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0:00 / 0:54•Watch full video

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Hannah Dains - "Don't Kill Yourself Today" | All Def Poetry x Da Poetry Lounge | All Def Poetry

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Lamont Carey (I Can't Read) HBO Def Jam Poetry

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https://www.humansofnewyork.com/

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Andrea Gibson - America Reloading (Official Video)

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Royalty "Letter To Your Flag" | 2018 Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam

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2014 - Brave New Voices (Finals) - "Somewhere in America" by Los Angeles Team

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I show this poem and then ask students to write about a "page" from the story of their lives. 

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I show this poem and then ask students to write about a "page" from the story of their lives. 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gck7DtLAN0k

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21. My father is run over by a car.
He is passed out in the road with a blood alcohol content
4 times the legal limit.
I do not cry.
Four months later,
The nurses lose his pulse,
And I wonder whose life
Flashed before his eyes.
Rewinding VHS tapes
Old home videos

20.

19. I haven't brought a friend home in four years.

18. My mother sips the word "divorce"
Her mouth curls at the taste
Like it burns going down.

17. ...

...Please watch the video for the full poem.

Patrick Roche

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21. My father is run over by a car. He is passed out in the road with a blood alcohol content 4 times the legal limit. I do not cry. Four months later, The nurses lose his pulse, And I wonder whose life Flashed before his eyes.

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Students wrote and wrote and wrote... we all have name stories.

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Say My Name: How Idris Became Eddie, and Why It Matters

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"Teeth" has been a part of my classes since the first time I heard it.

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"Teeth" has been a part of my classes since the first time I heard it.

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Where do relationships start? A two-voice poem.

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Where do relationships start? A two-voice poem.

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Love letter poetry... ignited by this one.

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Love letter poetry... ignited by this one.

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First the poem "Montauk" and then an incredible talk on the creative process.

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First the poem "Montauk" and then an incredible talk on the creative process.

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I'll Fight You For the Library... yes, I will!

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I'll Fight You For the Library... yes, I will!

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"I'll Fight You For The Library" performed by Taylor Mali

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Canadian poet Shane Koyczan with a powerful story-poem. This won our poetry tournament one year.

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Canadian poet Shane Koyczan with a powerful story-poem. This won our poetry tournament one year.

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Shane Koyczan, "The Crickets Have Arthritis," Words Aloud 2007, Canada

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History and art in one...the phrase my students most often write to: "not good enough..."

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History and art in one...the phrase my students most often write to: "not good enough..."

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Suli Breaks -  I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate (Spoken Word)

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"Paper People" - adapted from a Tedx- An amazing alliterative comment on society and peoples role in it.

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"Paper People" - adapted from a Tedx- An amazing alliterative comment on society and peoples role in it.

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How to Be at Home... who knew writing about Covid could be so beautiful?

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How to Be at Home... who knew writing about Covid could be so beautiful?

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Here, the sentence will be respected.

I will compose each sentence with care, by minding what the rules of writing dictate.

For example, all sentences will begin with capital letters.

Likewise, the history of the sentence will be honored by ending each one with appropriate punctuation such as a period or question mark, thus bringing the idea to (momentary) completion.

You may like to know, I do not consider this a "creative piece."

I do not regard this as a poem of great imagination or a work of fiction.

Also, historical events will not be dramatized for an "interesting" read.

Therefore, I feel most responsible to the orderly sentence; conveyor of thought.

That said, I will begin.

You may or may not have heard about the Dakota 38.

If this is the first time you've heard of it, you might wonder, "What is the Dakota 38?"

The Dakota 38 refers to thirty eight Dakota men who were executed by hanging, under orders from President Abraham Lincoln.

To date, this is the largest "legal" mass execution in US history.

The hanging took place on December 26, 1862-the day after Christmas.

This was the same week that President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

In the preceding sentence, I italicize "same week" for emphasis.

There was a movie titled Lincoln about the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation was included in the film Lincoln; the hanging of the Dakota 38 was not.

In any case, you might be asking, "Why were thirty eight Dakota men hung?"

As a side note, the past tense of hang is hung, but when referring to the capital punishment of hanging, the correct past tense is hanged.

So it's possible that you're asking, "Why were thirty-eight Dakota men hanged?"

They were hanged for the Sioux Uprising.

I want to tell you about the Sioux Uprising, but I don't know where to begin.

I may jump around and details will not unfold in chronological order.

Keep in mind, I am not a historian.

So I will recount facts as best as I can, given limited resources and understanding.

Before Minnesota was a state, the Minnesota region, generally speaking, was the traditional homeland for Dakota, Anishinaabeg, and Ho-Chunk people.

During the 1800s, when the US expanded territory, they "purchased" land from the Dakota people as well as the other tribes.

But another way to understand that sort of "purchase" is: Dakota leaders ceded land to the US government in exchange for money or goods, but most importantly, the safety of their people.

Some say that Dakota leaders did not understand the terms they were entering, or they never would have agreed.

Even others call the entire negotiation "trickery."

But to make whatever-it-was official and binding, the US government drew up an initial treaty.

This treaty was later replaced by another (more convenient) treaty, and then another.

I've had difficulty unraveling the terms of these treaties, given the legal speak and congressional language.

As treaties were abrogated (broken) and new treaties were drafted, one after another, the new treaties often referenced old defunct treaties, and it is a muddy, switchback trail to follow.

Although I often feel lost on this trail, I know I am not alone.

However, as best as I can put the facts together, in 1851, Dakota territory was contained to a twelve-mile by one-hundred-fifty-mile long strip along the Minnesota River.

But just seven years later, in 1858, the northern portion was ceded (taken) and the southern portion was (conveniently) allotted, which reduced Dakota land to a stark ten-mile tract.

These amended and broken treaties are often referred to as the Minnesota Treaties.

