Teen Read Week! Poetry Friday!

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Howdy Campers and happy Poetry Friday!

Thanks to Cathy of MerelyDayByDay for hosting today!

(My own poem's below.) 

And did you know that October 13-19, 2013 is Teen Read Week?

Neither did I, until Carmela, who is always on top of things, pointed it out.

Teen Read Week is an initiative of Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), which is part of the American Library Association.

Launched in 1998, Teen Read Week is celebrated annually during the third full week in October. Aimed at teens, their parents, librarians, educators, booksellers and other concerned adults, the continuing message of the Teen Read Week initiative is to encourage 12- to 18-year-olds to "Read for the Fun of It." The 2013 sub-theme is Seek the Unknown @ your library.  Check out the FAQs here.

Help raise awareness about Teen Read Week and library services for teens here.

Can I be totally honest here?  Yes, I think I can.  I'm out of steam this week, I have only air-popped popcorn for brains right now...

so the only thing I can think to say about Teen Read Week is that teens today are LUCKY, LUCKY, LUCKY that they have so much wonderful literature to read...and that it's FREE at their local library.  (Never fear--my fellow bloggers will have lots to say about it in the next few days--stay tuned!)

Hooray for librarians in buses, bookmobiles and buildings small and tall, in towns and fields, malls and halls, for offering teens, 'tweens, kings and queens fine literature to have, to hold, to devour!  

 This is a medal for all librarians.

I was thinking about the theme Seek the Unknown @ your library.  Here's a poem from my teen novel in poems, Girl Coming in for a Landing, illustrated (in collage!) by Elaine Clayton (Knopf) that sorta-kinda fits the theme:

IMPRINTING
by April Halprin Wayland

Today Mr. C told us
about this scientist who pushed a vacuum cleaner
past a brood of ducklings
just as they were hatching
and how after that,
those ducklings followed the vacuum cleaner 
everywhere--
nearly glued to it.

Imprinting, he called it.

Which made me think
about last year
that first day of school
and how
I must have been
hatching
just as Carlo
walked past.
(c) April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.

Here's the URL of the SHORT video of baby ducks following the guy, which hopefully, you can see below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk5ogma8aZg 

But it keeps crashing, so just go to YouTube and look up all the videos using the key words,
"baby ducks following" and watch those baby ducks go!


Posted by April Halprin Wayland who is grateful for the free photos of the popcorn and the medal from MorgueFile.com

Where Can A Young Writer Get Published? Happy Poetry Friday!

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Howdy, Campers and happy 

...which is over at Check it Out today ~
thanks for hosting today, Jone!
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We've returned from our blog-cation tanned and rested.  Esther kicks off this round's topic about contests with her post on Lee and Low's New Voices Contest, including several juicy tidbits (did you know that an early version of Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham lost a contest before it went on to win the Newbery?) 

Jeanne Marie continues the discussion, touching on Las Vegas, mowing lawns, selling one's first born, her years as a Hollywood scriptwriter, and winning Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's scholarship.

On today's TeachingAuthors menu:

• links to contests for young writers;
• a poem about the delicious feeling when you learn you're going to be published;
• the secret about entering contests.

Links to contests for young writers:
Here's the page on my personal website which lists a few select contests (including a peace poetry contest), and here, on the TeachingAuthors website, Carmela has compiled a ton more.

My poem for Poetry Friday:
I vividly remember learning I'd won a writing contest when I was in second grade.  Winning came with a fancy bookmark(!) and a certificate to Martindale's Bookstore in Santa Monica for any book in the entire store!  I was intoxicated.  Any book! 

I chose Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham, much to my father's disappointment. 

(He had his heart set on The Big Book of Japanese Fairy Tales.)

Winning a contest, getting something published...the POW! of this is experience is indescribable. And no matter how many books you have published, or how many of your poems are in magazines and anthologies, most writers will tell you that an acceptance is an acceptance--the ZING! is as powerful each time.

And so, Campers: get out of your comfort zone and enter a contest or try to get something published (which is the same thing, if you think about it). 

Which brings us to today's poem. It's in my verse novel, Girl Coming in for a Landing--a novel in poems, illustrated by Elaine Clayton (Knopf, 2002).  It can be performed by one, two, or three people.  

PUBLISHED!
by April Halprin Wayland

A letter in the mail!
They're going to PUBLISH my poem.
In their magazine.
In June.

My brain is exploding!  I can’t sleep!
I woke up early,
my body buzzy
like a playground ball boing-ing down a long hallway.

THEY'RE GOING TO PUBLISH MY POEM!
I won’t tell anyone. 
I’ll wait until the magazine comes out.
How can I wait that long?

I won’t tell anyone.
I’ll just casually hand them the magazine
or wait
until someone at school sees it.

What will Carlo think?
What will Frank think?
What will Yen-Mei think?
What will Leslie think?????????

I won’t tell anyone.
I won’t tell anyone
and boy,
will they be surprised.

They’re going to
publish my poem!
My poem!  My poem!
Who can I call at 5:30 in the morning?
 
So, teens, 'tweens, ten-year-olds, scribblers...all: go forth and enter!  

Because here's the secret:
whether or not you win, 
you've won.

poem and drawing © April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

Today's post is by April Halprin Wayland who thanks you from the bottom of her sandy toes for reading this far.