Spotlight on Jane Yolen + DMC Challenge

JANE YOLEN
                                                Photo © Jason Stemple

Jane Yolen can scarcely remember a time when she wasn't writing. She grew up with the impression that all adults wrote books and told stories, and knew from the get-go that she would be carrying on that tradition. That's not to say she didn't have other interests—dance, horses, music, basketball, debate, and law to name a few. But it was her love of poetry that was at the core of who she was, and remains there to this day. Jane's first poem (written in the first grade), though not her best, showed an aptitude for rhyme. In third grade, she began to set poems to music, which she also wrote. In seventh grade, she wrote an essay about New York State manufacturing in rhymed couplets. Her encore performance at Smith College was a final exam in American Intellectual History, also penned in rhyme. Seriously.

Over a career that spans 50+ years and a vast collection of distinguished awards, Jane Yolen has published more than 300 books (nine in 2016, alone) and has no intention of stopping any time soon. Described as the "Hans Christian Andersen of America" by Newsweek and a "modern equivalent of Aesop" according to the New York Times, Jane Yolen writes poetry and prose, nonfiction and fiction in multiple genres, and for all ages— board books to adult works.

I've written a fair share of these Spotlight ON posts now, showcasing a number of extraordinary authors, but truth be told, when it came to writing Jane Yolen's introduction, I've felt more paralyzed than usual.

How can I possibly characterize this woman of seemingly limitless possibility in a few short paragraphs? 

Never far from her next inspiration, she is a poet and author whose imagination can be finely tuned to pick up nearly any frequency. Her impact as an author, storyteller, editor, teacher, speaker, advisor, and role model cannot be overstated.

Eventually I came to the obvious conclusion: I can't.

What I can do is direct you to her website, which is not only loaded with information about Jane's life and works, but contains a slew of advice and resources for writers and teachers. It's impossible to peruse the offerings without noticing her abundant passion and generosity toward a larger book-loving community. If poetry is what you're after, I can also direct you toward her poem subscriber list. Sign up to receive a poem a day from Jane via email, mostly adult work, on the condition that you buy a book of hers or borrow one from the library each month.

When deciding which book to feature for today's interview, Jane suggested several rhyming picture books released earlier this year:

At risk of appearing choosy, I was hoping for something other than a picture book since Rebecca Davis introduced the gorgeous You Nest Here with Me, Jane's collaboration with her daughter, children's author Heidi E.Y. Stemple, last November.





We also considered Grumbles from the Town: Mother-Goose Voices with a Twist (WordSong, September 13, 2016). Co-written with Rebecca Kai Dotlich, this sequel to their popular Grumbles from the Forest: Fairy-Tale Voices with a Twist (WordSong, 2013) is bound to be a fun poetry collection! But weighing the benefits and drawbacks of featuring a book with two authors made me realize that I would prefer to feature Rebecca by herself sometime in the near future. (Fair warning, Rebecca, if you're reading this!)

How about a collection of science poetry, illustrated with her son Jason's photography?

Yes! Perfect!

Living in Gator Country, I knew this day would come. Sooner or later I would succumb to the lure of the swamp and write a blog post about gators. Thanks to Jane, that day has arrived.

UF mascots Albert and Alberta approve!

Sorry local Gator fans, I'm not talking about college football. I'm talking about your floating, gloating, sunning, cunning, waiting, dominating, toothy-grinned, armor-skinned, not-a-log variety of gators. You know the ones... they hang out at Lake Alice, but occasionally take a detour to check out what's happening on campus...?

Local Gator Sighting

Right. Those. The kind that appear in THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE AND OTHER POEMS (Millbrook Press, 2016).

THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE AND OTHER POEMS
Millbrook Press (September 1, 2016)
ISBN: 978-1467755757
Find at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound.org, or order
a personalized copy at World Eye Bookshop or Odyssey Bookshop.

Described by the School Library Journal as "a fabulous merging of science and poetry," THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE AND OTHER POEMS is the latest collaboration between preeminent word-wrangler Jane Yolen and her award-winning photographer son, Jason Stemple. Together this daring duo has worked on more than a dozen fascinating books that combine the best of poetry and photography in stunning displays of nature, come to life on the page.

