Hi everyone, It’s my pleasure to announce that this week’s guest columnist on Poetry from Daily Life is JO VAN ARKEL. Professor Van Arkel lives in Springfield, Missouri and is a Teaching Fellow in Writing, Department of Languages and Literature, at Drury University where she has taught for forty years. She writes both poetry and fiction and is currently at work on a novella in flash about life in the Ozark Mountains. She also has a letterpress studio where she makes prints and etchings that sometimes illustrate her words. Jo’s column will appear in Springfield News-Leader in print on Saturday ..read more

Hi everyone, I’m happy to say that all of my manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, and other papers are now in Springfield. For decades I had close ties with the people who hosted the annual Children’s Literature Festival on the University of Central Missouri campus in Warrensburg, Missouri. During the thirty-six years in which I was one of the participating authors, I began placing my papers in the James C. Kirkpatrick Library. More recently I’ve placed my work at the Duane G. Meyer Library on the Missouri State University campus in Springfield. Recently I decided it was time to consolidate b ..read more

Hi everyone, The other night in Kentwood Hall we entertained ourselves and those who came. I talked and read, Byron Biggers Band performed, FRANK TAYLOR brought us up to date on the Legends Project efforts to transform some of my books and others into Braille. We learned that chances are improving for the project to eventually extend into all 400+ public libraries in Missouri. He then took me by surprise by presenting me with the first copy of the first of my ten books slated for Braille. It’s a book that I co-wrote with JANE YOLEN called Rum Pum Pum. My copy went directly into the Meyer Lib ..read more

Hi everyone, I look forward to a good morning of work today. At 1:00 I’m scheduled for a forty-five minute Zoom Q/A session with an editor from Benchmark Education. This is for an upcoming blog post they’ll use to help promote the book I’m finishing with TIM RASINSKI and LYNNE KULICH. The book is called The Fluency Development Lesson, Closing the Reading Gap. It’s my first title with Benchmark, a large publisher with nearly 13,000 employees in the United States. I’m impressed by their careful, thorough approach to moving the book forward. We’re at the printers now in time for a fall release. I ..read more

Hi everyone, Yesterday morning on my way to the kitchen for coffee, I looked out the window at Goose Lake and was rewarded with this fleeting scene. I managed to get back to the office to retrieve my phone in time to get a picture before it was too late. The lake sparkles live with diamonds, a ransom of jewels spread on display, framed in green-leaf emerald settings, till a cloud steals them all away ..read more

Hi everyone, If you live in the area, I hope you plan to be there tonight. This is the evening I’ve been talking about when I’ll speak and read from several books and Byron Biggers Band will perform ten of my poems set to music. The event is part of the Kentwood Hall Series sponsored by Meyer Library at MSU and is meant to make more people aware of the Legends Project, an effort to create several of my books, as well as other area authors, in Braille editions. This is NOT a fund raiser. It will last an hour, it’s free to the public, and it will be a lot of fun. Plenty of free parking available ..read more

Hi everyone, The results are in for this year’s Texas Bluebonnet Award. More than 63,000 students across Texas voted for their favorite book on the list of nominees. More than 1,100 schools, public libraries and homeschool groups registered to participate in this year’s contest. I was delighted that one of my titles, The Dirt Book, Poems About Animals that Live Beneath Our Feet, was on the list of twenty candidates. The results of the voting have just been announced and this year’s winner is The Legend of Gravity: A Tall Basketball Tale, written and illustrated by.CHARLY PALMER. My cong ..read more

Hi everyone, Yesterday I rehearsed with fellow members of Byron Biggers Band — CHRIS CRAIG and GALE CLITHERO. We are prepared to play ten pieces this Thursday evening (April 11) in Springfield at Kentwood Hall on St. Louis Street. This is part of Missouri State University’s “Kentwood Series” and is sponsored/hosted by The Meyer Library. Portraits from Fall photo days, September 4, 2019. Visual Media/Missouri State University I’ll start the event by reading/talking for twenty to twenty-five minutes. Then the band will play. All of our pieces are poems of mine that Chris has arranged as songs wi ..read more

Hi everyone, I had a fine time Saturday in St, Louis, presenting the poetry workshop to members, both in person and online, of the St. Louis Writers Guild. This week promises to be another busy one, including a program from 3:00 – 4:00 at Jordan Valley Park in Springfield on Saturday afternoon, April 13. Here’s a flyer on that one. Those of us who will be reading were asked to select poems from our work that speak to the importance of parks and natural habitat. We each sent a list of possibilities to our EMCEE for the event, KATHERINE GILBERT. Dr. Gilbert is Associate Professor of English Lan ..read more

Hi everyone, With thanks to my guest this week, the prolific writer of children’s literature, LAURA PURDIE SALAS, here is the link to her guest column on Poetry from Daily Life. Thank you again, Laura! https://www.news-leader.com/story/entertainment/2024/04/07/poetry-from-daily-life-poetry-plus-math-equals-no-wrong-answers/73199254007 Read, enjoy, and pass it around! I spoke at length about the column yesterday in St. Louis during my poetry workshop. I even quoted from some of the columns to reinforce key points. My thanks to you for that! I recommend that approach to any of you who might be ..read more