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Happy Poetry Month!

I’m thrilled that this year, my first love – poetry – will provide a nexus between two very different groups that I started: Authors Take Action and Diverse Verse. Read on to find out what the connection is – and, better still, to discover poetry prompts for you to try on your own, or share with others.

Laura Shovan is leading #AuthorsTakeAction this year, and she proposed a wonderful poetry project, encouraging poets to contribute poems relating in some way to climate (and/or climate change). As a scientist who is deeply concerned about anthropogenic impacts on human health, and the health of all life on our planet, as well as our planet’s health. I am deeply upset to witness how quickly our Earth is heating up, as though it is a human body, whose temperature is rising as a result of a fever. So I chose to write a poem about Climate Change. It’s a work in progress, and I haven’t quite decided what to call it. At first I thought “Will We Weather Change?” but that seemed a bit too mundane… so now I’m considering something more along the lines of “Dawn On Us” At any rate, here’s my first draft, below:

Rising, as our future shines, waters reflect melting gold.

Sunlight. Peace falls on Earth. Our raised hands

press together in prayer, treasuring all we hold. 

Rising, as our future shines, waters reflect melting gold.

We grow wealthy but desire more. We no longer care for old

wisdom. We destroy oceans, watch fires blaze across lands

as our future melts. Rising waters reflect shining gold

pieces. Sunlight falls on Earth, razed by our hands. 

If you’re a poet, you probably recognize that the form I’m following rather loosely is the Triolet. In this interview, Laura Shovan says she often rewrites a free verse poem “in a traditional form, such as a triolet” while revising, because it helps her find rhythms she may have missed. I love playing with form when I write, and since I handed over leadership of Authors Take Action to Laura Shovan, who brought up this form in her interview, I decided to try my hand at writing a Triolet.

The American Academy of Poets describes a Triolet as “a short poem of eight lines with only two rhymes used throughout.” You’ll notice that my poem uses just two rhymes. The Poetry Foundation defines the Triolet as “An eight-line stanza having just two rhymes and repeating the first line as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line as the eighth.” Dudley Randall and Deborah Paradez are among the modern poets who have explored this form, which comes to us from France. If you’d like to read a few more examples, try Saint’s Day Triolet: Saint Valentine and Saint’s Day Triolet: Saint Anthony (both by Deborah Paradez.

On the one hand, this poem looks remarkably easy. There’s a lot of repetition: the first line recurs as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line recurs as the eighth. So the poet only needs to come up with five lines. Of course, as any poet knows, repetition also implies that the lines one does come up with had better be strong, because the reader will read them again and again – and given how short the triolet is, they’d better like those repeating lines. Are you ready to try writing a Triolet? If so, here’s a template to help you get going:

• 1st line (A)
• 2nd line (B)
• 3rd line (a)- new line that rhymes with the first line
• 4th line (A) – first line repeats
• 5th line -(a) new line that rhymes with the first line
• 6th line – (b) new line that rhymes with the second line
• 7th line (A) – first line repeats
• 8th line (B) – second line repeats

When I wrote my drafts, I copied out the template, filled in the repeating lines, and then wrote the other three original lines. By the strictest of rules, you might decide that my poem is not quite a triolet. Can you tell why?

I rearranged the words in the final lines, and I also replaced some of the original words with homophones instead of using the same words again (pieces versus peace; razed versus raised). But my poem is, at the very least, definitely inspired by this form. It took me a lot longer than you might think – but I love the writing process and I’m glad I tried this form. I hope you will try it, too!

Visit the #AuthorsTakeAction page to discover more writing prompts and read more poems: https://a3c6adbe-6a89-4d95-b339-d47cf1a34d9c.godaddysites.com/projects

If you’re wondering how all of this relates to #DiverseVerse, I’m thrilled to share that on www.diverseverse.com we’re posting an eclectic mixture of poetry prompts, activities, essays, reflections, interviews, reviews and more, every day of #NationalPoetryMonth2023! So visit Diverse Verse to find out more about that project.

I’ll be offering two more writing prompts for our #LoveLettersToPoetry series, one of which will feature a reading from a short story in verse that appears in the groundbreaking anthology, CALLING THE MOON: 16 period stories by BIPOC authors, edited by Aida Salazar and Yamile Saied Méndez.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful spring!