You, too, can embrace your inner chomp and discover the habits and characteristics of these cold-blooded creatures, whose ancestors lived as far back as the time of the dinosaurs. Yolen's thirteen poems, combining elements of playfulness, intrigue, and suspense, will capture the interest and imagination of most any young reader (and plenty of us older ones, as well). Supplemented with bite-sized facts and paired with eye-popping photographs, who wouldn't love to learn about alligators this way? Incidentally, many of Stemple's photos were taken on a fellowship-sponsored trip to the Everglades here in Florida where he got up close and personal with these menacing and mesmerizing creatures. Make sure you check out the book's back matter, as well, which includes more fun facts, a glossary, and a list of additional resources, including Can You Tell an Alligator from a Crocodile (Lerner, 2012) by our very own TLD contributor, Buffy Silverman!

THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE is an enticing treat for home

or classroom, so take my advice and snag this book!

(Keep it well fed with curious readers.)

Now tell me, are there any curious readers out there looking for an interview with Jane Yolen?

Thought so!  We'll begin, as always, with a few of Jane's favorites.

Favorite sound: The dawn chorus of birds.

Favorite smell: Flowers in the garden or a grandbaby fresh from a bath.

Favorite children's poet: Too many, but Mary Ann Hoberman is sure up there!

Favorite childhood memory: Listening to a storyteller at a family camp telling the story of Perseus and Medusa with a fire crackling behind her.

Favorite grade in school: Sixth grade because Marcel Sislowitz kissed me on the final day of classes.

Favorite teacher in school: Elementary—Mrs. Jiler because she loved my writing. Junior/Senior High School—V. Louise Higgins because she made me think about books, not just read them. College—Bill Van Voris and Joel Dorius because they were both willing to have long talks about poetry with me.

D. McKay Co (1963)

Your first book, PIRATES IN PETTICOATS, was published in 1963. What kind of future did you see for yourself back then, and what does your gift of creative writing mean to you now?

I thought I was going to be a nonfiction writer to make my fortune because of my background in journalism, and a poet for my heart. And then two things happened—I discovered I loved writing picture books (a form of poetry) and natural science poems (nonfiction and poetry combined) and my whole idea of what I could and couldn't do changed dramatically. 

To this day, I rule nothing out when exploring new forms or ideas for a book or story or poem. I learned that lesson early!

By the way, I HATE the phrase "creative writing" which assumes there is a non-creative way. I distinguish creative and non-creative this way: Is it great writing? Good writing? Bad writing? Or writing so awful that it makes your teeth ache and your stomach clench and you-will-shoot-yourself-if -you-have-to-read-one-sentence-more writing?


One of the consequences of having authored so many books is that your reputation precedes you. Comparisons to Hans Christian Andersen and Aesop are made with the utmost respect, but they don't address your complexity. What do you wish people understood about you and/or your body of work that can't be expressed with a convenient label?

One of several libraries throughout
Jane Yolen's Massachusetts home.

Well, I accept those as working titles, though ones I have re-earn on a daily basis. I won't accept "living legend" or "legendary" though, as I am enough of a folklorist to want to explain in full paragraphs just why that is not a usable idea. Or a proper thing to call anyone who is flesh and blood.

But I also think people can choose which of my books to read and like or hate, to discuss or dismiss. That's not my business. 

My job is to write the best dang book, tell the best darn story, create the best damn poem I am capable of. Over and over and over again. 

To do that takes time, energy, dedication, and a tremendous amount of revision. No time in there to worry about what people call me. That's just going down the rabbit hole.


One of the things you stress to new writers is the importance of exercising your writing muscle. Would you describe your daily writer's workout?

Honestly, to watch me write is boring. Someone once asked about a reality show with writers.  I said, even your camera men would get bored and their yawns would be picked up by the audio.

Where Jane Yolen sat for 20 years writing books. (Now she works on a laptop.)