The word Minnesota comes from mni, which means water; and sota, which means turbid.

Synonyms for turbid include muddy, unclear, cloudy, confused, and smoky.

Everything is in the language we use.

For example, a treaty is, essentially, a contract between two sovereign nations.

The US treaties with the Dakota Nation were legal contracts that promised money.

It could be said, this money was payment for the land the Dakota ceded; for living within as signed boundaries (a reservation); and for relinquishing rights to their vast hunting territory which, in turn, made Dakota people dependent on other means to survive: money.

The previous sentence is circular, akin to so many aspects of history.

As you may have guessed by now, the money promised in the turbid treaties did not make it into the hands of Dakota people.

In addition, local government traders would not offer credit to "Indians" to purchase food or goods.

Without money, store credit, or rights to hunt beyond their ten-mile tract of land, Dakota people began to starve.

The Dakota people were starving.

The Dakota people starved.

In the preceding sentence, the word "starved" does not need italics for emphasis.

One should read "The Dakota people starved" as a straightforward and plainly stated fact.

As a result-and without other options but to continue to starve-Dakota people retaliated.

Dakota warriors organized, struck out, and killed settlers and traders.

This revolt is called the Sioux Uprising.

Eventually, the US Cavalry came to Mnisota to confront the Uprising.

More than one thousand Dakota people were sent to prison.

As already mentioned, thirty eight Dakota men were subsequently hanged.

After the hanging, those one thousand Dakota prisoners were released.

However, as further consequence, what remained of Dakota territory in Mnisota was dissolved (stolen).

The Dakota people had no land to return to. This means they were exiled.

Homeless, the Dakota people of Mnisota were relocated (forced) onto reservations in South Dakota and Nebraska.

Now, every year, a group called the Dakota 38 + 2 Riders conduct a memorial horse ride from Lower Brule, South Dakota, to Mankato, Mnisota.

The Memorial Riders travel 325 miles on horseback for eighteen days, sometimes through subzero blizzards.

They conclude their journey on December 26, the day of the hanging.

Memorials help focus our memory on particular people or events. Often, memorials come in the forms of plaques, statues, or gravestones.

The memorial for the Dakota 38 is not an object inscribed with words, but an act. Yet, I started this piece because I was interested in writing about grasses.

So, there is one other event to include, although it's not in chronological order and we must backtrack a little.

When the Dakota people were starving, as you may remember, government traders would not extend store credit to "Indians."

One trader named Andrew Myrick is famous for his refusal to provide credit to Dakota people by saying, "If they are hungry, let them eat grass."

There are variations of Myrick's words, but they are all something to that effect.

When settlers and traders were killed during the Sioux Uprising, one of the first to be executed by the Dakota was Andrew Myrick.

When Myrick's body was found,

his mouth was stuffed with grass.

I am inclined to call this act by the Dakota warriors a poem.

There's irony in their poem.

There was no text.

"Real" poems do not "really" require words.

I have italicized the previous sentence to indicate inner dialogue, a revealing moment.

But, on second thought, the words "Let them eat grass" click the gears of the poem into place.

So, we could also say, language and word choice are crucial to the poem's work.

Things are circling back again.

Sometimes, when in a circle, if I wish to exit, I must leap.

And let the body swing.

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38 by Layli Long Soldier | Poetry Foundation

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always a hit... trace around your hand, and as you listen... list the things you've held or touched that mattered to you.

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always a hit... trace around your hand, and as you listen... list the things you've held or touched that mattered to you.

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Thursday Poem: 38 by Layli Long Soldier · Omar Sakr

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I do not know how to introduce this poem. In fact, I’m not even sure how to talk about it at all, to provide my usual preamble. I’ve decided, then, to take my tack from the work itself and state things simply and plainly. This is called “38” and it is by Layli Long Soldier. […]

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samples of notebook work from my website...

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samples of notebook work from my website...

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We write next to poetry almost every day in my classroom. Poetry distills images and word choice and captures big ideas in small spaces, as I tell my students. It is an ideal text to study because we can reread it several times and see more as we do.

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Drive Brand Studio - Branding, Advertising, Marketing, Websites

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Penny Kittle is an English teacher, author and advocate dedicated to helping students and teachers develop a passion for reading and writing.

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Can you diagnose fear? The red tree blooming from uterus
to throat. It's one long nerve, the doctor says. There's a reason
breathing helps, the muscles slackening like a dead marriage.
Mine are simple things. Food poisoning in Paris. Hospital lobbies.
My husband laughing in another room. (The door closed.)
For days, I cradle my breast and worry the cyst like a bead.
There's nothing to pray away. The tree loves her cutter.
The nightmares have stopped, I tell the doctor. I know why.
They stopped because I baptized them. This is how my mother
and I speak of dying-the thing you turn away by letting in.
I'm tired of April. It's killed our matriarchs and, in the back yard,
I've planted an olive sapling in the wrong soil. There is a droopiness
to the branches that reminds me of my friend, the one who calls
to ask what's the point, or the patients who come to me, swarmed
with misery and astonishment, their hearts like newborns after
the first needle. What now, they all want to know. What now.
I imagine it like a beach. There is a magnificent sand castle
that has taken years to build. A row of pink seashells for gables,
rooms of pebble and driftwood. This is your life. Then comes the affair,
nagging bloodwork, a freeway pileup. The tide moves in.
The water eats your work like a drove of wild birds. There is debris.
A tatter of sea grass and blood from where you scratched your own arm
trying to fight the current. It might not happen for a long time,
but one day you run your fingers through the sand again, scoop a fistful out,
and pat it into a new floor. You can believe in anything, so why not believe
this will last? The seashell rafter like eyes in the gloaming.
I'm here to tell you the tide will never stop coming in.
I'm here to tell you whatever you build will be ruined, so make it beautiful.

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Poetry by Hala Alyan: "Can you diagnose fear?"