Hope you’re all having a good February. It’s a short month, so I’m keeping this message short, too! The paperback birth of BORN BEHIND BARS is scheduled for March 7th, and you can pre-order it already! Use the link below to order via your preferred vendor: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647196/born-behind-bars-by-padma-venkatraman/

To celebrate the paperback release, I’ve released a short story for publication online at: https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/her-story

In addition to reading the story, if you are a teacher or educator, you’ll find discussion questions and other teacher resources to go with the story on the website. Feel free to share widely – and yes, it is free. My books are about children who suffer from socioeconomic inequality, so it didn’t feel right to tie any kind of pre-order giveaway to a purchase.

For those of you who aren’t aware, a beloved character from THE BRIDGE HOME reappears in BORN BEHIND BARS as an adult. So, for all those who wondered what happened after THE BRIDGE HOME…you’ll find a hint in BORN BEHIND BARS.

Many of you, my readers, are moved to help others in need, and so I just wanted to share, as I have in the past, an organization that I believe is providing excellent aid to those suffering from the Earthquake in Syria and Turkey: Doctors Without Borders .

Thanks for reading my work and staying in touch through this newsletter! Sending best wishes,

Padma

Here’s wishing everyone a wonderful new year! Hope it’s started well and that it brings you much joy. If you’re a writer or teacher, here’s a recent list of resources you might find useful:

• Diverse Verse contains a list of novels-in-verse, old and new, that I read or re-read last year, as well as teaching activities (such as these lesson plan insights by Valerie Bolling and Lisa Stringfellow), interviews (such as Nadine Pinede’s chat with Marilyn Nelson), writing prompts (including those featured by our student intern Avalon Lee during Poetry Month 2022), reviews of award-winning novels in verse (like Reem Faruqi’s review of Veera Hiranandani or Suma Subramaniam’s review of Rajani LaRocca or Ari Tison’s review of Amber McBride) and story-behind-the-story essays (such as this behind-the-scene take on A SEED IN THE SUN by Aida Salazar or these essays by Leslea Newman and Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie). In case you aren’t aware, #DiverseVerse is an initiative that I founded, which is growing with the help of wonderful authors and educators. If you self-identify with a marginalized or underrepresented community and are an author or educator who’d like to join us, please contact me!
• I was delighted to be invited to share a #writing tip by Newbery Award-winning author Avi, and was thrilled to be interviewed on Newbery Award-winning author Karen Cushman’s website.
• I was also honored to share my thoughts on my experience of being the target of cyber-bullies in an essay published by Renaissance Learning – alongside essays by Jacqueline Woodson and Francisco X Stork, and featured on Edith Campbell’s blog.

On a personal note, I was so grateful that BORN BEHIND BARS received multiple awards (Julia Ward Howe / Boston Authors Club Award), South Asia Book Award, Nerdy Book Award, and Malka Penn Award Honor, in addition to the many amazing honors that it won in 2021; and it was an amazing experience to keynote three sessions at NCTE 22 and to be a keynote speaker at VAASL, which allowed me to return to Williamsburg, where I once was a student! I also loved spending time teaching in Southampton in summer ’22 … was blown away to be invited as a featured author at the Arizona Author festival, among others, where I ate one of the most beautiful desserts ever, before hiking in the desert with my beautiful family.

2022 was also a tough year in many ways, but I look forward to good things in 2023, including school visits, which I always love – and – coming up very soon, a keynote at the Write to Learn conference in MO. If you’d like to schedule a keynote or presentation or school visit, please feel free to reach out to my speaking agency, The Author Village, and copy me, as well. Thank you so much for your support!

A few of many happy moments in ’22… but hope ’23 will be better!

November is my birthday month – and this year, it came with a wonderful surprise gift. Parents Magazine chose BORN BEHIND BARS as their book-of-the-month!

Previous “Raising the Future” book club titles include She Persisted: Ruby Bridges by Kekla Magoon and Chelsea Clinton; Daddy and Dada by Ryan Brockington and Isaac Webster; I Wish You Knew by Jackie Azua Kramer; Stamped (for kids) by Jason Reynold and Ibram X Kendi; The Chance to Fly by Ali Stroker and Stacy Davidowitz; Simon B Rhymin by Dwayne Reed; Milo Imagines the World by Matt De La Peña; My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World by Malcom Mitchell; Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea by Meena Harris; My Rainbow by DeShanna and Trinity Neal; Class Act by Jerry Craft; I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and Antiracist Baby by Ibram X Kendi. As you might imagine I was super thrilled to be in such marvelous company. And I got a chance to converse about BORN BEHIND BARS with superstar teacher Colby Sharp on Parents Magazine’s Ig live.

