A note from Jane Do you keep a journal? When I read Talia E. Moyo’s lyrical “Where I’m From,” featured in this week’s newsletter, I wonder if she is someone who keeps a regular journal. I feel as though she has crafted some of the kinds of everyday details one might write in a diary into a beautiful form of narrative poem. She asks and answers profound questions of identity using a myriad of carefully chosen and beautifully arranged details of her life. Each paragraph paints a vivid picture of all the places and people she is “from.” I encourage all of you to read and listen to Talia’s own reading of her work via the links below, and use it as inspiration to write a poetical personal narrative. Try to use tiny details and well-chosen words to reflect on where and what you are from. Alternatively, make this the weekend you decide to start a journal, and start building up a resource to draw on for future writing (or just to enjoy reading in the future, when you have forgotten the details of a wet Tuesday in October 2020!). I am a very irregular journal writer, and for me it’s always a case of all or nothing. I’ll go at it with huge enthusiasm for a while, then just as quickly stop writing anything in it for months on end. Sometimes, writing at least three pages of stream of consciousness is the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning. Even if I think I have nothing to say, I’ll just write that down until something else comes out. Often, it’s a dream I was barely aware I’d had, a memory of the days or years before, or a hidden worry that might have spoiled my morning if I hadn’t got it out onto the page before the new day really began. Other times, I’ll write about the view from the window or the smell of my coffee or the sounds my kitten makes when she wakes me nuzzling and purring. When I look back, as long as I can read my handwriting I find that it gives a little snapshot of the seasons and time passing—as well as a sometimes surprising record of some very peculiar dreams! To encourage all of you in your journaling and note-taking, we have produced a gorgeous new range of writers’ notebooks and artists’ sketchbooks, all available for pre-order now in our online store. We are so excited to share them with you! Each one has the matte finish and soft feel of the print edition of Stone Soup, and all of them feature a different artwork or photograph by a Stone Soup artist on the cover, either on the front or as a wraparound image. There are six different A5 notebooks for writers, with ruled lines on white interior paper (cover choices right and below); two more in the same size, with plain, unlined interior paper in creme, for either writing or drawing (cover choices below); and three larger (8″ x 10″) sketchbooks for artists, with plain white paper (covers above). All of them are 160 pages long, and designed to inspire creativity at all ages! Please consider choosing your favorites and giving them as gifts this holiday season. Every one you purchase supports Stone Soup. To show our appreciation for any pre-orders, you’ll receive 10% off on all of the new designs until the end of this month. Until next time, Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! In his poem “Together,” Ethan, 10, emphasizes the ways that we have learned to remain connected during this challenging year. Sita, 11, reviewed The Blue Wings by Jef Aerts on the blog this week. She calls the book “a one-of-a-kind moving read.” Alina Ji, 13, made a breathtaking collage honoring the doctor who first alerted authorities about the virus and who died treating people. Have you heard of the book The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas? Grace, 13, writes about why she found the book about revenge so compelling. Chloe, 9, did not expect to enjoy The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder as much as she did. Read her review to learn why the book is her favorite of the Little House on the Prairie series. Talia E. Moyo, 10Hopewell, NJ From Stone Soup October 2020 Where I’m From By Talia E. Moyo, 10 (Hopewell, NJ) I’m from the hot deserts of Africa, with Sekuru’s delectable, rich mushroom stew, and Mama’s avocado pudding, and the African adventures with waterfalls and dancing in the night with fireflies as night lights. And the red dusty villages of Cameroon, with rains that come almost once every month. And Sekuru’s little straw hut-like chapel, where stories and the Bible are read. The big continent of Europe is where I’m from, with silly, little, annoying, cute, frustrating cousins who follow me everywhere I go. And aunties, who make delicious cake pops and table grill and German sausages and treats and grow mouth-watering fruits that drip down my shirt, and cook everything possible everywhere they go. I’m from Hopewell, New Jersey, with its green luscious forests, and with Lotta, our dog, following my every single step. And seeing her perform a routine of sit, lie down, paw and guess which hand your treat is under. And the soft sandy beaches of the New Jersey shore and their warm grains of sand cushioning my feet under cool water with shells of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Click here to read more—and hear a recording of the author reading her work aloud! Stone Soup is published by Children’s Art Foundation-Stone Soup Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization registered in the United States of America, EIN: 23-7317498. Stone Soup’s Advisors: Abby Austin, Mike Axelrod, Annabelle Baird, Jem Burch, Evelyn Chen, Juliet Fraser, Zoe Hall, Montanna Harling, Alicia & Joe Havilland, Lara Katz, Rebecca Kilroy, Christine Leishman, Julie Minnis, Jessica Opolko, Tara Prakash, Denise Prata, Logan Roberts, Emily Tarco, Rebecca Ramos Velasquez, Susan Wilky.