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Here's what you do... have this playing as they arrive in class. It's pretty contagious. Then you write: We don't talk about...(fill in the blank.)

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Here's what you do... have this playing as they arrive in class. It's pretty contagious. Then you write: We don't talk about...(fill in the blank.)

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We Don't Talk About Bruno (From "Encanto")

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Love to use this to teach "drone view" and engage the imagination.

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Love to use this to teach "drone view" and engage the imagination.

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Def Poetry: Daniel Beaty - Knock Knock (Official Video)

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"First job..." is a great phrase to begin writing...

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"First job..." is a great phrase to begin writing...

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Anis Mojgani performs Shake the Dust at HEAVY AND LIGHT.

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“We spend so much time listening to the things people are saying that we rarely pay attention to the things they don’t,” says poet and teacher Clint Smith. A short, powerful piece from the heart, about finding the courage to speak up against ignorance and injustice.

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By changing a poem's words and message, a lot of fun can be had! I like to compare Michael Jackson's Beat It to Weird Al's Eat It and compare how a similar sounding song can be so different with different lyrics!

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A friend shared this with me. I haven't tried it, but great mentor texts here and looks like an amazing experience for students who love to write.

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NYC Midnight hosts inspiring challenges for storytellers around the world. Writers receive prompts and have a limited amount of time to create flash fiction, microfiction, screenplays, and short stories.

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“The universe has already written the poem you were planning on writing,” says Sarah Kay, quoting her friend, poet Kaveh Akbar. Performing “A Bird Made of Birds,” she shares how and where she finds poetry.

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Ira Glass on the Creative Process (www.getoutthebox.org)

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Read about this poem in 4 Essential Studies and had to look it up. I loved it!

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Nineteen by George Bogin On the first day of Philosophy 148, a small girl walked in, freckled, solemn, cute, whom I liked right off. ...

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handouts for our Flash Fiction workshop.

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handouts for our Flash Fiction workshop.

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Collecting beautiful words from your independent reading or book club books.

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Collecting beautiful words from your independent reading or book club books.

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Poet and activist Amanda Gorman recites her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the historic inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Her words call for hope, unity and resilience in a time of division. "While democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated," she says.

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Kramer, Stacy. "The Best Gift I Ever Survived." 

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Kramer, Stacy. "The Best Gift I Ever Survived." 

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I thought for sure she was going to talk about pregnancy, but instead she talked about a brain tumor. 3 minute TED Talk.

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Stacey Kramer: The best gift I ever survived

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Stacey Kramer offers a moving, personal, 3-minute parable that shows how an unwanted experience -- frightening, traumatic, costly -- can turn out to be a priceless gift.

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My students viewed this performance and then did some writing. Suggestions 1) What happens? Did they "leave tonight?" or "die this way"? 2) Take a line and let it lead your thinking. Suggestions: "I had a feeling that I belonged" or "I had a feeling I could be someone" 3) Write about a time that you wished you had a "fast car" so you could "fly away".

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@ 2024 - Recording Academy. All rights reserved.

Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy and its Affiliates. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy and its Affiliates lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy and its Affiliates.

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tracy chapman & luke combs deliver gripping performance of "fast car" | 2024 grammys | grammy.com

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Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs Deliver Gripping Performance Of "Fast Car" | 2024 GRAMMYs | GRAMMY.com

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Transcript created with the intention of honoring the flow of the spoken word it is presented in.

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A year spent listening to conferences and watching for their impact... in Linda Rief's classroom!

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A year spent listening to conferences and watching for their impact... in Linda Rief's classroom!

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Conferences and Conversations: Listening to the Literate Classroom|Paperback

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It takes courage to open up your professional life to scrutiny, but that’s exactly what Linda Rief did when she allowed Doug Kaufman to observe her classroom over the course of a school year. His goal was to discover what exactly Linda does that makes her such an extraordinary teacher -...

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Linda Rief's most recent guide to Quickwrites

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Linda Rief's most recent guide to Quickwrites

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100 Mentor Texts to Jumpstart Your Students' Thinking and Writing

In The Quickwrite Handbook, master teacher Linda Rief shares 100 compelling mentor texts and shows how to use each one as a powerful tool for sparking successful writing.

"Quickwrites-writing to find writing-are a powerful teaching tool that help students find ideas, discover their voices, and build their confidence as they discover they have important things to say."

Helping students put words on a page can be hard enough. "I don't have anything to write about!" they say. And when writing does happen, how do you help them develop these ideas into more effective pieces?

A powerful tool to jumpstart writing

In The Quickwrite Handbook, master teacher Linda Rief shares 100 compelling mentor texts and shows how to use each one as a powerful tool for sparking successful writing. Each mentor text includes "Try this" suggestions for inviting students to get started. You'll also find "Interludes" woven throughout: examples of quickwrites that students crafted into more fully developed pieces.

These mentor texts are curated in four categories:

Seeing Inward: How do students view themselves?

Leaning Outward: What do students consider when they step outside of themselves?

Beyond Self: What do students notice and wonder about the world at large?

Looking Back: How does reflection help students grow into more articulate, thoughtful citizens of the world?

Quickwrites go beyond writing prompts

The pages of this book champion Linda's wise words: "Quickwrites-writing to find writing-are a powerful teaching tool that help students find ideas, discover their voices, and build their confidence as they discover they have important things to say."
Quickwrites are more than a set of formulaic prompts. They are opportunities for students to use another writer's words to stimulate their thinking and-through writing themselves-to discover a voice they didn't know they had.

(click any section below to continue reading)

Reviews

"This book will move your writing, your student writers, and your teaching to new places."

