A Poetry Competition for Students in Grades 3 - 12 Theme: Hope Diverse Verse invites young poets in grades 3 through 12 to send us a poem on the theme of hope during Poetry Month 2024. Students may interpret the theme of hope in whatever way they wish: What does hope mean to you? How does poetry keep your hope alive? All participants will receive a printable certificate to honor their time and effort. Entry Form Requirements Poems must relate to the theme of hope The length of the poem must not exceed 30 lines (longer poems will be disqualified) Multi-lingual poems are welcome, wi ..read more

Suma Subramaniam: Dear Padma, Congratulations on the publication of Calling the Moon Anthology! It’s lovely to see this book out with readers with the increasing need for BIPOC experiences and coming -of-age stories related to menstruation. Could you share your thoughts about the book? Padma Venkatraman: You are so kind. When I read the stories in the collection, I not only felt overjoyed to have my work included in this groundbreaking collection, but also struck by how necessary this anthology is. i hope very much that it will survive this era of fear and book-banning and be embraced and enj ..read more

When Margarita Engle, who is part of our advisory circle, suggested she might contribute an essay on her love of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) for our blog, I was delighted. And I was not surprised to discover that the essay morphed into a poem, which provides an insight into the work created by this NSK and Young People’s poet laureate emeritus. Delighted to share it below, followed by a very short synopsis of Engle’s WILD DREAMERS (of which I was thrilled to receive an Advanced Reader Copy). - Padma Venkatraman WHY I WRITE DIVERSE STEAM VERSE by Margarita Eng ..read more

Mariahadessa and her daughters (Photo credit: Dominique Sindayiganza) Interviewer: How do you handle being a mother and an artist? Betye Saar: What’s the difference? - From the film “Spirit Catcher: The Art of Betye Saar” by Suzanne Bauman Years ago I was looking through profiles in the Sunday New York Times magazine’s “The Lives They Lived” section. One picture made the world fall away.It was a black and white photo of Lucille Clifton sitting on the porch with her six children. I read the article. I read it again. A poet. A black woman poet and professor with six children. There was none of ..read more

Padma Venkatraman interviews Diverse Verse member Ari Tison about her debut, SAINTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD, which has already garnered staggering praise! It was an Amazon Best Book of the Month pick, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and an NPR Weekend Edition feature. About the book: Saints of the Household is a haunting contemporary YA about an act of violence in a small-town--beautifully told by a debut Indigenous Costa Rican-American writer--that will take your breath away. Max and Jay have always depended on one another for their survival. Growing up with a physically abusive fath ..read more

Padma Venkatraman interviews Diverse Verse member Reem Faruqi about her latest novel in verse, CALL ME ADNAN, which is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection! In a starred review, Publishers Weekly says: "Faruqi renders this tender story of loss with a deft hand, employing vivid details surrounding Adnan’s Pakistani Muslim identity... and nuanced characterizations to present a tear-jerking ode to family."—Publishers Weekly (starred review) Reem Faruqi  is the award-winning children’s book author of “Lailah’s Lunchbox,” a book based on her own experiences as a young Muslim gir ..read more

Description: Caught between two worlds—a poverty-stricken village and a fancy big-city school—a young Sri Lankan girl must decide who she really is and where she really belongs. 1998, Colombo. At Kavi’s school, her friends talk about the weekly Top 40, the Backstreet Boys, Shahrukh Khan, Leo & Kate… and who died—or didn’t—in the latest bombing. But Kavi is afraid of something even scarier than war. She fears that if her friends discover her secret—that she is not who she is pretending to be—they’ll stop talking to her. I want to be friends with these / happy, / fearless, / girls / who lo ..read more

Padma Venkatraman interviews Federico Erebia about his debut novel, Pedro and Daniel. About the book: ISBN: 9781646143047  Publisher: Levine Querido  Publication date: June 6, 2023 Pedro and Daniel are Mexican American brothers growing up in 1970s Ohio. Their mother resents that Pedro is a spitting image of their darker-skinned father; that Daniel likes dolls; that neither boy plays sports. Both are gay and neurodivergent. They are alike, but they are dissimilar in their struggles, their dreams, their approach to life. Pedro & Daniel is a deeply personal novel that spans from the ..read more

In honor of Juneteenth 2024, Padma Venkatraman interviews Zetta Elliott about her poem, Juneteenth 2022, which appears in her latest collection Perennial, and is reproduced with her permission below. Juneteenth 2022 before we lose the light and the planets spin out of alignment mark this moment with remembered rituals pay tribute to the truth but place nothing false upon your altar spurn the paid prophets honor the example of our elders who let the circle be unbroken preserving practices for generations that never knew the sort of sacrifice our ancestors made for us to be free Padma Venkatram ..read more

In honor of AAPI heritage month, which is celebrated in the United States each May, here’s a list of some books of poetry, poetic picture books and verse novels with connections to Asia that are on my shelf. Maybe you’d like to add some of these to your reading list if they’re not already on it? I’ll start with some Verse Novels that are on my shelf: Mirror To Mirror One of the coolest perks of being an author is receiving books in the mail - and sometimes advance reader editions of books that aren’t yet on other shelves. I was delighted to add the ARC of Mirror to Mirror to my collection. He ..read more