Basically, I get up in the morning, check my email, write a poem, send it out to 700+ subscribers, do my exercises, take my pills, get dressed, eat breakfast, go downstairs with laptop and write until my brains feel scrambled. Oh by then it's lunch. A two mile walk. Repeat from laptop/brains scrambled until dinner.

Occasionally I will have a meeting, or be on a panel, or give a speech, or go to a movie with a friend, or dinner, or theater. Sometimes I even have a date with an older gentleman because I am an older lady, but frankly they are beginning to feel more and more like interviews than fun.

But mostly I write because you see I have all these invisible friends who tell me their stories and I write them down. . .


What about your writing environment— the setting where you put in your daily writing hours?

Since I have had a bad back for years, and now have a reasonably good back after a huge seven hour back operation, I do not sit at a desk. Most desks and chairs are not set up for someone who is 5'3 anyway. I sit in a  comfortable chair with lumbar support and write on a laptop. It can be in a living room, a bedroom, a TV room—I roam around the house and have dictionaries and research books everywhere. I take frequent breaks and look out at the birds with my field glasses, take snacks, walks. 

View from Jane's inviting kitchen (note her field glasses on the window sill).

I have a dedicated writing room with a wonderful desk in the attic of my Massachusetts house, overlooking my daughter's house and the Owl Moon woods. But she is worried about me walking up and down those very crooked stairs (old house), afraid I will fall, so I rarely use it any more.

View from "The Aerie" (Jane Yolen's attic)           Photo credit: Marsha Diane Arnold

While many writers are uncomfortable with collaboration, that's not the case with you. What do you find most rewarding about collaborating and what do you find challenging?

Joke answer—it's twice the work and half the money!

Of course there's some truth to that, But even more is the fact that some books are better for two heads and two hearts working on them. We each bring something wonderfully different to the writing table. Also sometimes one of my children or friends has an idea they want me to come on board with, so there's that as well.


I'm curious about the creative process that took place with THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE. Did Jason present you with photographs and you chose which ones to write to? Or was there more give and take than that?

Jason Stemple, Photographer

My work with Jason always begins with my looking over his latest photos and finding several themes for possible books. Good nature photographs can rarely be staged. So I have to go with what he has. But usually we reach a point where I say-you need to see if you can get X, Y or Z. Maybe it's a sharper picture of the alligator's actual "smile,"  or different picture of the mom gator with baby. But of course, if the book needs a mother/child photo in nature, you basically have to wait till the photographer can shoot in the spring. Whereas an illustrator can just create a picture at any time.

From THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE: poem © 2016 Jane Yolen, photograph © 2016 Jason Stemple (click to enlarge)

Please share a favorite spread from THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE and tell us why it's a favorite.

When we think of alligators, we think of danger, but this spread reminds me that if a mother (reptile)  stays around to help her babies in their first months (years) of life, it somehow softens them. We see the mother letting the newly born gator calf crawl all over her nose. And we are immediately won over.  It's that awwwwww moment. But honestly folks--it's a gator!!! Then on the facing page we find out that the majority of young gators are lost to predation by OTHER gators. So I think I like the whiplash of these two pages together. It's surprising twice.

THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE (Millbrook Press) © 2016 Jane Yolen, photographs © 2016 Jason Stemple (click to enlarge)

"Mother and Child, Alligator Style" © 2016 Jane Yolen, from THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE

Now that you know everything there is to know about alligators, is there a particular alligator trait that you identify with or admire?

Alligators are one of the very few reptiles who hang around with their babies, fending off predators. That's me!!! My oldest has just turned 50. I am still doing it!!!

THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE (Millbrook Press) © 2016 Jane Yolen, photographs © 2016 Jason Stemple (click to enlarge)

What's coming up next for you?

Oh goodness, I have over 25 books under contract with only three still to be written. I have about the same number of book manuscripts making the rounds. And I have the starts of three other middle grade fantasy novels, several nonfiction book proposals, and the starts of about five different children's poetry books and two different adult poetry books, as well. I am never short of work.

