Dianne White

Breezing through Facebook tonight, I happened upon a link a friend posted to Upstart Crow Literary .  Agent Michael Stearns has written an excellent piece on Agenting Picture Books v. Agenting Novels. It’s one of the most insightful posts I’ve seen on the subject of picture books – both the art of writing them and [...]

Bugs of the Computer Variety Today is one of those days when I… 1) *wish* I hadn’t updated to the latest version of WordPress and 2) wish I knew enough about HTML to be able to help myself. The best I can figure out, after scouting around the internet, is that the WP 2.8 version [...]

The last two weeks have been crazy busy BUT I love Tricia’s – of The Miss Rumphius Effect – poetry stretches.  So I couldn’t let this week go by without attempting – another first for me – a Tritina! The thing about writing to the poetry stretch, is that it’s a bit uncomfortable for me [...]

“Window Sijo” was this week’s poetry stretch – a first attempt at sijo, as described by Linda Sue Park in Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo (Poems). Heat was on my mind: a hot weekend in Death Valley and more hot weather at home. This week also brought the audio of Peony in Love by [...]

Here are my attempts at this week’s poetry stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect – a bite-sized sonnet. I had no idea I would spend so much time on this tiny-sized version of a sonnet.  The truth is, it’s just not that easy.  At least for me… I did many many versions until I arrived [...]

I’ve added a new page: PICTURE BOOKS:  ART AND CRAFT.  Click here or on the GREEN tab in the banner above and take a look!

The other morning as I skimmed through the current issue of the Horn Book while doing morning face prep at the sink, I flipped open to a review of Joyce Sidman’s latest poetry collection: Red Sings from the Treetops: A Year in Colors. I love many of Sidman’s collections (particularly Song of the Waterboatman and [...]

I discovered Marilyn Nelson’s powerful stories and amazing poetry -  Carver: A Life in Poems , A Wreath for Emmett Till, and Fortune’s Bones – several years ago. I’m so pleased to see Nelson’s work spotlighted on The Brown Bookshelf‘s:  28 Days Later, 2009 campaign (including her latest,  The Freedom Business, which I have yet [...]

Stephen Fry in  The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within has this to say about writing poetry: “It can take weeks to assemble and polish a single line of poetry… poems take time… they are to be lived with and endlessly revisited.” Fry could easily be talking about picture books.  They take ages to [...]