Alexandria Thank you for your thought provoking questions. Children who are exposed to free verse poetry at a young age can enjoy and engage with it and navigate it easily with exposure and exploration. Many picture books use free verse poetry and children often enjoy the imagery and the musicality of the language. If more children were exposed to this form of poetry early, often, and consistently, we’d have a lot more students who are adept at reading poetry through middle school and high school. As it is, children are often exposed to poetry in early elementary and then their exposure fades, but they’re asked to read, explicate, and analyze poetry that is often antiquated and inaccessible when they’re in high school which turns them off of poetry. Many kids have to go from Silverstein to Keats without many poets between them, which is unfair and “kills” the love of poetry for a lot of young readers.

I wrote Pretty Omens in poetry not only because I love the genre, but also because I’m often uncomfortable with the concept of the genre of novel-in-verse because some of the books in the genre are really just free form prose in short lines rather than full-fledged poetry that makes use of all of the tropes and conventions of the genre. I wanted to write a novel-in-verse that was truly a collection of narrative poetry that told an overarching story when read together.

I value the Biblical references throughout the tale.

The devil’s done
put scales on your eyes.
I’ll be calling you
Saul from now on
if’n you don’t set yourself
to seeing clearly.
Girl ain’t telling
the devil’s tales–
she’s a daughter of Daniel,
like me.

For me that is a beautiful passage and says so much but if I didn’t know about Saul on the road to Damascus or Daniel as a seer in the Old Testament… would that passage mean as much to me? I’m not sure. Could you expound on that for me? Would you say your Christianity influences your writing?

I see allusions as layers, if the meaning stands without them, but expands with them; I’ve done my job. In my way of thinking, the reference to scales on the eyes shows that she’s talking about someone not being able to see the truth and the “daughter of Daniel” works musically even if readers don’t know the direct biblical reference. And we know that both people are able to see the future to the prophetic ability they share with Daniel is implied here. For me, poetry is about taking images, actions, and emotions that touch the surface of what is being described and filling in all the details that fiction would add, but doing it in your head. It takes a level of abstraction and inference that would challenge many readers, young and old, but I think challenges help us grow as readers and people.

My relationship with God is central to who I am and how I conduct myself. In my opinion God is loving and supportive as well as challenging. God wants each and every person to make the best possible choice for making themselves and this world better and if more people made the right choices, more good things and fewer bad things would happen and I want to share that idea with my readers without being so over the top about it that people don’t feel welcome in my stories if they don’t share my beliefs. I don’t want to preach, I’d rather share the insights I’ve had over time in an organic and compelling way.

Alexandria I love multi-layering in names, clothing, writing, and food! Seriously though, I love biting into a food that has one flavor upon the first taste and then the flavor changes as you consume the food. Good writing should do the same thing so that you can see more within it as you continue reading and offer new things when you read it a second time.

Alexandria Unfortunately, this program has been put on hold for budgetary reasons, but we’re starting it at the undergraduate level to build to the MFA in the near future. My idea for the program is based on a quote from Michael Margolis, the founder of Getstoried, “if you want to learn about a culture, listen to the stories. If you want to change a culture, change the stories.” If we bring people from all over society—business people, ministers, theater producers, screenwriters, songwriters, poets—together and explore ways to create stories that will change the world we could create an amazing grass roots movement for positive social change. But then again, I’m an idealist!

Alexandria First and foremost I have a supportive family, particularly my husband and my mom who often do more than their share to allow me the time to create. So my first piece of advice is to develop a strong support group. My second piece of advice is to let a few things go—the laundry, for instance, or in my case, the grading—for a day or two and give yourself time to create. It is possible to have everything you need in life; you just need good familial support, organization (or controlled chaos), multi-tasking skills, and prayer, lots and lots of prayer. Not to mention learning to function on a lot less sleep than the average person!

Alexandria Ann, thank you so much for the opportunity and for your insightful questions.