Today we are so pleased to have Lorraine Marwood here to tell us a bit about her poetry writing, and the prize she is donating for the winner in the Most Outstanding Poem category of the Alphabet Soup Creativity Award. (We’ll be announcing the winner on Friday, so stay tuned!)
Over to you, Lorraine!
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I have written many, many poems and had them published in places like The School Magazine in New South Wales (and Alphabet Soup of course) and USA magazine Cricket. I love the way a poem can become a little image of a snapshot of a moment in a day.
I have two collections of poems published with Walker Books: A Ute Picnic and Other Australian Poems and Note on the Door and Other Poems About Family Life. I have just completed a third collection of poems with Walker—Guinea Pig Town and Other Poems About Animals and this will come out in 2013.
I also like to write verse novels. Star Jumps won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (children’s category) in 2010, and Ratwhiskers and Me is set on the Victorian goldfields. Imagining what it would have been like to live in times gone by is another way of writing that I enjoy. I love researching and reading all about those times too. I never know when an idea will suddenly take hold and grow into a poem or a book.
Look out for my Aussie Nibbles titles too—The Girl Who Turned into Treacle and Chantelle’s Cloak.
I have a website all about my books, and a blog where I often write about projects and inspiration and travels.
Walker Books also has notes on my books and each time I write a poetry technique so it’s often a good idea to look here also.
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My poetry appraisal/mentoring will contain feedback on what makes a poem stand out from the crowd, how to continue writing, where ideas for poems come from, tools that poets use, how to make a few words sparkle and dance, and suggestions for reading poetry, too.
The winner will email me their poem of up to 15 lines (non rhyming and double spaced) for comment.
I will also provide a copy of one of my poetry collections A Ute Picnic and Other Australian Poems, and I’ll include some suggestions on how to pattern a poem from some of mine in the book.
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Children who have had poetry published in the Write On! section of a 2012 issue of Alphabet Soup are in the running for this fantastic prize. These children will be entered automatically. We will announce the winner on Friday and will contact the winner directly.
If you’d like to submit your story or poem for possible publication in a 2013 issue of the magazine, read the submission guidelines on our website.
alphabetsoup.net.au 
Fervent wish to be a child again!