National Poetry Week Goings-On...

If you're looking for ways to get your daily shot of the poetic during April (which, of course, is National Poetry Month) here are two great options:

• GottaBook's 30 Poets/30 Days. Poet and blogger Gregory K. Pinkus has put together quite a National Poetry Month celebration. Every day in April on GottaBook he'll be posting a previously unpublished poem by a different children's poet, including Jack Prelutsky, Mary Ann Hoberman, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Douglas Florian, Nikki Grimes, Jane Yolen, Pat Mora, Nikki Giovanni, Adam Rex, Jon Scieszka, and many many more. Click here to read the full list.

• Poetic Asides' Poem-a-Day Challenge. Poet's Market editor, blogger (and my super-duper co-worker) Robert Lee Brewer is holding his annual Poem-a-Day Challenge on the Poetic Asides blog. Throughout April Robert will post a daily poetry prompt and poets are encouraged to post their prompt-inspired work on the blog (every day if they're up to the challenge). In May Robert's 50 favorite poems will be offered in an e-book. It's all free and there's no registration to complete--poets simply write and post.
  

Lee Bennett Hopkins Wraps Things Up...

The final conference presentation with from literary luminary/poet Lee Bennett Hopkins. He recited poems. He had on a fabulous shirt that not many people could pull off. He made me tear up. And that was that. The SCBWI Annual Summer Conference in Los Angeles came to an end.

The only things left was the autograph party. (Hooray for cupcakes!)


Conference-goers standing in line. (Don't worry--there were plenty of cupcakes left for all of them after the autographing ended.)


John Green signing his Printz Award-winning novel Looking for Alaska (which I'm in the middle of reading right now--and it's so good.)


Erin Vincent, showing off the cover of her YA memoir Grief Girl. (In the hallway earlier in the day someone mistook me for Erin and excitedly waved me over and asked, "Are you the author of Grief Girl?!" I hope that fan of Erin's work got to talk to her at the autograph party.)


Ellen Wittlinger prepares to sign her novel Hard Love. (Notice she's got her own stack of books.)


Lisa Yee holding my copy of Millicent Min, Girl Genius. Lisa's table was my last stop (got my autographs in alphabetical order) before I hit the cupcakes.