Coming out this fall, beside The Alligator's Smile, is Little Frog and the Scary Autumn Thing (Persnikety Books, the first of four seasons with Little Frog), that already has a great Publishers Weekly review; Grumbles from the Town—poetry based on classic nursery rhymes, with Rebecca Kai Dotlich (Boyds Mills Press); How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends (Scholastic);  and the first book in a trilogy of graphic novels called The Stone Man Mysteries, noir fantasy mysteries set in 1930s Edinburgh, with the main detective a gargoyle who can't leave the top of the church walls but still manages to solve mysteries with the help of a runaway boy, the poor children of Edinburgh, and the church's priest (CarolRhoda/Lerner Books) and written with my son Adam.

If you had all the world's children in one room, what would you tell them?

Two-year-old Jane with her parents, Will and Isabelle Yolen

What I told my own children and now grandchildren—

Leave the world a better place than you found it.

David Stemple and Jane Yolen, with children Heidi, Adam, and Jason (1979)

Finally, what you have chosen as this month's ditty challenge?

Write a poem in which reading and or writing is featured in the form of a septercet, a form I invented:

Each verse (as many verses as you want) needs to have three lines, each with seven syllables. It can be rhymed or not.

Here's a new one of mine:

A Book in Hand Can Change A Life

Book in hand, I changed a life:
Slew a dragon, saved a prince,
Followed Toto down the road,

Book in hand, I changed a life:
Secret gardens I explored.
Fell down holes and met a queen.

Book in hand, I changed a Life:
Sailed with Huck upon a raft,
Rescued Peter from the Hook.

All of this I did with book.
Rescued, followed, sailed, and slew—
The one changed was me—that's who!

                               © 2016 Jane Yolen. All rights reserved.

Excellent!  We love trying out new poetry forms at Today's Little Ditty!


I know you're all itching to start counting your syllables, but before we put on our septercet thinking caps, won't you please join me in thanking Jane Yolen for this wonderful interview?

And that's not all...

Jane has generously offered to send one lucky participant a personalized copy of THE ALLIGATOR'S SMILE!
(Chew on that for a while.)

 A winner will be chosen randomly at the end of the month.


HOW TO PARTICIPATE: 

Post your septercet that features reading or writing on our September 2016 padlet. Stop by any time during the month to add your work or to check out what others are contributing.

By posting on the padlet, you are granting me permission to share your poem on Today's Little Ditty.  Some poems will be featured as daily ditties, though authors may not be given advanced notice as they have in the past. Subscribe to the blog if you'd like to keep tabs. You can do that in the sidebar to the right where it says "Follow TLD by Email." As always, all of the poems will be included in a wrap-up celebration on the last Friday of the month—September 30th for our current challenge.

TEACHERS, it's great when students get involved! Ditty of the Month Club challenges are wonderful opportunities to learn about working poets and authors while having fun with poetry prompts. Thank you for spreading the word! For children under 13, please read my COPPA compliance statement in the sidebar to the right.

FIRST-TIMERS (those who have never contributed to a ditty challenge before), in addition to posting your work on the padlet, please send your name and email address to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com. That way I'll be able to contact you for possible inclusion in future Best of Today's Little Ditty anthologies.

BLOGGERS, thank you for publishing your poems on your own blogs– I love that!  Please also remember to include your poem (or a direct link to your post) on the padlet in order to be included in the wrap-up celebration and end-of-month giveaway.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thanks to everyone who contributed to last month's challenge from Diana Murray to write a poem about an unlikely hero! There were several additions after last Friday's wrap-up celebration, three of which were shared earlier this week (BJ Lee, Buffy Silverman, and Matt Forrest Esenwine), but I hope you'll go back to see them all.

Random.org has determined that the winner of a personalized copy of NED THE KNITTING PIRATE by Diana Murray and illustrated by Leslie Lammle is . . .

ROBYN HOOD BLACK — Congratulations, Robyn!

Penny Parker Klostermann is rounding up this week's Poetry Friday offerings at a penny and her jots. (And for the first time, too!) Drop by and say howdy.