-Sara K. Ahmed, author of Being the Change and coauthor of Upstanders
"Linda Rief models the essential moves a teacher must make to increase engagement and joy in writing in The Quickwrite Handbook. You simply must have this book."
-Penny Kittle, English teacher, coauthor of 180 Days and author of Book Love
"In this valuable resource, Linda Rief shares the models from literature that inspire her students and exactly how she uses them. The mentor texts in this book are jumping-off places. They build vision for what strong writing looks and feels and tastes like. They provide the necessary scaffolding that will allow young writers to outgrow themselves and create something they (and we) can be proud of."
-Ralph Fletcher, author of Joy Write and coauthor of Writing Workshop
"Linda offers each of us a clear and concise guide to understanding why quickwrites work and how to give them power in our daily practice."
-Lester Laminack, coauthor of Writers ARE Readers and Bullying Hurts

Related PD Services

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In The Quickwrite Handbook, master teacher Linda Rief shares 100 compelling mentor texts and shows how to use each one as a powerful tool for sparking

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Donovan Livingston's Harvard Graduate School of Education Student Speech

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So much to unpack here.

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CGI Animated Short Film HD "Alike " by Daniel Martínez Lara & Rafa Cano Méndez | CGMeetup

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Idea in Brief

The Challenge

Managers today are bombarded with calls to give feedback-constantly, directly, and critically. But it turns out that telling people what we think of their performance and how they can do better is not the best way to help them excel and, in fact, can hinder development.

The Reality

Research shows that, first, we aren't the reliable raters of other people's performance that we think we are; second, criticism inhibits the brain's ability to learn; and, third, excellence is idiosyncratic, can't be defined in advance, and isn't the opposite of failure. Managers can't "correct" a person's way to excellence.

The Solution

Managers need to help their team members see what's working, stopping them with a "Yes! That!" and sharing their experience of what the person did well.

The debate about feedback at work isn't new. Since at least the middle of the last century, the question of how to get employees to improve has generated a good deal of opinion and research. But recently the discussion has taken on new intensity. The ongoing experiment in "radical transparency" at Bridgewater Associates and the culture at Netflix, which the Wall Street Journal recently described as "encouraging harsh feedback" and subjecting workers to "intense and awkward" real-time 360s, are but two examples of the overriding belief that the way to increase performance in companies is through rigorous, frequent, candid, pervasive, and often critical feedback.

A version of this article appeared in the March-April 2019 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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Why Feedback Rarely Does What It's Meant To

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For years managers have been encouraged to candidly praise and criticize just about everything workers do. But it turns out that feedback does not help employees thrive. First, research shows that people can't reliably rate the performance of others: More than 50% of your rating of someone reflects your characteristics, not hers.

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Don Graves taught me so much of what I know about learning to write beside students.

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Don Graves taught me so much of what I know about learning to write beside students.

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Penny interviews Donald Graves for Inside Writing

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Promoting self-acceptance and ultimately efficacy through humor and beautiful spoken words word poems.

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Promoting self-acceptance and ultimately efficacy through humor and beautiful spoken words word poems.

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Harry Baker: The power of self-acceptance

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I love having students watch this short video. This video is especially useful for reluctant writers. After discussing what happened, I have them analyze the metaphors of life. Who are your water buffalo? Who are the lionesses and crocodiles in your life? When have you felt life wounded calf?

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Good Bones... I always find inspiration here.

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Good Bones... I always find inspiration here.

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New from Travis Crowder, 8th grade teacher

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New from Travis Crowder, 8th grade teacher

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Imagine the dreamy poet writing in a leather journal about falling leaves. Okay, now banish that thought because with this book, Travis Crowder disrupts those clichés and shares lessons and strategies that crackle with newness. Teachers in Grade 5 and up learn to:

- Use Tweets and hashtags to teach students to write small bursts of reflection
- Model the ways a book sparks memory, emotion, conviction, action
- Look for the tipping points in students reflection and prompt them to dive deeper
- Embrace the idea that fiction and nonfiction authors want us to feel, so that as teachers we develop students comprehension by giving value to emotional connections

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Reflective Readers: The Power of Reader's Notebooks

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Reflective Readers: The Power of Reader's Notebooks [S. Travis Crowder] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Reflective Readers: The Power of Reader's Notebooks

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Zigzag: A Life of Reading and Writing, Teaching and Lea…

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Read reviews from the world’s largest community for readers. undefined

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Simon Says... you'll never think about it in the same way again.

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Simon Says... you'll never think about it in the same way again.

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Amanda Gorman: Using your voice is a political choice

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For anyone who believes poetry is stuffy or elitist, Amanda Gorman -- the youngest inaugural poet in US history -- has some characteristically well-chosen words. Poetry is for everyone, she says, and at its core it's all about connection and collaboration.

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Write What Matters from a master teacher...

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Write What Matters from a master teacher...

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Many want to write. But sometimes they lose heart. They are cowed in the face of so many fine writers of fiction, memoir, poetry, columns, and creative nonfiction. Their confidence wanes. If you want to write, but are hesitant, let Tom Romano lift your confidence. In Write What Matters you will find discussions of writing processes that make sense, demonstrations of effective strategies to try, advice about developing productive habits to get your writing done, and examples of illuminating writing from fearless writers, both professional and novice. Your voice, your vision, your way with words matter. They are tied to your identity. You know that you are more alive when you put words on paper. Accept that you not only want to write. You need to write. Write What Matters will help you learn to dwell in your written words and craft them into writing worth reading by others.

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Write What Matters: For Yourself, For Others

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Many want to write. But sometimes they lose heart. They are cowed in the face of so many fine writers of fiction, memoir, poetry, columns, and creative nonfiction. Their confidence wanes. If you want to write, but are hesitant, let Tom Romano lift your confidence. In Write What Matters you will f...

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Okay... it's a graduation speech, but it is a talk you don't want to miss.

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Okay... it's a graduation speech, but it is a talk you don't want to miss.

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An open platform for creatives from around the world showing solidarity with the people of Ukraine, who are fighting for the world as we know it.

