this summer with mini-lessons and writing prompts on everything from haikus to poetic forms and devices, the power of names, line breaks, and revision.

Teachers Write has always been and will always be free, but we’d love it if you’d say thanks to our guest authors by supporting their work. Check out this amazing team of mentor poets!

 JOSEPH BRUCHAC

LOREE GRIFFIN BURNS

MARGARITA ENGLE

NIKKI GRIMES

RAJANI LAROCCA

LAURA RUBY

I’m incredibly grateful to this dream team of talented poets for sharing strategies with us all.

If you’re not already registered, just click here to sign up. We’d love for you to write with us this summer!

Now sharpen your pencils and dig out your notebook or charge your laptop so you’ll be all ready for a summer of Poetry and Play. Teachers Write begins on Monday! 

Happy Summer, friends! It’s time for another summer of Teachers Write, our free, online summer writing camp especially for teachers & librarians. If you haven’t already registered, you can sign up here. Once that’s done, just pull up an Adirondack chair and join us with your notebook or laptop! Teachers Write begins on July 10th.

Whether you’re a long-time camper or brand new this year, I’m so glad you’re here. Just like always, you’ll get mini-lessons and writing prompts delivered right to your in-box. This year, we’re going to focus on poetry and play!

While Teachers Write is designed especially for teachers and librarians, anyone is welcome to follow along with our weekly writing prompts, mini-lessons, and challenges. You can participate as much or as little as you’d like. The goal is to get writing in a fun, low-pressure atmosphere and to have fun. Teachers and librarians who write for themselves are stronger mentors and more empathetic facilitators for student writers, too.

This summer, some amazing mentor poets will be joining us, and they’re just as excited to write with you as I am. Watch for an announcement soon!

Teachers Write 2023 will begin on July 10 and wrap up on August 4, with each week’s writing prompts and lessons delivered to your email inbox on Monday morning (and look for some midweek bonus posts this summer, too!). Educator-writer Jen Vincent will also host weekly check-in posts on her blog, where those who wish can continue the conversation online, sharing reflections, writing, and feedback.

Don’t forget – this is a no-pressure, participate-on-your-own-terms summer, so feel free to sign up, even if you think you might only try one or two prompts, or if you’d just like to watch from the sidelines. However you choose to participate, I think you’ll come out of this season of writing feeling more confident about writing poetry and excited about your toolbox of new ideas to try with student writers, too. But most of all, I hope that writing in community with us brings you joy, which is so essential in our teaching and writing lives.

Join us, won’t you? You can sign up for Teachers Write 2023 here, and then look for an email from me in your in-box on Monday, July 10th!

Happy World Read Aloud Day, friends!

To celebrate, I’m sharing a sneak preview of FERGUS AND ZEKE FOR PRESIDENT! This read-aloud video of the first chapter will be available throughout February (so you can bookmark it to share on Presidents Day, too!)

FERGUS AND ZEKE FOR PRESIDENT comes out on May 23 from Candlewick Press and is available for pre-order now! Signed copies may be pre-ordered from my local independent bookseller, The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, NY. Pre-order here and just leave a note in the comments about how you’d like it signed!

And if you don’t want to wait, the other great books in the FERGUS AND ZEKE series are available right now. That includes FERGUS AND ZEKE AND THE 100TH DAY OF SCHOOL

Happy World Read Aloud Day! I hope your day is full of amazing stories!

My first book tour in over three years is coming up early next month! Grace Lin and I are hitting the road to share our magical new picture book ONCE UPON A BOOK, and we’d love to see you along the way!

If you buy a book at one of our events, you’ll also get this cute enamel pin as a thank you, while supplies last. Can’t make it in person? No worries! If you pre-order from Porter Square Books, we’ll sign your copy when we’re there on February 7th, and they’ll include a pin when they ship out your book!

Here are the links to sign up for our in-person events, along with pre-order links so you can reserve your book and your pin.