My first ever Ig live – but Colby made it so much fun, and so very easy. Not enough words to thank him and Parents Magazine for this honor. What’s more, School Library Journal awarded BORN BEHIND BARS a starred review! It’s the 21st time I’ve seen a message saying one of my books received a star, and each time, my eyes fill with tears of thankfulness.

“This novel is for readers who are seeking realistic fiction that tug at the heartstrings. The story is authentic, and the emotion … will induce tears. This is a true window book for many readers unaware of caste systems and the struggles within them. Venkatraman takes these complex topics and makes them heartfelt and resonant.” – SLJ, Starred Review

Another exciting bit of news I didn’t yet share – BORN BEHIND BARS received a marvelous review in the New York Times after I’d posted last month. I was especially thrilled – and touched – that the reviewer echoed my editor Nancy Paulsen’s sentiment (when she first read a draft of BORN BEHIND BARS, she said it had the quality of a fable)!

“confidently stripped down, crystalline style…Borrowing elements of fable” – New York Times Book Review.

Many more author events coming up this month, including a Mackin panel, and 4 events on the first and last days of the NCTE conference.

On Thursday November 18, 2021, I’ll begin with a panel moderated by Becky Calzada, entitled More Than Just Friendships: Allies in Middle Grade Fiction Time: 12:00 AM EST. This is an On Demand Session.

Next, that afternoon, I am thrilled to join Donalyn Miller and others at The Nerdy Book Club: Supporting Equitable, Joyful Reading Communities – a Roundtable Session, from 1:30 PM EST – 2:45 PM EST. This is a LIVE session.

My next session on Thursday Nov 18 is also live and also a Roundtable Session moderated by Steven Bickmore and it’s called Toe Tag Monologues: Creating Equity and Justice for Adolescents in Crisis through Performance and Young Adult Literature, 3:00 PM EST – 4:15 PM.

Finally, on Sunday November 21, 2021, the last day of the conference, I’ll join JoEllen McCarthy along with other authors, to discuss Unlocking Layers of Justice and Equity Through Children’s Books – this Panel Presentation is a Scheduled session but it’s prerecorded which means, I believe, that we authors will be online for live Q & A.

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So grateful for the warm welcome, starred reviews and praise BORN BEHIND BARS has been receiving!

Immense gratitude to the New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus. Here’s a wonderful article about and review of BORN BEHIND BARS in India Currents. Thrilled to hear the wonderful reviews of the book shared by Colby Sharp and Pernille Ripp, too! So honored to be together with the brilliant Donalyn Miller, as a guest on the incredible John Schu’s BookJoy Live.

If you’d like to explore BORN BEHIND BARS in depth, you’ll find a free discussion guide, story writing prompts, poetry writing prompts and more on the BORN BEHIND BARS page of this website (drop down menu under the resources tab).

Want to read an excerpt or listen to me reading aloud from the audiobook? Here’s a link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647196/born-behind-bars-by-padma-venkatraman/

If you hear(d) me present one of my two keynote addresses this week (Montana State Literacy Association 10/21/2021; Rutgers One on One Conference on Sunday afternoon), and would like to read some of the most essays I’ve written on diversity-related issues, here are a few links:

NPR

Mosaic Radio Hour Podcast. Our American Constellation: https://explore.thepublicsradio.org/stories/our-american-constellation/

Horn Book

Compassion, As Well As Correctness: https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=the-writers-page-compassion-as-well-as-correctness

WNDB

Q & A about Born Behind Bars with Thushanthi Ponweera: https://diversebooks.org/qa-with-padma-venkatraman-born-behind-bars/

SLJ

Children’s Awards that Celebrate Diversity: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=weeding-out-racisms-invisible-roots-rethinking-childrens-classics-libraries-diverse-books

Nerdy Book Blog

Article on the importance of humor in my work. Includes a fun drawing prompt. Flights of Fancy in BORN BEHIND BARS: https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2021/10/01/flights-of-fancy-in-born-behind-bars-by-padma-venkatraman%ef%bf%bc/