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The World's Best Short-Short Fictions in a Big, Little Book that you could probably carry in your Pocket. Ten years ago, Jerome Stern, director of the writing program at Florida State, initiated the World's Best Short Short Story Contest. Stories were to be about 250 words long; first prize was a check and a crate of oranges.

Two to three thousand stories began to show up annually in Tallahassee, and National Public Radio regularly broadcast the winner. But, more important, the Micro form turned out to be contagious; stories of this "lack of length" now dot the literary magazines. The time seemed right, then, for this anthology, presenting a decade of contest winners and selected finalists. In addition, Stern commissioned Micros, persuading a roster of writers to accept the challenge of completing a story in one page.

Jesse Lee Kercheval has a new spin on the sinking of the Titanic; Virgil Suarez sets his sights on the notorious Singapore caning; George Garrett conjures up a wondrous screen treatment pitch; and Antonya Nelson invites us into an eerie landscape. Verve and nerve and astonishing variety are here, with some wild denouements.

How short can a Micro be, you wonder. Look up Amy Hempel's contribution, and you'll see.

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Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Fifty Really Short Stories

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Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Fifty Really Short Stories [Stern, Jerome] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Fifty Really Short Stories

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One of my mentors: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft

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One of my mentors: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft

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I think I've read this book 6-8 times now.

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Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft

Title Details

Pages: 152

Trim size: 5.500in x 8.500in

Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft

The Muses Among Us is an inviting, encouraging book for writers at any stage of their development. In a series of first-person letters, essays, manifestos, and notes to the reader, Kim Stafford shows what might happen at the creative boundary he calls "what we almost know." On the boundary's far side is our story, our poem, our song. On this side are the resonant hunches, griefs, secrets, and confusions from which our writing will emerge. Guiding us from such glimmerings through to a finished piece are a wealth of experiments, assignments, and tricks of the trade that Stafford has perfected over thirty years of classes, workshops, and other gatherings of writers.

Informing The Muses Among Us are Stafford's own convictions about writing-principles to which he returns again and again. We must, Stafford says, honor the fragments, utterances, and half-discovered truths voiced around us, for their speakers are the prophets to whom writers are scribes. Such filaments of wisdom, either by themselves or alloyed with others, give rise to our poems, stories, and essays. In addition, as Stafford writes, "all pleasure in writing begins with a sense of abundance-rich knowledge and boundless curiosity." By recommending ways for students to seek beyond the self for material, Stafford demystifies the process of writing and claims for it a Whitmanesque quality of participation and community.

Much about Kim's book is more alive and sadly aware of what it means to be a writer than any other recent how-to-write book I've seen in decades. Clearly Kim holds the flag for the gutsy mix of compassionate, political engagement and love of vivid scene that American authors had better take on if they don't want to be easy livers in our vicious culture.

-Carol Bly, author of The Passionate, Accurate Story

I've been awaiting this book for years, and now I rejoice to hold it in my hands. Kim Stafford has distilled into these pages the wisdom of his long practice not only as a writer and teacher, but also as a son and husband and father, and as a citizen of the great community of Earth. Part minstrel, part wizard, he shows us that writing begins in listening, to outer as well as inner voices, and listening begins in wonder. If you want to stir up your art and soul, sit down with this inspiring book.

-Scott Russell Sanders, author of Hunting for Hope and The Force of Spirit

Son of poet William Stafford, Oregon writer Kim Stafford offers a brief, gem-packed primer on the writer's craft, drawing largely from his experiences as writer, teacher, and 'professional eavesdropper.' . . . A rich resource for any writer, but particularly for those who value writing as a path to personal fulfillment.

- Booklist

This slim volume is a lyrically written treatise on Stafford's writing principles, which deal with all stages of development, starting with the first stimulus (or 'muse') and ending with the finished piece. . . . The book could be described as a series of impressions, beautifully composed and abstract enough to force the writing student to sense intuitively what the author wants to convey.

- Library Journal

A delightful invitation to listen to the unlikely. And although it can be read as a "how-to" for the writing instructor or writing student, it is more in that it inspires through Stafford's personal anecdotes and thoughtful and philosophical reflections.

- North Dakota Quarterly

The book is a joy to read, offering both practical and abstract advice.

- Chattanooga Times

The air in The Muses Among Us is rich with the scents of earth and what grows upon it. . . . Stafford has composed a handbook that will lead writers or would-be writers away from the esoteric details and back to the source: 'a sense of abundance-rich knowledge and boundless curiosity.' The Muses Among Us is a quick read with a lasting lesson.

- Seattle Times

The Muses Among Us doles out philosophy from the writerly trenches. As an author and a teacher, Stafford has been there-this compassionate book may well guide others through the thickets of self-doubt to a place where writing is a pleasurable opportunity.

-Barbara McMichael, Tacoma News Tribune

Runner-up
Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction, Literary Arts/Oregon Book Awards

About the Author/Editor

KIM STAFFORD is director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College. His many books include A Thousand Friends of Rain and Having Everything Right.

Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft

Title Details

Pages: 152

Trim size: 5.500in x 8.500in

Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft

The Muses Among Us is an inviting, encouraging book for writers at any stage of their development. In a series of first-person letters, essays, manifestos, and notes to the reader, Kim Stafford shows what might happen at the creative boundary he calls "what we almost know." On the boundary's far side is our story, our poem, our song. On this side are the resonant hunches, griefs, secrets, and confusions from which our writing will emerge. Guiding us from such glimmerings through to a finished piece are a wealth of experiments, assignments, and tricks of the trade that Stafford has perfected over thirty years of classes, workshops, and other gatherings of writers.

