Sarah Kay (born 1988) is an American poet who began performing poetry at age 14. Sarah Kay specializes in spoken-word poetry. The performance aspect of her work is clear in all of her videos. To start getting to know Sarah Kay’s work and philosophy, watch her TEDxEast talk above, titled “How Many Lives Can You Live?”. If you find the depth that I do in this talk, visit Sara Kay’s website for access to a substantial number of her performances. Poetry was long performed more than it was written down. Performance is still a central tradition for poets in a way that reading prose is not for prose writers. Spoken-word poetry is, as Sarah explains, a combination of theater and poetry that cannot really be pinned to a page. As she is young and started performing poetry at age 14, she is a poet many of your students will be able to relate to. If you already have, or are thinking of having, a poetry stage in your classroom or school, Sarah’s work ought to help you. This is a rich, deep, well performed talk about writing. It is about writing and life and how you can use writing to experience lives that you, yourself, will never live. At the core of the greatest stories in Western literature — for example, Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert; Moby Dick, by Herman Melville; Othello, by William Shakespeare; Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner; The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison — is the author’s skill in bringing characters who are completely different from each other (and from the author) into being. Whether you are a young writer or a teacher of young writers, listen to Sarah Kay’s TEDxEast talk. I know teachers will find many ideas that will fit into and enrich your current writing program. This is a piece you will want to visit many times. By way of introduction to Sarah Kay’s childhood and development as a poet, in particular the importance of her elementary education, watch this second talk below. She effortlessly glides from a standard kind of presentation to a gossamer glittering shockingly vivid and effortless gorgeous storytelling. She also links her 14-year-old self, when she first started performing poetry, to her 24-year-old self. Many students will find the link between her 8th-grade self and her young-adult self exciting and inspiring.
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Stone Soup Author Interview: Aiwen Desai, 12
Stone Soup author Aiwen Desai, 12, talks about her favourite authors and her writing technique, including character development, along with some helpful advice on getting published. Aiwen had a poem, “Nature’s Plea” (July/August 2014) and a story, “A Secret Freedom” (September/October 2014) published in Stone Soup. Here’s a list of the questions she answers in this video. 0:20 — How did you begin creative writing? 0:33 — How did you discover Stone Soup? 0:45 — What was your reaction to getting published in Stone Soup? 0:55 — Who are your favorite authors? 1:18 — What are your favorite things to write about? 1:27 — Describe some of your writing techniques 1:47 — How do you create your characters? 2:06 — Describe your writing process. 2:39 — What advice would you give to others who want to get published in Stone Soup?
Interview and Links for Author Renée Ahdieh
A strong interview with Renée Ahdieh. The interview focus is on her writing process. • Writes books based on the theme of “choice and consequence” with her goal being to “explore the gray area between.” •Good discussion of how she plans out her books contrasting her “architect” approach to others who work looser, more like gardeners or “panthers” people who write by the seat of their pants. •Renée knows the ending of her books before she gets there — that is how carefully scripted they are. • Before beginning her novels she writes character sketches of the main characters. Project: Character Sketches A practical idea to take away from this interview is the idea of having students write character sketches before they begin writing their stories. Ask your students to write one or two pages for each of the main characters. Who are they? What do they look like? What is their back story? Who are their parents? The character sketch should be detailed — a small biography. With the characters developed in advance — the students know what they look like and what kind of people they are — it will be much easier for them to tell a story that feels lifelike. Many of the details in the character sketches will not actually be used in the story, but, by working through the imaginative process of inventing whole characters, the students will be able to make their stories richer. Social Media Links for Renée Ahdieh Website Facebook Twitter Books by Renée Ahdieh at Amazon.com The Mirror and the Maze: A Wrath & the Dawn Short Story (The Wrath and the Dawn) The Crown and the Arrow: A Wrath & the Dawn Short Story (The Wrath and the Dawn) The Rose and the Dagger (The Wrath and the Dawn) The Wrath and the Dawn The Moth and the Flame: A Wrath & the Dawn Short Story
