6 Theme-writing is not for the weak-of-heart who have palpitations at the thought of a prompt. It‘s not for students who dread assignments. It‘s not for those who think their unrevised poems will be accepted just because they‘ve touched upon a projected theme. It is most especially for professional writers who are familiar with how to pitch an article, collaborate on revisions, and for those poets who have either exhausted their deep wells of biographical me-ness, broken out from their solely internal gazes, or know how to
tap both sources of self-awareness and worldly observation. Chris, you haven‘t succeeded in tearing down The Centrifugal Eye, nor me, with your intended spitefulness. My reply to you is that a writer can write about the same subjects, using the same self-driven words, only so many times before he begins to bore even himself.
Eve Anthony Hanninen is an American poet, writer, editor, and illustrator who resides in British Columbia, Canada. Despite having to relocate twice in 6 months, she managed to produce several new poems in the interim, some of which may turn up in future journals. Recent publications include Sein und Werden (print and online), Moondance, Wicked Alice, Origami Condom, Shit Creek Review, The Barefoot Muse, and The HyperTexts. She also has a limited artist's-edition chapbook in the works. 3 of Eve's poems appear in the new anthology edited by Lynn Strongin: Crazed by the Sun (2008); another appeared in Trim: The Mannequin Envy Anthology (2007). Eve's latest bookjacket illustrations adorn Ellaraine Lockie's Blue Ribbons at the County Fair, and Patrick Carrington's Hard Blessings. Artwork was also contributed to Lana Ayers' Late Blooms Postcard Series.
Publishing News: Awards Amongst 2009 award winners named in January by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), including author Neil Gaiman and illustrator Beth Krommes, was regular TCE contributor and poet Margarita Engle. Presented during ALA‘s Midwinter Meeting in Denver, January 23 rd through the 28th, the John Newbery Medal went to Gaiman for ―The Graveyard Book,‖ and the Randolph Caldecott Medal went to Krommes for her illustration work in author Susan Marie Swanson‘s ―The House in the Night.‖ The Newbery and Caldecott Medals are considered the most prestigious awards in children‘s literature and honor meritorious writing and illustration of works released in the United States the previous year. Also presented during ALSC‘s Midwinter Meeting were the Newbery and Caldecott Honor Books Awards. One of the four named Newbery Honor Books* was Margarita Engle‘s The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom, published by Henry Holt and Company.
Engle also recently won the 2008 Pura Belpré Award-winner for her Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano. Full Article
*The other three Newbery Honor Book Awards went to Kathi Appelt for The Underneath, illustrated by David Small (Atheneum Books for Young Readers; Simon & Schuster Children‘s Publishing), Ingrid Law for Savvy (Dial Books for Young Readers; Penguin Young Readers Group; Walden Media, LLC), and Jacqueline Woodson for After Tupac & D Foster (G. P. Putnam‘s Sons; Penguin Books for Young Readers)
―Leaves in River‖ ~ Stephanie Curtis 2009
The Surrender Tree tells the tale of Cuba‘s three wars for independence from Spain in lyrical free verse, using alternating voices. Engle combines ―real-life characters (such as legendary healer Rosa La Bayamesa)‖ with fictional ones, while focusing on ―Rosa‘s struggle to save everyone — black, white, Cuban, Spanish, friend or enemy,‖ reports the article on the ALA‘s website.