Informing The Muses Among Us are Stafford's own convictions about writing-principles to which he returns again and again. We must, Stafford says, honor the fragments, utterances, and half-discovered truths voiced around us, for their speakers are the prophets to whom writers are scribes. Such filaments of wisdom, either by themselves or alloyed with others, give rise to our poems, stories, and essays. In addition, as Stafford writes, "all pleasure in writing begins with a sense of abundance-rich knowledge and boundless curiosity." By recommending ways for students to seek beyond the self for material, Stafford demystifies the process of writing and claims for it a Whitmanesque quality of participation and community.

Much about Kim's book is more alive and sadly aware of what it means to be a writer than any other recent how-to-write book I've seen in decades. Clearly Kim holds the flag for the gutsy mix of compassionate, political engagement and love of vivid scene that American authors had better take on if they don't want to be easy livers in our vicious culture.

-Carol Bly, author of The Passionate, Accurate Story

I've been awaiting this book for years, and now I rejoice to hold it in my hands. Kim Stafford has distilled into these pages the wisdom of his long practice not only as a writer and teacher, but also as a son and husband and father, and as a citizen of the great community of Earth. Part minstrel, part wizard, he shows us that writing begins in listening, to outer as well as inner voices, and listening begins in wonder. If you want to stir up your art and soul, sit down with this inspiring book.

-Scott Russell Sanders, author of Hunting for Hope and The Force of Spirit

Son of poet William Stafford, Oregon writer Kim Stafford offers a brief, gem-packed primer on the writer's craft, drawing largely from his experiences as writer, teacher, and 'professional eavesdropper.' . . . A rich resource for any writer, but particularly for those who value writing as a path to personal fulfillment.

- Booklist

This slim volume is a lyrically written treatise on Stafford's writing principles, which deal with all stages of development, starting with the first stimulus (or 'muse') and ending with the finished piece. . . . The book could be described as a series of impressions, beautifully composed and abstract enough to force the writing student to sense intuitively what the author wants to convey.

- Library Journal

A delightful invitation to listen to the unlikely. And although it can be read as a "how-to" for the writing instructor or writing student, it is more in that it inspires through Stafford's personal anecdotes and thoughtful and philosophical reflections.

- North Dakota Quarterly

The book is a joy to read, offering both practical and abstract advice.

- Chattanooga Times

The air in The Muses Among Us is rich with the scents of earth and what grows upon it. . . . Stafford has composed a handbook that will lead writers or would-be writers away from the esoteric details and back to the source: 'a sense of abundance-rich knowledge and boundless curiosity.' The Muses Among Us is a quick read with a lasting lesson.

- Seattle Times

The Muses Among Us doles out philosophy from the writerly trenches. As an author and a teacher, Stafford has been there-this compassionate book may well guide others through the thickets of self-doubt to a place where writing is a pleasurable opportunity.

-Barbara McMichael, Tacoma News Tribune

Runner-up
Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction, Literary Arts/Oregon Book Awards

About the Author/Editor

KIM STAFFORD is director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College. His many books include A Thousand Friends of Rain and Having Everything Right.

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The Muses Among Us is an inviting, encouraging book for writers at any stage of their development. In a series of first-person letters, essays, manifestos, a...

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Sarah Kay: If I should have a daughter ...

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"If I should have a daughter, instead of Mom, she's gonna call me Point B ... " began spoken word poet Sarah Kay, in a talk that inspired two standing ovations at TED2011. She tells the story of her metamorphosis -- from a wide-eyed teenager soaking in verse at New York's Bowery Poetry Club to a teacher connecting kids with the power of self-expression through Project V.O.I.C.E.

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A found poetry collage for our second round of book clubs...collect meaningful quotes and images that represent big ideas in the book. We will write about these at the end of the book club.

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A found poetry collage for our second round of book clubs...collect meaningful quotes and images that represent big ideas in the book. We will write about these at the end of the book club.

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Jason Reynolds! An incredible interview... just the opening sentences make me want to write.

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Jason Reynolds! An incredible interview... just the opening sentences make me want to write.

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Jason Reynolds: The Power of Narrative Trailer | THE THREAD

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Point B by Sarah Kay. Classic. Also performed in her TED talk.

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Point B by Sarah Kay. Classic. Also performed in her TED talk.

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First I teach students about observations versus inferences in photos, and let them practice writing both by using different photos. Then they write a list of describing words for various pictures. Then they choose a picture of their own to build a story! Very fun for Grade 6 writers.

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Happy Monday! Just One Flake , written and illustrated by Travis Jonker, releases tomorrow. I'm grateful Travis stopped by to finish my sentences. We discussed Just One Flake 's book trailer, Liam, Pete's a Pizza , and more. I wrote the words in purple, and Travis wrote the words in black . Thank you, Travis ! Just One Flake' s book trailer fulfills my life goal of using the 2001: A Space Odyssey music for a completely silly purpose. Design Credit: Heather Kelly Just One Flake tells the story of a boy named Liam who has one goal: to catch a snowflake on his tongue. His attempts get increasingly ridiculous, with no success. In the end, Liam doesn't get exactly what he wants - he gets something even better. The whole story came out of a spontaneous drawing I made on February 6, 2021: Just One Flake's illustrations were made with a brush pen on watercolor paper, scanned, and then painted digitally. This is my author/illustrator debut, and before I began, I made a list of

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Exploring Children's Literature through Interviews and Book Trailers

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Chip Scanlan was a collaborator with Don Murray... so many lessons here!

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Chip Scanlan was a collaborator with Don Murray... so many lessons here!

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A TV ad for kayak.com features an unscrupulous doctor manipulating a patient's exposed brain, turning him into a puppet who flails away at a keyboard, hunting and pecking for online travel deals. It's funny to some, offensive to others, but it illustrates a larger point that is important for writers. The brain influences the way readers respond to words, for better or worse.

