Author Spotlight: Renee LaTulippe

Today KIDLIT 411 is very lucky to interview children’s poet/writer Renée LaTulippe. Hi, Renée. Thank you for agreeing to this interview and for being our very first featured AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT!

Where do your ideas come from?

More often than not, my ideas for both poems and stories spring from one word. I write stories for vocabulary-controlled early readers, so I have to work from a list of words and use them in the story. To begin, I usually read all the words out loud. Then I pick the one that speaks to me the most and begin brainstorming (usually with my husband) the possibilities for that word by asking a lot of “what if” questions. Little by little, I construct a concept around the word and start writing. The same goes for poetry, though I also often begin with a title or phrase. Sometimes my husband and I will sit around and brainstorm titles (he’s the one who came up with the title No Water River!), and then I’ll lurch off to my cave to ponder the possibilities of each one.

I highly recommend this exercise, by the way. Just open the dictionary or a book, pick a word, and start asking questions. It’s amazing the places your brain will take you with something so simple as “bench” or “slurp” or “shrew.”

What are you working on at the moment?

I am currently writing a dozen vocab-controlled stories for the last two early readers in the All About Reading program for All About Learning Press. I’ve been writing and editing full time in the educational market since 2007 and really love it. However, it leaves me little time for my own writing. I have a couple of picture book manuscripts in the works, though it’s very slow going, as well as a poetry collection – and ideas for twenty more! Must find time…

Oh, and I’m also developing an online poetry course to be launched very soon!

What draws you to poetry?

Brevity. I love wordplay and sound-play and the challenge of telling a story or conveying an emotion or a moment in time in just a few words. I love the search for just the right word, which can sometimes take forever. I like the puzzle aspect of poetry, especially rhyming poetry – the fitting together of really small pieces to construct a coherent whole. Writing stories brings me intense amounts of anguish, whereas writing poetry gives me energy and engages and delights my whole mind. In fact, I’m not sure why I’m torturing myself with picture books. I’ve been writing poetry since I was seven and it has always felt like “home” for me.

What are you currently reading?

I’m a second-round poetry judge for the Cybils Awards, so I am currently reading the books by the sevenfinalists, including What the Heart Knows: Chants, Charms, and Blessings by Joyce Sidman and When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders by J. Patrick Lewis. Go read them all! They are wonderful!

What is your favorite quote?

My favorite writer quote is Dorothy Parker’s “I hate writing. I love having written.” That pretty much sums up how I feel.

My favorite life quote is:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.

--J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

I found this quote as a teenager and remember painting it as a poster in Studio Art class. I have never read or seen The Lord of the Rings as it’s not my thing, but this bit of poetry speaks to me as much now as it did back then.

What I like about it is that it reverses the line from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, which reads “All that glisters is not gold.” Both of the lines are true, but I was a quiet, rather shy girl and preferred Tolkien’s twist that good things do not necessarily sparkle, and those who seem lost to others may merely be traversing their own kind of world. These lines have always given me comfort.

Here’s the whole poem:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Where can we find you on the internet?

Website: No Water River.  

YouTube: NoWaterRiver Poetry Videos


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoWaterRiver


Twitter: @ReneeMLaTulippe


Pinterest:
 http://www.pinterest.com/reneelatulippe/

Renée M. LaTulippe has co-authored nine early readers and a collection of poetry titled Lizard Lou: a Collection of Rhymes Old and  New for All About Learning Press, where she is also the editor, and has poems published in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School and the upcoming The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science. A big fan of poetry performance, Renée creates children’s poetry videos at NoWaterRiver.com. Renée earned her BFA in acting/directing from Marymount Manhattan College and her MA in English Education from NYU; worked and played in the theater for almost two decades; and taught English, theater arts, and public speaking in NYC. She lives in Italy with her husband and twin boys.