A reception, gallery display and book signing for the children’s poetry anthology An Assortment of Animal” will be held at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday, May 18. The anthology includes poetry by members of the Writers’ Loft, including popular children’s book author Jane Yolen as well as Brian Lies whose picture book The Rough Patch is a Caldecott Honor Book and ALA Notable Book for 2019. Among the illustrated poems are pieces by two Millis writers, Dave Pasquantonio and Sally Hinkley.
Hinkley, a children’s book author and art teacher at the Danforth Museum and School, wrote and illustrated two poems, “Pigeons” and “Tracing the Lines.” The latter is a poem about elephants, which she had experience illustrating while working on a middle grade book. “I started with picture books,” she said. “I love storytelling, exploring different ways of doing that, visually or with writing.”
Pasquantonio writes primarily speculative fiction for adults, but responded to the call for submissions with two poems, “A Platypus Looks Like a Platypus Should” and “Each Is Great,” a conversation between large felines. “It’s hard work writing for children, and hard work writing poetry,” he said. “I hadn’t appreciated how difficult it is to make your 40 words sing.”
Both writers joined the Writers’ Loft soon after its founding in 2013. Located at 20 North Main Street in Sherborn, the Loft offers working space, workshops, critique groups and networking opportunities for writers. “Most of us came into the Loft very solitary writers,” Pasquantonio said. “Being around people who have worked hard and made it, you see how it’s done.” For Hinkley, the Loft helped her in the process of procuring an agent. “You learn so much being there. My writing improved so much.”
Events, workshops and critique groups are listed on the Loft calendar at https://www.thewritersloft.org/calendar.
Issue Date:
May, 2019
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