A growing body of research reveals that different parts of the brain respond to language in unique ways. Neuroscientists learned this by observing brain scans as subjects read. Writers can take advantage of these findings to connect with readers in deep, intimate and lasting ways. And you don't have to be a brain scientist to do it, just apply the same kind of techniques that writing teachers have been preaching for years.

The science of "this is your brain," "this is your brain on stories," is relatively straightforward. It starts with a geography lesson, based on the principle that the map of the brain locates multiple areas that control the way we move, see, hear, taste, smell, touch and remember.

It's long been understood that the neocortex, the thinking part of the brain that separates humans from all other species, interprets language through the Broca's area and Wernicke's area, which center on how the brain processes written words. But their powers are limited: they enable us to understand words, but nothing more.

That's why traditional news articles with their passive verb forms, collective nouns ("officials said") and clichés have so little impact on readers. Flabby prose turns off readers because it doesn't turn on the brain. Neuroscience shows how carefully chosen words and the tools of storytelling activate parts of the brain other than those that process language to make reading a deep, resonant and lasting experience.

A fascinating essay, " Your Brain on Fiction," by Annie Murphy Paul, details these developments.

She describes how researchers at Emory University discovered that the phrase "he had leathery hands" aroused the sensory cortex that activated the sense of touch. Spanish researchers found that words like "cinnamon" and "soap" triggered a response from the olfactory cortex which processes smells.

A French team learned that action verbs, such as "Pablo kicked the ball," fired up the motor cortex, which governs how the body moves. Not only that, but verbs that involved different parts of the body, such as the arm or leg, activated the parts of the brain that controls those specific limbs. Evocative language also reaches into the hippocampus, the seat of long-term memory, and plays an important role in the way the mind turns language into meaningful experience, a goal for all writers.

Based on these findings, we can take advantage of this three-pound organ with its 86 billion nerve cells to enrich our writing. Here are five ways:

1. Create scenes. The combination of characters in action, dialogue and evocative settings lies at the heart of what novelist John Gardner called "the vivid continuous dream" that captivates readers.

2. Dig for details, the more specific the better. If you want to get a reader's mind to visualize what they're reading, a "cherry-red '67 Mustang convertible" does a much better job than "a car." "The recording of such details is not mere embroidery in prose," Tom Wolfe wrote in "The New Journalism." "It lies as close to the center of the power of realism as any other device in literature."

3. Choose vivid action verbs. "Michaela grabbed her umbrella and dashed into the rain" triggers the motor cortex. Strong verbs are not just words on the page. They represent action in the reader's mind.

4. Avoid passive verb forms. "The body was found" is not only a flabby word choice that robs the verb of energy and fails to ignite the brain. It usually signifies weak reporting. "A seven-year-old newsboy found the body" heightens the senses.

5. Cultivate a "a nose for story." Consider the power of the scented details in this sentence by Anne Hull of The Washington Post: "Apartment 27 smelled like years of sweat and Lemon Pledge and perfect bacon." The brain's olfactory bulb not only lets us smell. It also triggers memories in the hippocampus. "Hit a tripwire of smell," Diane Ackerman writes in "A Natural History of the Senses," "and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth."

Neuroscience offers profound lessons on the power of story. You can use this knowledge to bring stories alive in readers' minds. For writers and readers, the brain is a terrible thing to waste.

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How brain science can make you a smarter writer

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A TV ad for kayak.com features an unscrupulous doctor manipulating a patient's exposed brain, turning him into a puppet who flails away at a keyboard, hunting and pecking for online travel deals. It's funny to some, offensive to others, but it illustrates a larger point that is important for writers.

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Don Graves on Don Murray--I learned so much from both of them!

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Don Graves on Don Murray--I learned so much from both of them!

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Try to imitate this! Complicated, but worth it.

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Try to imitate this! Complicated, but worth it.

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

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Shane Koyczan: To This Day ... for the bullied and beautiful

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By turn hilarious and haunting, poet Shane Koyczan puts his finger on the pulse of what it's like to be young and ... different. "To This Day," his spoken-word poem about bullying, captivated millions as a viral video (created, crowd-source style, by 80 animators).

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A student's digital interpretation of Clint Smith's "what the ocean said to the black boy"...

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A student's digital interpretation of Clint Smith's "what the ocean said to the black boy"...

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what the ocean said to the black boy - clint smith

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A Brief But Spectacular take on making and remaking identity

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A Brief But Spectacular take on making and remaking identity

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Hala Alyan is an award-winning poet, author, and clinical psychologist.

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PBS NewsHour | A Brief But Spectacular take on making and remaking identity | Season 2023 | PBS

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A Brief But Spectacular take on making and remaking identity

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Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman awed a nation with her poem, "The Hill We Climb." Share her poetry with books for all ages, including the poem heard round the world.

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When I was young in... a great place poem.

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When I was young in... a great place poem.

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"Rylant delights in the simple joys of living with her grandparents in the Appalachian Mountains: fresh cornbread, the swimming hole, bathing in the tin tub, snakes, and the community church. Surrounding all of these memories is the loving relationship with her grandparents. Warmly rendered illustrations complement the lyrical text."- School Library Journal

"An evocative remembrance of the simple pleasures in country living; splashing in the swimming hole, taking baths in the kitchen, sharing family times, each is eloquently portrayed here in both the misty-hued scenes and in the poetic text."--Association for Childhood Education International

Get the latest updates from Cynthia Rylant

And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.

And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.

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When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant: 9780140548754 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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"Rylant delights in the simple joys of living with her grandparents in the Appalachian Mountains: fresh cornbread, the swimming hole, bathing in the tin tub, snakes, and the community church. Surrounding all of these memories is the loving relationship with her grandparents.

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So much more here than we could teach in a few hours! We love this.

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So much more here than we could teach in a few hours! We love this.

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The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field

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The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field [Tara L. Masih] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field

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How daily notebook writing changed one 6th grade teacher.

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How daily notebook writing changed one 6th grade teacher.

