A conversation between Sabrina Guo—activist, former Stone Soup contributor and current Refugee Project Consultant, and nine-time national medalist from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards—and Shivanshi Dutt, poet and former Stone Soup contributor, about Sabrina Guo’s debut chapbook Catalogue of Ripening. 0:23 — What first sparked your interest in language and writing? 1:28 — Did certain pieces of literature or media act as inspiration for your chapbook? 3:05 — What is the message behind your poem “Altar for Daughterhood”? 4:29 — How did your voice develop as you wrote Catalogue of Ripening? 5:59 — What was the most memorable part of writing/publishing Catalogue of Ripening? 7:19 — Which poem from Catalogue of Ripening resonates with you the most? 9:28 — What message do you want to convey with Catalogue of Ripening? 10:19 — What advice would you give to aspiring writers? You can purchase Catalogue of Ripening via our Amazon storefront, here.
Sabrina Guo
Saturday Newsletter: October 15, 2022
Read about Stone Soup’s latest book releases below! A note from William Rubel Friends – I am exceedingly proud to announce that you can now preorder Sarah Hunt’s Foxtale, the First Place (Fiction) winner of our third Annual Book Contest held in 2021. Many, many congratulations, Sarah! The official publication date is November 15. Place your orders now to get the book as soon as it is released and in time for the holiday season. Before talking more about the book, I would like to acknowledge and congratulate the many young writers who submitted works to the competition. It takes a great deal of determination to complete a book-length work of fiction or poetry and courage to submit the work to a contest. Anyone who manages to complete a long work of fiction—or a book-length poetry collection—has accomplished a miracle. Sarah’s novel is set in the future. It involves climate change, space travel, adventure—classic science fiction! It is also a literary work, however. Chapters open with thoughtful aphorisms and quotes from other authors that express ideas important to the story. Sarah’s writing is intense! She is one of those authors who seems to inhabit her characters such that you see and feel what they see and feel. One becomes intensely attached to the characters and to the story. A real page turner! I have a second book to announce today, too. The collection of poems, Catalogue of Ripening, was written by Sabrina Guo during her first years in high school. She is currently a senior. For several years, Sabrina was a Stone Soup star, a repeat contributor and winner of multiple writing contests. This is our first foray into publishing works by Stone Soup authors who have moved into the next stage of their writing life. Longtime readers of this newsletter know that Sabrina has developed a substantive focus on social action: she is the inspiration for Stone Soup’s Refugee Project, has founded multiple programs aimed at empowering girls, and raised tens of thousands of dollars to buy protective gear for medical workers early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing these aspects of her life story, you will find her poetic voice is equally curious, outward-looking, and deeply empathetic. The poems in this collection are beautiful, thoughtful literary works that show Sabrina to be a ripening literary voice, one that is coming into her own. It is very exciting for Stone Soup to see one of our writers mature. Please support Sara and Sabrina by purchasing their books! Both titles are appropriate for either young adult or adult readers and are now available for order (or preorder!) through all major book retailers and at your local bookstore, or by clicking the links to buy on our Amazon storefront, or from an Indie bookstore. My best, 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.
Saturday Newsletter: November 6, 2021
Two Weavers | Madeline Cleveland, 11 (Belleville, WI) published in Stone Soup November 2021 A note from Laura Happy November! I would like to start by extending our congratulations, once again, to former Stone Soup contributor, author, and activist, Sabrina Guo, who will today be reading aloud her commended poem “65 Cybele” at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). This is an extraordinary accomplishment, and we could not be more proud of Sabrina! There is much to report on the Refugee Project. Most importantly, THANK YOU to all who donated to the September fundraising drive. Your generous donations have made it possible for us to continue this work and provide a platform for refugee youth to showcase their abundant creative talents and share their work with the world. Our first collaborative teaching engagement is set to launch with the support of Hands On Art Workshops. Through this collaboration, I will be delivering a writing workshop on Deep Observation to young refugees in Kakuma Camp, Kenya. I look forward to sharing the results of this workshop on the Refugee Project page of our website. To see the full collection of creative works contributed thus far, visit the website here. Now to the November issue. This week I’d like to draw your attention to Sophia Hammond’s personal narrative, “The Read Aloud.” Who among us has not experienced exclusion, humiliation, a soul crushing challenge such as that described in “The Read Aloud.” Sophia’s rich, evocative description brought me right back to a braided second-grade classroom rug and all the various obstacles and joys I encountered while sitting on it! What’s especially exciting about this story is how it captures the satisfaction of overcoming a challenge and meeting it head-on. “The Read Aloud” reminds us that sometimes our salvation comes in unexpected ways through accepting the help of a stranger, or even a classmate, who we’d not yet thought to consider a friend. This weekend, I challenge you to write about a challenge! Tell us about a time you’ve faced an obstacle and how you’ve worked to overcome it. Write about frustration! Write about fear and dread. Write about the freedom that comes with accepting when things don’t come easily, and in finding the help you need to face an obstacle. As always, if you’re happy with what you’ve written, I urge you to share your story and submit it to us via Submittable! Until next time, Highlights from the past week online Don’t miss the latest content from our Book Reviewers and Young Bloggers at on our blog! Savarna, 13, wrote a glowing review of James Ponti’s novel City Spies. Check out the latest Book Club Report, which centered around When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed. Super reviewer April, 13, reviewed Curse of the Night Witch, first novel in the Emblem Island Duology made famous by #BookTok. From Stone Soup November 2021 The Read Aloud By Sophia Hammond, 11 (New York, NY) There I was, sitting in my second-grade classroom in the School of the Blessed Sacrament. I was in the front of the room, crisscross applesauce on the yellow square of the rainbow rug—my favorite color. I was holding my Charlotte’s Web book. I heard one of my classmates read aloud. I was silently wishing I was the one reading. I looked around the room and saw my tiny gray desk with my pink pencil case on top. Yellow was rather close to the teacher, so I could smell my teacher’s lemon perfume. My teacher’s name was Mrs. Romeo. Mrs. Romeo had long brown hair and brown eyes. She was obsessed with her cat, Obby, and would talk about him every day. She had pearly white teeth and always had a big smile on her face, but she had favorites. I was not one of them, but she liked me. This was one of my worst years at Blessed Sacrament. It was not that I did not have any friends, or that I got bullied. It was because I felt excluded from our class read-aloud. In second grade, I was not a great reader. I struggled to read chapter books. When I was in kindergarten, I was the first one in my class to read 100 books. That was a big achievement for me. In kindergarten, I felt I was the best reader in my class. Why did it go downhill from there? I wondered. Click here to continue reading “The Read 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.