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Stone Soup Newsletter: October 17, 2020
“Reaching” by Jackie Cutrona, 13 (Bedford, MA) Published in Stone Soup October 2020 A note from William Honor for Abhi Sukhdial: Here is the link to an interview with Abhi, the winning novelist in our first long-form fiction contest (the 2021 contest is still being judged, with the award announcement coming soon). The interview is in a publication from the prestigious Duke University, in North Carolina. Abhi started out with Stone Soup writing for our blog. The writing advice he gives in the interview is spot on. I’d like, in particular, to highlight his advice that you do not need to work in chronological order—that if you have an inspiration for the ending, then write the ending. Ultimately, your success in writing fiction of any length is to be engaged with your work, and to stay engaged until it is finished. But you can’t finish if you don’t start! You can support Abhi’s writing ambitions by buying his book! It is available directly from us at Stone Soup and also from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Annual Drive: We will be sending out letters within a week or two initiating our Annual Drive. This year, Stone Soup substantively increased the range and scope of its programs with the writing prompts, weekly contests, writing workshops, a book club, and more. We know that these programs have been a lifeline for many of our young readers and contributors during this difficult time, and we need your help to continue them, so please respond to our Annual Drive when it is launched. Thank you. Amazon Smile: The most effortless way to support Stone Soup is to sign up for Amazon Smile. If you go to Smile.amazon.com, you can register so that your purchases will each contribute something to Children’s Art Foundation—Stone Soup Inc. If all of you were to do this going into the holiday season, each of those tiny donations would add up to something profound. The “Stone Soup” story itself is about each of us contributing something small to a community project, achieving together what we may not be able to achieve on our own. Using Amazon Smile takes a small change in behavior at first, but it is fully integrated into your normal Amazon account, so you lose nothing while helping us. What a brilliant photograph! What a strong image by Jackie Cutrona! A magnificent transformation of a sculpture into an evocative photograph. Pay attention to the play of light and dark. While we normally think of light as the way to focus on what is important—think of the spotlight in traditional theater—in this photograph it is the shadow that highlights the face. Note that little vertical slash of sunlight in the middle of the image. In pulling that into her image, I think Jackie Cutrona really strengthened her vision. William’s Weekend Project: The project of this weekend is to photograph a sculpture—or an inanimate object like a chair, table, bowl, or car. The industrially produced objects that are everywhere in our life were, at one point, designed by an artist! Use your camera to explore what you are looking at, paying attention to the way the light illuminates the object. Move your camera around. Take lots of pictures; I think you will find that small shifts in perspective may make a big difference in how your photograph works. If you are taking pictures indoors, play around with artificial light to find inspiration. As always, if you like what you make, please go to our website and submit it so Emma, our editor, can consider it for the magazine. Sabrina Guo: Today I would like to report on some of the work of Sabrina Guo, now a high school student but for many years a regular contributor to Stone Soup. As I have mentioned before, Sabrina has risen to the COVID-19 challenge. She has raised over $80,000, some of that from our Stone Soup family. She has created on ongoing nonprofit that is still involved in getting protective gear to people who need it but has also expanded to, for example, sending art and letters of thanks and encouragement to people who are in special need. I am sharing a recent video about her work below. Until next week, Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! Take a virtual trip to Switzerland by reading Vivaan’s latest travelogue on the blog. Read Vivaan’s account to learn more about the country, including its tradition of yodeling. Blogger Eunice discusses all of her mixed emotions about going back to school during the pandemic. Are you back in school? Leave a comment on Eunice’s post to say how you feel about your school experience this year. Flash Contest Winners We received so many wonderful entries to this month’s Flash Contest, answering the following prompt: Write a Poem That Can Be Read Up or Down. Congratulations to our winners and honorable mentions listed below. You can read the winning entries for this contest (and previous ones) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Home” by Arishka Jha, 12, Redwood City, CA “Perspective” by Lily Jones & Sawyer Hanley, both 10, Eugene, OR “A diary of a young musician” by Alice Ruan, 8, Beaverton, OR “Fall Fiesta” by Adele Stamenov, 11, Bethel Park, PA “War, Love, and Peace by Chloe Zhang, 9, Portland, OR Honorable Mentions “Save the Earth” by Prisha Aswal, 8, Portland, OR “Wild Fire” by Cathy Jiang, 11, Portland, OR “The Light” by Grace Mancini, 12, Glenside, PA “Fire and Water Collide” by Sophie Yu, 12, Houston, TX “My Toys” by Jessie Zhang, 8, Portland, OR Contest, partnership & project news More readers for the podcast needed! We’re still looking for a few more young readers to record stories and poems from the archives for our podcast that will be released soon. Email sarah@stonesoup.com for more information. From Stone Soup October 2020 The Book With No Words By Michaela Frey, 12 (Herndon, VA) Photographed by Jackie Cutrona, 13 (Bedford, MA) One word today, thought Meri. * * * Yesterday was three words. For Meri, speaking was like a honeybee sting. The bee has
