Poetry Appraisal with Lorraine Marwood

Lorraine Marwood

Today we are so pleased to have Lorraine Marwood here to tell us a bit about her poetry writing, and the prize she is donating for the winner in the Most Outstanding Poem category of the Alphabet Soup Creativity Award. (We’ll be announcing the winner on Friday, so stay tuned!)

Over to you, Lorraine!

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I have written many, many poems and had them published in places like The School Magazine in New South Wales (and Alphabet Soup of course) and USA magazine Cricket.  I love the way a poem can become a little image of a snapshot of  a moment in a day.

I have two collections of poems published with Walker Books:  A Ute Picnic and Other Australian Poems and Note on the Door and Other Poems About Family Life.  I have just completed a third collection of poems with Walker—Guinea Pig Town and Other Poems About Animals and this will come out in 2013.

I also like to write verse novels.  Star Jumps won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (children’s category) in 2010, and Ratwhiskers and Me is set on the Victorian goldfields.  Imagining what it would have been like to live in times gone by is another way of writing that I enjoy.  I love researching and reading all about those times too.  I never know when an idea will suddenly take hold and grow into a poem or a book.

Look out for my Aussie Nibbles titles too—The Girl Who Turned into Treacle and Chantelle’s Cloak.

I have a website all about my books, and a blog where I often write about projects and inspiration and travels.

 

Walker Books also has notes on my books and each time I write a poetry technique so it’s often a good idea to look here also.

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My poetry appraisal/mentoring will contain feedback on what makes a poem stand out from the crowd, how to continue writing, where ideas for poems come from, tools that poets use, how to make a few words sparkle and dance, and suggestions for reading poetry, too.

The winner will email me their poem of up to 15 lines (non rhyming and double spaced) for comment.

I will also provide a copy of one of my poetry collections A Ute Picnic and Other Australian Poems, and I’ll include some suggestions on how to pattern a poem from some of mine in the book.

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Children who have had poetry published in the Write On! section of a 2012 issue of Alphabet Soup are in the running for this fantastic prize. These children will be entered automatically. We will announce the winner on Friday and will contact the winner directly.

If you’d like to submit your story or poem for possible publication in a 2013 issue of the magazine, read the submission guidelines on our website.

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Alphabet Soup Creativity Award

We love reading all the work you send us and we really love publishing it, too. Sometimes we’re blown away by the amazing stuff we find in our inbox and our post office box. And that’s why we are thrilled to be announcing the inaugural ALPHABET SOUP CREATIVITY AWARD.

Prizes will be awarded in three categories:

Most outstanding story

Most outstanding poem

Most outstanding artwork

If you are a child who had work published in the magazine this year, you are automatically in the running for this Award. (This excludes the winning pieces in the writing or design-a-cover-competitions).

The prizes:

Most outstanding story—the winner will receive $50.00*, an ebook by Dee White, and a manuscript appraisal (professional feedback) from Dee White on a 500-word story they have written (not necessarily the story that was published in Alphabet Soup).

Most outstanding poem—the winner will receive $50.00*, a book of poetry by Lorraine Marwood, and a poetry appraisal (professional feedback) from Lorraine Marwood on an unrhymed poem up to 15 lines written by the winner (not necessarily the poem that was published in Alphabet Soup).

Most outstanding artwork—the winner will receive $50.00*, a book by James Foley, and an illustration appraisal (professional feedback) from James Foley on a piece of artwork (not necessarily the artwork published in Alphabet Soup).

You’ll hear more about these people and the prizes this week, starting on Monday. And on Friday we’ll announce the winners here on the blog. (If you are a winner, we will also notify you personally.)

Read more about the award (including some fine print) on the Alphabet Soup Creativity Award page.

*$50.00 cash for each category is courtesy of The Book Chook. (Thank you!)

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Spring Writing Comp winners (2012)

We read some outstanding poems in our spring writing competition and we’re thrilled to be sharing these winning poems with you. Congratulations to the three winners!

UNDER 7s WINNER—Leith Bradbury

THE FIGHTING CROWS

Hungry hungry black crow,
High up in a hollow tree,
Glides down to the bottom of the hill
And grabs worm from happy crow.
Happy crow is now angry,
Scratching and pecking,
Biting and tugging,
Screeching and chewing,
All day long.
Then angry crow has an idea.
He nips the worm in half and gobbles his half.
He gives the other half to black crow.
They become friends.

[Inspired by the painting Fighting Crows, by Shaun Tan]

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UNDER 9s WINNER—Veronica Hester

THE CROW FIGHT

In the Northern Suburbs,
On a light green field,
Two crows get in a fight.
Black bodies twist and twirl,
Feathers fly to the sky.
A crow falls to the ground.
No mercy for the wounded crow,
He dives and flies away,
Leaving the crow to cry his anger to the sky.
Another crow watches the scene inscrutably,
On a quiet afternoon in the Northern Suburbs.
Where the black billowing shapes of trees,
Shadowed from the sun,
Have the colour of the Fighting Crows.