Tuesday, February 7th – 7pm : Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA. Get your free ticket for the event HERE!  (and if you can’t make it in person, just pre-order the book from Porter Square and you’ll still get the special pin!)  

Wednesday, February 8th – 6pm: Books of Wonder, New York, NY. Get your free ticket for our NYC event HERE!

Thursday, February 9th – 6pm: Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore, Berkeley, CA. Get your free ticket HERE!

Hope to celebrate stories with you soon!

It’s December 1st, and that means the internet is aswirl with Best Books of the Year lists. Everyone from PW to NSTA to your favorite book blogger is sharing their favorite titles of the year. It’s a wonderful way to discover new titles and build up your to-read list, but the truth is, this can also be a tough time of year for authors and illustrators, especially those who are new to publishing. So please consider this post a virtual hug, from me to you.

As someone who’s published more than fifty books for young readers, from picture books to chapter book adventures to novels and nonfiction, I know how you feel. Sometimes, my books are on those amazing lists, and that’s exciting. Sometimes, they’re not, and that can be disappointing. But every day, as people who create books for kids, we should remember why we write. A while back, I wrote a poem about that….

What Happened to Your Book Today
by Kate Messner (Copyright 2011)

Somewhere, a child laughed
on that page where you made a joke.
Somewhere, she wiped away a tear,
Just when you thought she might.

Somewhere, your book was passed
from one hand to another in a hallway
busy with clanging lockers,
with whispered words,
“You have got to read this.”
And a scribbled note:
OMG – SO good
Give it back when ur done.

It’s looking a little more love-worn lately,
rougher around the edges than it did on release day.
There are dog eared pages and Gatorade stains.
Someone smeared maple syrup on the cover
because she read all through breakfast.
Pages 125 and 126 are stuck fast with peanut butter
Because Chapter 10 was even more delicious
than lunch.

Somewhere, tiny hands held up your book
And a little voice begged, “Again!”
Somewhere, the answer came,
A grown-up sigh…and a smile…
And the fourteenth read-aloud of the morning.
That same book. Again.
Your book.

Somewhere, a kid who has never read a whole book on his own
(Really. Not even one.)
picked up yours and turned a page.
And then another.
And then one more.
And it was pretty cool, turns out.
He brought it back – huge smile on his face –
(and I mean huge)
And asked for another one.
And he read that, too.

Somewhere, a teenager who thought she was alone
Opened your pages and discovered she’s not.
And somewhere, somebody who thought about giving up
will keep on trying,
keep on hoping.

Because of that book you wrote.

Somewhere tonight – listen closely and you’ll hear–
A child will turn the last page of that book,
That book you wrote,
and sigh.
Can you hear it?
It’s the sound of a story being held close
Right before a young voice says,
“It feels like this was written just for me.”

And it was.

Are you ready for World Read Aloud Day? It’s an annual celebration of sharing stories from the amazing folks at LitWorld and Scholastic. This year’s World Read Aloud Day will be February 1, 2023!

If you’re new to this page, I’m Kate Messner, author of more than fifty books for kids, including these recent releases.

I’m also a former middle school teacher and a forever reader. Each winter, I help out with LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day by pulling together a list of author & illustrator volunteers who would like to spend part of the day doing quick virtual read-aloud visits with classrooms around the world to share the joy of stories.

This year, because I have two new books coming out just after World Read Aloud Day, I’ll be offering two special virtual author visit opportunities!

ONCE UPON A BOOK, my picture book collaboration with Grace Lin, releases on February 7th. To celebrate, Grace and I are offering a virtual author visit from 1-2pm EST on January 31, the day before World Read Aloud Day! We’ll offer a read-aloud excerpt from Once Upon A Book, share the story behind this collaboration, and invite readers to use their own imaginations, writing in response to art! The session will wrap up with time for Q&A with classrooms. Best of all, it’s FREE with your pre-order of ONCE UPON A BOOK from the Eric Carle Museum Bookstore! After you order, you’ll be emailed link for the webinar on 1/31. Later, you’ll get a link to our video replay, which will be available for two weeks. You can learn more and pre-order your copy of ONCE UPON A BOOK here.

