On the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail’s Springtown Road Bridge!

City writers and country scribes, take note! Two worthwhile events beg for your attendance on Saturday, May 18. Bridging the Gap, organized by Scholastic Award Gold Key-winning poet Elijah Santner, is an interactive poetry event on a beautiful bridge just outside New Paltz, NY. At 3 PM, poets will gather to converse, write verse, and more—all to benefit the Hudson Valley Writing Project’s Young Writers Program! Nature Poetry Workshops will be led by Rich Parisio, NYS River of Words Coordinator, and at 5 there’s an open mic for all!

And at 5 PM in Brooklyn, One Teen Story, a literary magazine of young adult fiction, kicks off its teen short story contest! Julie Buntin, author of “Phenomenon,” a future issue of One Teen Story, will read an excerpt from her story. Local teen writers will also be reading from their work. One Teen Story editors will be giving away copies of “Night Swimming,” last year’s contest-winning story along with a handout of short story writing tips.

Breanne Pereira. Under the Sea Driveway. Grade 12, Age 17. 2011 Silver Medal, Photography.

Today is Poem In Your Pocket Day, and we’re celebrating it with Scholastic Award-winning poems from this year! Check them out, add them to your pockets, and share them with others throughout the day. To learn more about Poem in Your Pocket and how you can get involved, visit http://www.nyc.gov/poem.

Destination
The car stops, and you leap out
without waiting for me,
too eager to begin our lifelong tradition
of running down the driveway,
tree branches snatching at our faces,
soft moss on bare feet. Read More

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama with our National Student Poets!

We have some exciting news: The National Student Poets Program is now on Facebook! Check out the following guest post by Scholastic Inc.’s Morgan Baden.

Poetry has a long, enchanting history, but it seems to be dogged by this myth that it’s stodgy, dull, or even – gasp – boring. But if you read poetry like these kids write it, be prepared for that myth to be shattered.

Last year, we announced the National Student Poets Program, a joint program with the President’s Committee on the Arts & the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. The NSPP is the country’s highest honor for youth poets presenting original work; through the prestigious Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, five students from across the country were named. Now, they – the 2012 Class of National Student Poets – are on the ground, making poetry go viral. Read More

Elizabeth Brown. The Pond. Grade 12, Age 18. 2012 Gold Medal, Drawing. Listen to Elizabeth discuss her work here.

January’s Writing of the Month comes from Ben Caldwell, Age 17, of Vancouver, Washington. His poem “Around the Campfire” is featured on the home page of our website this week along with Elizabeth Brown’s Gold Medal-winning drawing “The Pond” (above). Each week we will be showcasing 2 national winning works (1 art and 1 writing) from the past year on our home page slider bar. We hope you’ll take some time to enjoy each piece and learn more about the young artists and writers behind them! Below is a few poems from Ben Caldwell‘s 2012 Gold Medal- winning poetry collection.
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Around the Campfire

There is a place
between marrow and bone,
between midnight and morrow,
where we are flies floundering in honey.
A place where heartbeats quicken
and minds slow, slow, slow down.
Where even the light is listless
and the texture of denim is dimmed.
There I find solace
in counting your freckles,
in that place with a small pile of bundled socks
between atoms,
between the earth and the sky.
Read More

The 2012 National Student Poets from left to right: Miles Hewitt, Lylla Younes, Claire Lee, Luisa Banchoff, and Natalie Richardson. Photo Credit: Patrick G. Ryan.

This edited post originally appeared on Scholastic’s On Our Mind blog on September 24. By Anne Sparkman.

It is rare that a person introduces themselves as a poet these days, but this past weekend I had the honor of meeting real, accomplished and beautifully articulate poets. Some were professional — I’m still in awe of Terrance Hayes after meeting him and his family — but five of them were teenagers. On Sunday, Luisa Banchoff of Arlington, VA; Miles Hewitt of Vancouver, WA; Claire Lee of New York City; Natalie Richardson of Oak Park, IL; and Lylla Younes of Alexandria, LA were appointed as the inaugural class of literary ambassadors for the National Student Poets Program (NSPP), the nation’s highest honor for young poets presenting original work. The program, a signature initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, honors, promotes, and celebrates young people as makers and doers who can inspire their peers to achieve excellence in their creative endeavors. Read More

Noah Miller (left) meets poet Matthew Zapruder.

We’re starting to think that Noah Miller’s glasses are made of more than metal and refracted glass. Whether he is creating a stop-animation short of himself playing “The Flight of the Bumblebee,” designing a Gold Key winning video game, or capturing his urban neighborhood in a poem titled “Manhappenstance,” Noah has a singular way of seeing the world—and sharing it with us.

Miller, a 16-year-old rising junior and 2012 ASAP Award winner, attended the Juniper Institute for Young Writers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst this summer. This weeklong workshop is nothing if not intense—and Noah made the most of it.

“Classes were free-form and productive,” he says. Read More