—
Happy Friday!
—
To make your Friday even happier, today we have Steven Herrick stopping by to talk about writing poetry and verse-novels for children. (He writes for young adults and adults, too.) If you visit his website, you’ll see that he loves soccer and in summer he plays on a soccer team called ‘The Marshmallows’ … It doesn’t look too summery in the photo he sent us above!
—
Here he is — performing his poem ‘Lost in the Mist’ (from his book Untangling Spaghetti).
—
—
When did you first start writing poetry?
I wrote my first poem when I was 18. It was called ‘Love is like a gobstopper’. I sent it to magazine and they published it and sent me $5!!!
—
What sort of poetry do you like writing best of all?
I like writing narrative poems for children and verse-novels for YA and children.
—
What sort of poetry do you like reading?
All types of poetry.
—
Where can we find your poetry?
In the following poetry books for children:
- The Spangled Drongo (A verse novel)
- Tom Jones Saves The World (A verse novel)
- Do-wrong Ron (A verse novel)
- Naked Bunyip Dancing (A verse novel)
- Untangling Spaghetti (A collection of poems)
- Pookie Aleera is not my boyfriend (A verse novel)
… and seven verse novels for young adults.
—
Do you prefer to write with a pen and paper or straight onto the computer?
I used to write with pen and paper, but now it’s nearly always with a computer.
—
Your number one tip for budding poets?
Read lots of poetry. Find what you like and try to understand why you enjoy it.
—
Steven’s Poetry Prescription
IF YOU’RE HAVING A FOOD DAY — lots of my poems are about food and family (see my book Untangling Spaghetti).
—
alphabetsoup.net.au 