“Mom?” Kayli begins, looking up from my laptop, but just barely. “You know what’s funny?”
“What, Kay?” I ask, setting my book aside, completely understanding the “just barely.”
She tucks a loose chocolate strand behind one ear and tilts her head in a way that is so much like Jason, I can’t help but smile.
“Mom! Are you listening to me?!” She demands.
And I am. Because she’s blog-comment-responding, and I know how very important this is. We share this writer space now.
Over the last few weeks, she’s written back to every last note that you wrote celebrating her first published poem.
(Thank you for that, by the way. You took our whole family’s breath away with your kindness.)
“What’s funny, Kay?” I ask, smoothing a lock that doesn’t need smoothing.
“A lot of your friends said that I was brave to publish my poem.” She says, wrinkling her forehead and her eyebrows and even her cheeks.
Because to her unweathered ears, brave edges wrong.
But to you and me?
With decades of worries and doubts and “I can’ts” filling our hearts and our minds, BRAVE is the perfect word to describe chasing dreams and making things happen, for announcing to the world -shoulders back, chin up- Watch me. I’m going for it.
Oh my heart, how this strikes me. This belief in herself that she has in the palm of her hand, that she can tuck into her pocket, to be taken out whenever she goes for it again.
And I know with every fiber of my being, that this gift that she has is so very good, and so needs to be shared.
Lucky for me, Annmarie Lockhart, editor at Vox Poetica and publisher at unbound CONTENT, agrees.
I wrote to her explaining my heart, Kids need to write and be acknowledged for it! And she responded with her’s,
“I agree with you wholeheartedly about the value of enabling children to own their creativity. Taking advantage of their youthful fearlessness is the best way to inoculate them against the doubts that so often plague their adult counterparts. I will be glad to be a part of this enterprise.”
And with that, I’m thrilled to announce that I’m partnering with unbound CONTENT to publish an anthology of children’s poetry and artwork!
Call for Submissions!
Who: Writers and artists, ages six-eighteen.
What: Original poetry and artwork inspired by the theme DREAM.
When: Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis. As soon as we have enough content for a complete anthology, submissions will close.
Every writer and artist will be responded to, and everyone whose work is accepted will receive a contributor copy, because PUBLISHED AUTHORS need to hold their books in their hands.
How: Submissions should be sent to me (the series editor!) at galit breen @ gmail . com
More How: Submissions should include-
- The full text of the poem or a jpg photo of the artwork
- An author photo
- A two-three sentence “About the Author” including age
- And a permission sentence such as, “I (name of parent) am the parent of (named child) and grant permission for (title of work), created by (named child), for the Dreams vox poetica anthology to be published by unbound CONTENT.”
Now, it’s your turn. Look your favorite writers and artists in the eye and tell them to think DREAM – waking or sleeping, nightmare or inspiration – just DREAM.
It’s their story, show them that it’s worth telling and that we’re all listening!
That is so awesome! Congratulations.
Love this!
and also? I just sent it to my niece…who better send something in ASAP. 😉
Wow! So neat!
Oooh, I’m going to get B to do something! He was JUST telling me yesterday how much he loves to write in his journals. This is fabulous, Galit. I’m so PROUD of both of you. 😀
This is awesome, my sweet friend!
This is fabulous! And it is so you my friend!
Oh how I hope my kids jump on board for this … hmm, homeschool project for the weekend 😉
What a wonderful idea! My kiddos are too young, but my niece is an amazing little artist. Can’t wait to pass along the info! Thank you!
Congratulations on this exciting venture, Galit!! I love that it was inspired by Kayli – whose future I have no doubt is bright.
(I read her reply to my comment, she’s so sweet!)
This is wonderful. As is Kay!
Great idea! I’ll see if my daughter wants to participate.
How awesome Galit! I will be forwarding this to all my teacher friends, as my own kiddos aren’t quite old enough yet. Bravo!
Oh my gosh, this is so neat! I know you’ll get lots and lots of submissions!
This is a wonderful opportunity for children! I can’t wait to tell my kids about it today. I hope we have a submission or two for you.
What a fantastic idea, I’m going to mention it to my girls….
Love, love, love, love this. And I have a little writer friend in house here who will likely submit!
Oh, this is so great. My son has been showing that he’s inherited his late daddy’s artistic ability. We’re going to work on this.
Yahoo! I just sent the link to one of my favorite writers, who happens to also be ten years old. I hope she’ll contribute something.
What a fantastic idea!!
Galit! I remember having my very first short story published when I was in 2nd grade. It meant the world to me, and it gave me so much confidence that my words mattered.
I just told my cousin about this contest. Her son is incredible {in my opinion} — leave it to you to do something so fabulous. 😉
Fantastic opportunity!!!!