Saturday Newsletter: October 10, 2020
“Rocks at Pohoiko Beach” by Lila Raj, 11 (San Francisco, CA) Published in Stone Soup October 2020 A note from Emma Before you read this, scroll down to the bottom of the newsletter to read Daniel Shorten’s poem “Afterthought.” It is one of the best poems I have read all year. I can describe what happens in the poem very simply: in it, the narrator goes to see a play (or perhaps a movie); then he goes home. But there is so much more “happening” in it than that. The poem is titled “Afterthought.” To be an afterthought is to be secondary, peripheral, on the margins. This poem is about what it feels like to be an afterthought. It opens by situating the narrator in space: Just in front of the back wall Was my seat Full of salty popcorn He is in a theater. His seat is all the way at the back, and it hasn’t been cleaned—it’s filled with someone else’s spilled popcorn. Both of these things indicate the narrator’s marginal status: he is literally on the edge of the theater, about to occupy a seat that’s been neglected, or overlooked, by the theater’s cleaners. The status of the seat which the narrator occupies reinforces his own peripheral status. It continues: No curtain went up There was no curtain The fact that there is no curtain indicates that there wasn’t a clear separation between the audience and the actors, reality and the play. Everything occurring on stage seemed immediate, close. In the following lines, the narrator describes some of the action in the play; however, he doesn’t announce he will be doing this, which creates a sense of immediacy for the reader as well. It seems as if the things he describes are “actually” happening—in real life, not on stage: A poor man buried his children Who will bury me he wept A dog barked suddenly Then Michael stoned the rabbit And Peggy said the leg stinks Straight away, Michael said you stink There is grief, violence, and humor in these lines. The “poor man” who buried his children has become a peripheral figure, an afterthought himself. “Who will bury me he wept”—a question that carries other questions within it: Who will care for me? Who will love me? Who will call me every Sunday? As if to reinforce his now-marginal status, the focus shifts quickly away from the “poor man”—to the dog and then to Michael and Peggy, who are not definitely peripheral figures. They aren’t standing on the sidelines, weeping—they are out in the world, killing and eating a rabbit, and talking to each other. They are at the center of life. From there, the poem returns to the narrator’s experience, concluding like this: All I could smell was cola As we got back on the bus A man and a woman kissed Who will bury me? In these final lines, we see once again that the narrator feels marginal. The bus he returns to smells like cola—no one has bothered to clean it for them. Then a man and woman kiss—they are not peripheral; they have each other. While the narrator is alone, wondering, like the “poor man” from the play, Who will bury me? You will notice that throughout, Daniel does not use what you might normally think of as “poetic” language. Instead, he uses short, direct sentences and simple vocabulary—most words only have 1–2 syllables. This gives the poem an immediacy and directness as well as a deceptive plainness! I hope you enjoyed my academic reading of this poem! I know many of my students often wonder about “intention” when we read poems closely, as I have read this one. I had a teacher once tell me that, as a writer, I should always just answer yes when someone asked if I meant to do something in a poem. Because I did do it—my subconscious knew, even if I didn’t! And after a certain point, the author’s intention doesn’t matter: the author can’t ever fully know or see what she has created. They are too close to the work. That is why outside critics are so important. Your writing challenge for the weekend: using Daniel’s poem as a model, write a fifteen-line poem in simple, direct, non-poetic language about something you did or saw in the past week without explicitly saying what it was. So, if you write about going to a park, don’t title the poem “A Trip to the Park” or say, “I went to the park with my mom.” In short: don’t be afraid to confuse the reader! Often that confusion will create unexpected complexity. Until next week, Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at Stonesoup.com! “Coronavirus if you’re reading this, / please stop doing this!” Patrycja, 13, writes in her poem about what it was like in the spring during the beginning of the pandemic. Read the entire poem here. Ava, 10, reviewed The Whale Child by Keith Egawa and Chenoa Egawa. Read about what why she hopes there’s a sequel and how the illustrations add to the story. Olivia wrote a review of The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. Find out why she thinks it’s not a typical fantasy novel. Contest, partnership & project news This was the first full week of October, so this week is Flash Contest week! You have until midday PDT on Sunday (Oct. 11, 2020) to complete and submit your entries. Write a Poem That Can Be Read Up or Down We are looking for a poem that can be read both from top to bottom, and bottom to top. To read examples of the kind of poem we mean, see Love Hate Relationship by Morgan Lane (12) in the February 2018 issue of Stone Soup or 11-year-old Layla Linnard’s Lost Dog from September 2019. For full contest details, submission links, and previous winners, click here. Daniel Shorten, 9Mallow, Ireland From Stone Soup October