The fifth book in our acclaimed Fergus and Zeke easy reader series is also coming out just after World Read Aloud Day! FERGUS AND ZEKE FOR PRESIDENT is a playful celebration of America’s presidents that will also spark great discussions about what qualities make a leader. I’ll be sharing a first-chapter read-aloud right here on this page just before World Read Aloud Day. Add a bookmark now so you’ll remember to check back to share it with your readers! FERGUS AND ZEKE FOR PRESIDENT is available for pre-order now, so you can pick up your classroom or library copy to share later on.

And of course, there’s also an AMAZING list of authors and illustrators who have volunteered to Zoom into classrooms for World Read Aloud Day!

WORLD READ ALOUD DAY IS FEBRUARY 1, 2023!

The authors & illustrators listed have volunteered their time to read aloud to classrooms and libraries all over the world. These aren’t long, fancy presentations; a typical one might go like this:

• 1-2 minutes: Author introduces himself or herself and talks a little about his or her books.
• 3-5 minutes: Author reads aloud a short picture book, or a short excerpt from a chapter book/novel
• 5-10  minutes: Author answers a few questions from students about reading/writing
• 1-2 minutes: Author book-talks a couple books he or she loves (but didn’t write!) as recommendations for the kids

If you’re a teacher or librarian and you’d like to have an author Zoom with your classroom or library on World Read Aloud Day, here’s how to do it:

• Check out this list of volunteering authors and illustrators, and visit their websites to see which ones might be a good fit for your students. Note that this is a list of traditionally published book creators. This year, the wonderful Judy Campbell-Smith, author of AJ’S NEIGHBORHOOD, has also put together a list of self-published authors & illustrators offering WRAD visits. For both lists, you’ll want to check out the authors’ books ahead of time to make sure they’re a good fit for your readers.
• Contact the author directly by using the email provided or clicking on the link to his or her website and finding the contact form. Please be sure to provide the following information in your request:
  • Your name and what grade(s) you work with
  • Your city and time zone (this is important for scheduling!)
  • Possible times to connect on February 1st. Please note authors’ availability and time zones. Adjust accordingly if yours is different!
  • Your preferred platform (Zoom, Google Meet, etc.)
  • A phone number where you can be reached on that day in case of technical issues
• Please understand that authors are people, too, and have schedules and personal lives, just like you, so not all authors will be available at all times. It may take a few tries before you find someone whose books and schedule fit with yours!

If you’re a traditionally published author or illustrator who would like to be added to the list, you can fill out this form to sign up.  The wonderful Judy Campbell-Smith is also coordinating a list of self-published and ebook authors – if that’s you and you’d like to volunteer, please fill out her form here. Once your schedule is full, please send an email via my website contact form, and I’ll remove your name from the list. Please note that due to deadlines and other obligations, it may take up to a week for me to update.

“Rethinking Thanksgiving: History, Holidays, and Gratitude” is a virtual author visit with Kate Messner and Traci Sorell, whose books explore history and culture. It’s aimed at readers in grades 3-7 and invites students to take a critical look at the “First Thanksgiving” myth and consider multiple views on gratitude. The virtual author visit video runs about 45 minutes and will be available throughout the month of November.

Cost: Because so many educators have reached out to request this video and we know it’s a tough time for budgets, we’re making this virtual author visit available to everyone. If you can, please pay it forward by making a donation of any size to the We Need Diverse Books Native Fund or the Highlights Indigenous Storytellers Scholarship fund.

Be sure to check out Kate and Traci’s books featured in this visit – HISTORY SMASHERS: THE MAYFLOWER and OTSALIHELIGA: WE ARE GRATEFUL!