SO awesome. What a beautiful thing.
Wonderful idea! Our boys have pictures, storyboards, even a few screenplays scattered on their desks and displayed on walls throughout the house. I’ll share this terrific opportunity with them and see if one of them will choose to submit. I love the idea of squelching fear before it has a chance to take root. xo
Best of luck with the new venture . . . unfortunately, unless you can take audio snippets of “wow” while watching Star Wars, it’ll be a little while before my kids can submit anything, though.
freaking amazing. wonderful. beautiful! cannot wait to see the end result.
First of all —> what a good mother you are. (-:
Second of all —-> We’re in! Yay!
I knew there must be a reason why I have been playing our Children’s Poetry CD over and over again in the car! This morning on the way to school we couldn’t decide if Jabberwocky was the best poem, or The Tiger. Well – I’m very excited! Is there a deadline for this? Ella wants to know “do you take elephants?” Huh?
I hope my 13 year old doesn’t think she is too cool for poetry
THIS is amazing!!
Sooooo incredibly magnificent, Galit. And I just went back to reread your daughter’s response. Please thank her. I was also touched by her sweet words. I can tell she’s every bit your child with a heart that size
what an amazing idea, Galit!!! So excited for you. Maybe I’ll ask one of the little creative writers in my family to submit
This is so incredibly awesome! The perfect project! Congrats! xoxo
This is awesome! You are awesome.
Best of luck, friend.
How exciting! You are perfect for this project.
This and you are amazing! I will be sharing this post with my neices.
Love, love, love all that you do to encourage the creative in both the young and the travelled! :>
Wow, that is awesome!!!! Congratulations!!!!!
This project couldn’t be in better hands! I’m sure it will turn out wonderfully.
GALIT!!! This is fantastic!
I’m so proud of you and this partnership!
Huge HUGE Congratulations!
My goodness – how amazing! This is so awesome!
what a fantastic idea! amazing and huge encouragement to children. congrats.
How exciting! I’ll have to tell my daughter about this and see if she wants to participate.
Oh this is so magnificent. I’m going to share with my daughter to see if she would like to contribute.
How cool! So excited for you and all the kids!
That’s so great! Congratulations!
Wow! This is a fabulous opportunity and such a cool project to be apart of. Love it!
Wow! This is awesome! I’ll pass the word on!
Yay! I’m putting this under Abby’s nose and cutting her lose!
The elementary school I went to (in MN too!) had a yearly anthology they put together of all the grades and took the poems/stories of various students that teachers had submitted for publication. I remember I was published 3 different years and it was such an unexpected thrill. I still have the books. It’s something I truly cherish and I know this project of yours is something those young ones will hold dear. Thank you for doing this. I hope when my daughter is older you’ll do it again.
This is everything I love you for, and more. It’s a project that hits me right in the heart and soul and the fact that you’re doing it? Perfect. My daughter will be submitting.
XOXO
What a COOL idea!!! I love encouraging the younger people in our lives to tap into their artistic hearts and share their creativity. You are brilliant!
So, so cool! Might have to get my little artist to enter!
Oh, I love this!!!
This is such an amazing opportunity for our children to soar in their creativity.
Can we submit niece and nephew works? With parent permission of course…my son is stil too wee for this.
—I love that you are helping with this amazing project!
The POWER of “”Words & Poetry”” is abundantly strong.
As a child, it saved my life…
Xx
Oh, how wonderful!!!
Steph
That is so very cool! What a fun project, Galit!
Oh, how I love this. I’m telling all my friends with big kids!
What a really cool opportunity, Galit! So perfect for you too!
I love what a serious little artist Kayli has become. She’s hooked like the rest of us! One poem and that’s all she wrote. From now on, she’ll be up late at night scribbling notes under the covers. That’s what I do at least.
so excited to submit the art that my children have produced. Thank you for the invitation!
Yay! This is going to be awesome. I’m so proud of you!
Galit how wonderful! I am only sad that my beautiful little artist is 5 and won’t be able to submit. Maybe I will send you something of hers anyway, just to brighten your day. She has a little gift and even if I cannot share it in your book you have inspired me to share it on my blog.
xo
Oh WOW! What an amazing thing! My oldest is 5 but I can’t wait to see what this turns into!
Oh my goodness, Galit! (first of all, I am SO far behind in blogging) But, this is awesome!! What an amazing opportunity you are giving to kids!
And, of course I’m not surprised by your daughter’s creativity…you are her mom!
great idea.
I will run this by my girls and get back to you.
This is beautiful. I’m not surprised that someone as amazing as you would be participating in something so wonderful. Hugs, mama. (Off to find your daughter’s poem!)
Oh this is so cool!! I have a little artist here, and he would love this!! You’ll hear from us soon!