Grab Your Walking Stick – Journey into the Haiku Novel with David G. Lanoue

By Robyn Hood Black, @artsyletters 

In October I had the honor and fun of being on a critique panel at our Haiku Society of America Southeast Region’s “Ginko Haikufest” in Atlanta. I’ve been running a series on my blog featuring our speakers and their haiku, with more to come!

One of our special guests was poet, Xavier University of Louisiana professor, Issa scholar, author, and current HSA president David G. Lanoue. (Might I add that my late-arrival Friday evening welcome to this group–the first time I’d met any of these folks in person–was to be handed by said president a cup of bona fide North Carolina moonshine brought by our NC contingent of amazing poets?)

Give it a Rest – Poetic Pauses in Your Writing

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By Robyn Hood Black, @artsyletters

I’m freshly back from several weeks living mostly out of a suitcase: writing conferences, college family weekends, author school visits, and back-ing and forth-ing as we make a move from the north Georgia mountains to the coast of South Carolina. A good, but whirlwind, fall. What I probably need most at the moment is… a little rest.

We’re designed that way – you, me, our readers. As you lead readers through exciting adventures, don’t forget they might need to stop and catch their breath now and then. I suppose this would technically fall under the category of “pacing” in a novel. In music, a “rest” between beats. In visual art, “white space.” In poetry, maybe all of the above.

Poetry in Fiction, in Action: A Look at Khaled Hosseini’s THE KITE RUNNER

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By Robyn Hood Black, @artsyletters

Happy Fall! I’m looking forward to being with Janice soon as we both present workshops at the SCBWI Southern Breeze Fall Conference, Writing and Illustrating for Kids, Oct. 12 in Birmingham, AL.  (If you’re going, you’ll have to choose… they’re both in the first session.) Janice’s is called, “It’s Showtime – Show Don’t Tell,” and mine is “Poetry Tips for Prose Writers.”

Here’s an appetizer for my session, which will include examples from various books and genres, including children’s books. Today, let’s spend a few moments with a book for adults. Ten years ago it launched the career of a beloved New York Times bestselling author.

Let there be Light! And Dark! In Your Cast of Characters

By Robyn Hood Black, @artsyletters

In last month’s post, I promised we’d tackle some more writing/art/poetry connections. I’ve been pondering the concept of positive/negative space (the terminology we’re taught in the Western, English-speaking world), which is really Notan (the Eastern idea of dark and light, where, as in the yin/yang symbol, both are equal players). I took a look at this concept in one of my early art blog posts, featuring the book, NOTAN – The Dark-Light Principle of Design by American artists and teachers Dorr Bothwell and Marlys Mayfield.

You Might be Looking, but do you SEE?

Author, poet and writing teacher Amy Ludwig VanDerwater shared her “Drawing into Poems” project for National Poetry Month.

By Robyn Hood Black, @artsyletters

Poem Farm blog creator and poet extraordinaire Amy Ludwig VanDerwater shared a wonderful adventure in April for National Poetry Month, a project she called “Drawing into Poems.” Here is the introductory post about it, and you can follow each April entry for sketches and thoughts. I also blogged about her endeavors on my art blog here.

Celebrate National Poetry Month with Poet/Novelist Irene Latham

By Robyn Hood Black, @artsyletters

It’s April – Happy National Poetry Month!

Check out the Academy of American Poets for a month of resources and celebrations, where among other things you can subscribe to the appearance of a previously unpublished poem by a contemporary poet in your inbox each day!

Children’s poets will keep the Kidlitosphere hopping as well. Explore some of the offerings here, in a round-up compiled by Jama Rattigan for her Alphabet Soup blog.

It Gets Verse: The Power of Poetry to Tell a Story

By Robyn Hood Black, @artsyletters

What is a verse novel? A genre that triggers lively discussion about what exactly it is or isn’t. I won’t attempt to resolve that question, only to highlight that narrative poetry has been around forever (The Epic of Gilgamesh predates even The Iliad and The Odyssey by a couple thousand years). Narrative told through verse has flourished in various forms through the centuries.

“Verse novels” have emerged in the last couple of decades as fiction which tells a structured story through poetry (typically unrhymed free verse) rather than straight prose. As I heard an agent mention at a recent writing conference, a successful verse novel manuscript involves more than just hitting the return key!

Need to Get in the Head of Your Character? Try a Mask Poem!

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By Robyn Hood Black, @artsyletters

Have you ever heard from an editor or maybe a critique partner, “I didn’t emotionally connect with your character.” Ouch. (The ouch is from personal experience.)

How can you inhabit your character so that he/she comes across as REAL and someone your reader will care about? One approach you might try is writing a mask poem. Not with publishing in mind, perhaps (though you never know what brilliance you might come up with!), but as a way to get to know your character better.

Add a Pinch–or a Pound–of Poetry to Your Prose

By Robyn Hood Black

Consider this bit of prose from a 15-year-old:

The blacksmith shop stands in the village, under a spreading chestnut-tree. The smith is a mighty man. His hands are large and sinewy; and the muscles of his arm are so strong, that they look like bands of iron.

This is an exercise presented in A PROGRESSIVE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH TONGUE: BASED ON THE RESULTS OF MODERN PHILOLOGY by William Swinton, published in 1876 by Harper & Brothers, New York. The young writer was converting into prose the following stanza from Longfellow’s The Village Blacksmith:

Contributing Author Robyn Hood Black: Finding the Magic in Haiku

By Robyn Hood Black

I'm delighted to introduce my second contributing author today, Robyn Hood Black. She'll join us every first Thursday for a regular post on poetry. I felt this was a niche missing from the blog, and poetry is a wonderful way to explore imagery and emotions in your writing. Robyn does it all--author, artist, and poet--so she'll have great tips overall on unlocking your creative side.

Take it away Robyn...