[Inspired by the painting Fighting Crows, by Shaun Tan]

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UNDER 12s WINNER: Sophia O’Brien

[UNTITLED]

A Young Child

A street bathed in afternoon shadow.
The grass is yellow green.
Time is unchanging and he sees the whole world at once.
The clouds can be touched by the hand.
Trees are poles with clouds on top.

Ten Years Later

Same old street that never changes.
Grass and trees, houses and clouds.
He wants to go to more exciting places, see more exciting things.
He wants to see something more than that suburban street with its straight path and quiet houses.

[Inspired by the painting Footpath, Fifth Avenue, by Shaun Tan]

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Well done Leith, Veronica and Sophia!

If you’d like to enter our summer writing competition, keep an eye on the competitions page on our website. Good luck!

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Poems at the Nedlands Library (WA)

Winning poems in the Roland Leach poetry prize – on display at the Nedlands Library.

This afternoon we stopped in at the Nedlands Library to check out the winning poems from the 2012 Roland Leach Poetry Prize. (You can find the display in the Children’s Library section.)

Congratulations to Celine Ng—the 9-year-old poet who won the overall prize, as well as the Year 3, 4 & 5 category. Way to go!

(If that’s inspired you to get writing, you can check out a list of kids’ writing comps here on the blog.)

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Meet the Author: Lorraine Marwood

Lorraine Marwood

 

In every issue of Alphabet Soup magazine we print an interview with an author or illustrator. We can’t fit all their answers into an issue of the magazine, so we publish the full interviews on the blog—we wouldn’t want you to miss out!

For issue 14 we talked to Lorraine Marwood. Lorraine is a poet, and the author of many books including Star Jumps, and Note on the Door, and A Ute Picnic.

 

What made you become a writer/poet?

I don’t think that anything ‘made’ me become a writer. It was a heartfelt feeling when I was about 8 years old—that was all I secretly ever wanted to do.  And I never ever lost that longing. Or that passion for writing and reading.

Was it easy to get your first poem published? (Your first book/book of poems?)

No not at all.  It wasn’t till I was about 16 years old that my first poem was published and that was after much writing and submitting—but what a thrill it was.

My first book of poems came after I’d had my children and was still farming. And it only came after I’d notched up publishing credits in literary magazines—a bit like an apprenticeship in poetry.

Where do you get your inspiration and ideas?

From everything happening around me—little incidents, nature, my family, newspapers, what I read and of course big doses of thinking and jotting down.

Did you read poetry when you were growing up?

My teacher read us classic poetry like Banjo Paterson, Wordsworth and we had a class reader for the year and we always read the poems in that (but as a teenager I discovered T.S. Eliot and a Russian poet  called Yevtushenko). But we mainly read rhyming poetry which was also mainly English poets.

Did you have a favourite poet/poem/book of poetry when you were growing up?

T. S Eliot ‘The journey of the Magi,’ and also Australian Bruce Dawe.

Is your poetry influenced by particular poets/writers? 

Yes, I think I’m influenced by those poets I really admire—like ee cummings, I love the freedom and rhythm of his work; Bruce Dawe’s Vietnam poem—’They’re bringing them home’; T.S Eliot; Sue Cowling; ‘FiveBells’ by Australian poet Kenneth Slessor; Judith Wright; and now I read lots of children’s poets. I think I’m influenced by those poets who tell a story, a narrative, that surprise and use their poetic craft really well.
What do you like to do when you are not writing? 

I love to make things—sew, bead, garden, pot up cuttings, read,  make cards, op shop—they are creative things to do (well, for me!) think, wonder, pray.

Do you mostly write on paper or on a computer? 

Now that’s an interesting question because for poetry I like to write in one of my notebooks, but for stories I write on  my laptop.

Is there a difference in the way you approach writing a poem and writing a verse novel?

Yes, a poem is a little unit on its own with beginning, middle and end. But a verse novel is many components that lead on and borrow from story telling—it’s a more ‘prosy’ way of writing, where a poem is tiny and delicious like a ripe strawberry.

Are you working on a collection of poems or a book at the moment?

I am working on another collection of poems—so for that, I need to aim for about 100 new poems. At the moment I’m thinking of section headings or groupings for the poems, a bit like chapters in a book. This collection will be entirely  new. And as I write, I’ve already finished another verse novel—again entirely different from my other verse novels in content and for a slightly older age group—but awaiting the green light from my publisher.
Do you have any advice for young poets? 

Yes, write whenever  you can. Start with lists of what is around you—lines of three or four words, get all the details down and use those wonderful senses too.  Keep these jottings in a note book, put the date on them and keep them. Look back over them and see if any ideas for a fuller poem can be found.

No lines of writing are ever wasted, they lead you on a journey to becoming a writer/poet.  It’s such a surprise to see what comes from your pen or keyboard. And a such a pleasure to read again after a few weeks or months have gone by …
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Find out more about Lorraine Marwood and her books and poetry—visit her website, or check out a bookstore or library near you!

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