YA Wednesday Blog 

Expanding Our Embrace To Include International Narratives: http://www.yawednesday.com/weekly-posts/expanding-our-embrace-including-stories-with-international-settings-by-padma-venkatraman

PBS TV

Exploring Hope and Identity: https://player.fm/series/story-in-the-public-square/exploring-identity-and-hope-with-padma-venkatraman

YouTube Interview

Speaking with Dr. Steve Bickmore about BORN BEHIND BARS: https://youtu.be/iJM27qQizfU

Book recommendations I provided today at MSLA conference:

Some picture books by indigenous authors: Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Jingle Dancer; Traci Sorell’s We are Grateful; Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal. Some chapter books by indigenous authors: The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac; Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis and Traci Sorell (for which I did a writing prompt). Some books for young readers that feature disability can be found on my statement on invisible disability on the resources page of this website: scroll down until you see Further Reading under Teach The Bridge Home in the drop down menu and you’ll see a link to a pdf; some authors with disabilities who have written middle – YA books that came to mind: Corinne Duyvis, Cindy Rodriguez, Lyn Miller Lachmann, Ann Clare Lezotte.

Some graphic novels by authors from underrepresented/marginalized communities: Fly on the Wall by Remy Lai (who is very special to me because she won the Sid Fleischman award the same year I won the Golden Kite for THE BRIDGE HOME); Jerry Craft’s Class Act and New Kid; Cece Bell’s El Daefo; Twins by Varian Johnson and Shannon Wright; Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese; Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte and Ann Xu; When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed; One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry; Nidhi Chanani’s Pashmina (which I have yet to read, I’ll admit)!

Thanks again, Montana State Literacy Association conference and RUCCL for the honor of an invitation to do a keynote, and heartfelt thanks to each person who has written to me expressing love for Kabir, Rani, and Grandma Knife (who seems to be everyone’s second or third most favorite character in the novel).

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This weekend was a mixture of joy and grief for me. The joy: #NESCBWI21. I officially accepted my Crystal Kite award at the New England SCBWI conference, presented the closing keynote address, and felt surrounded by the warmth of supportive friends and colleagues. It was a perfect virtual conference experience for me.

Yet, through it all, a part of me was immensely sad. COVID has been raging out of control in India and the tragedy was brought to international media attention last week. Many people I care deeply about live in India, some of whom are unwell or have suffered great loss. If you are in a position to help, here are links to 3 organizations I trust:

1. HasiruDala works with adults and children like those in THE BRIDGE HOME : https://www.ketto.org/fundraiser/HasiruDalaCovidRelief. My cousin vouches for this organization and if you’d like to learn more about the parent waste management company, here it is: https://hasirudalainnovations.com/ It is an organization that I hope to be able to donate to regularly in the future, and the most closely related to the Vijis, Rukkus, Aruls and Muthus who need your help right now.
2. Akshayapatra is another organization working hard to bring food to marginalized communities in India affected by the current tragedy: https://www.akshayapatra.org/covid-relief-services
3. My brother-in-law is chairman of the British-Asia Foundation, which is doing a fundraiser as well: https://givematch.com/charity/british-asian-trust-uk

If you have any questions on any of this, as always, click on the post itself, and when the window refreshes with just the post, you should see a box for a response. Thank you for anything you feel able to do, to help others at this time of tragedy. 

Updating and adding a few more links 5/7/2021. I wrote this post a few days ago. I am updating it today because since the time I wrote, things have only worsened in India. On a personal level it has been a roller coaster, and I spent so many days in prayer, to feel relieved about 2 people who are very dear to me; but this morning I received another piece of news that feels surreal and too shockingly close to share publicly. I will be offline to spend the weekend in prayer, among other things. But here are links to some other organizations.

Give India

Hemkunt Foundation

Save the Children

Finally, below are links to a kidlit Covid-relief for India auction, to which I’ve donated 3 items.

https://www.booksforhope.org/items-for-auction/17-signed-books-padma-venkatraman

https://www.booksforhope.org/items-for-auction/40-surprise-bundle-of-5-recent-hardcover-middle-grade-novels-curated-by-padma-venkatraman

https://www.booksforhope.org/items-for-auction/41-surprise-book-bundle-containing-an-assortment-of-10-recently-published-childrens-books-curated-by-padma-venkatraman