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Writing with Students, Notebooks grade 6

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Maggie Smith's Keep Moving has lots of short pieces perfect for five minute writing. 

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Maggie Smith's Keep Moving has lots of short pieces perfect for five minute writing. 

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Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

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Spoken-word poet Sarah Kay was stunned to find she couldn't be a princess, ballerina and astronaut all in one lifetime. In this talk, she delivers two powerful poems that show us how we can live other lives. Sarah is also the host of TED's podcast "Sincerely, X."

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So much to write about this... you can search by player and track comparisons; you can summarize, speculate, ignite commentary...

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So much to write about this... you can search by player and track comparisons; you can summarize, speculate, ignite commentary...

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Tom Brady has retired from football after a 22-year career of consistent success and unmatched achievement. But his stature as the N.F.L.'s greatest quarterback may be best understood by seeing his achievements stacked up against those of hundreds of others who played the same position.

The charts below do just that, comparing Brady with more than 300 other N.F.L. quarterbacks in four measures of cumulative statistics: playoff victories, career passing touchdowns, career passing yards and Pro Bowl selections. Players who were still active during the 2021 season are highlighted.

No. 1: Playoff wins

Wins don't come easily in the N.F.L., especially in the postseason. That's what makes Brady's 35 playoff wins one of his most impressive statistics. No other quarterback has even played in 35 postseason games, let alone won that many. Brady has 19 more wins than the quarterback with the second-most playoff victories, Joe Montana, the former San Francisco 49er, who retired before Brady was drafted. Peyton Manning and Drew Brees have fewer postseason wins combined (23) than Brady.

Among Brady's playoff wins are seven Super Bowl titles, more than any team has ever won.

Will another quarterback surpass Brady's mark of 35? If anyone in the newest generation of passers has a chance, it may be Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, who has eight playoff wins in four years as a starter.

(There were fewer playoff games in earlier generations. A quarterback like Bart Starr of the Green Bay Packers, who had nine playoff wins in 10 appearances, played part of his career when there was just one postseason game, the N.F.L. championship.)

No. 2: Passing touchdowns

Although Patrick Mahomes has had the most touchdown passes (151) since 2018, the year he became Kansas City's starting quarterback, the career passing touchdown record belongs to Brady. With 624 touchdown passes, Brady has 53 more than Drew Brees, who kept closest to Brady's pace since 2001, which was Brady's first year as an N.F.L. starter. Brees retired with 571 career passing touchdowns, and Aaron Rodgers is the closest active quarterback to Brady's record with 449. Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford and Russell Wilson are all behind him.

In an era in which offenses are scoring more touchdowns and points than ever, that gap will surely dwindle, though probably not close anytime soon.

No. 3: Passing yards

Brady, with his precise timing, pinpoint accuracy and downfield vision, epitomized the image of the pure pocket passer at a position long defined by pocket savvy. Though many had cautioned that his arm strength would drastically diminish with age, Brady threw for a career high in yards this past season (5,316) at age 44, more than any other quarterback in the league, and set the N.F.L.'s career passing yards record (84,520).

Drew Brees had held the record, passing Peyton Manning in 2018, but it seemed only a matter of time before Brady would overtake Brees, who retired after the 2020 season. The closest active quarterbacks are Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers. Brady's record was also about longevity - and the league's shift over the years to favor offense. He played in more regular-season and playoff games than any other quarterback in N.F.L. history.

No. 4: Pro Bowl selections

The only reason Brady hasn't played in more Pro Bowls - the exhibition game in which A.F.C. and N.F.C. stars face each other after the season - is that he's been to the Super Bowl so many times (10). Still, Brady was selected for the Pro Bowl more than any other N.F.L. quarterback (15). He'd been tied with Peyton Manning (14) before his 15th selection in the 2021 season.

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Four Charts That Reveal Tom Brady's Greatness

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Tom Brady has retired from football after a 22-year career of consistent success and unmatched achievement. But his stature as the N.F.L.'s greatest quarterback may be best understood by seeing his achievements stacked up against those of hundreds of others who played the same position.

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Description
As seen on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon!
Helium is the debut poetry collection by internet phenom Rudy Francisco, whose work has defined poetry for a generation of new readers. Rudy's poems and quotes have been viewed and shared millions of times as he has traveled the country and the world performing for sell-out crowds. Helium is filled with work that is simultaneously personal and political, blending love poems, self-reflection, and biting cultural critique on class, race and gender into an unforgettable whole. Ultimately, Rudy's work rises above the chaos to offer a fresh and positive perspective of shared humanity and beauty.

2018 Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist

About Rudy Francisco

Rudy Francisco is one of the most recognizable names in Spoken Word Poetry. At the age of 21, Rudy completed his B.A in Psychology and decided to continue his education by pursuing a M.A in Organizational Studies. As... MORE

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As seen on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon! Helium is the debut poetry collection by internet phenom Rudy Francisco, whose work has defined poetry for a generation of new readers. Rudy's poems and quotes have been viewed and shared millions of times as he has traveled the country and the world performing for sell-out crowds.

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Esmé Joy looks through books in Firestorm Books in Asheville, N.C., in January that were banned in Florida's Duval County. (Jesse Barber for The Washington Post)
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The American Library Association (ALA) announced this month that 2023 had seen a record number of calls for censoring books in public libraries and schools. More than 4,200 titles were targeted with more than 1,200 demands across the country that they be removed from circulation.

Data provided to The Washington Post by the ALA shows that this increase is part of a surge in such efforts in recent years - ones that are centered more heavily in Republican-voting states.
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The data compiled by the ALA - an incomplete total picked from news reports or submitted by librarians to the group's Office for Intellectual Freedom - stretches back to 1990. For the first three decades, the number of titles challenged across the 50 states generally hovered around 450, plus or minus 100. But then came 2020.
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That year, two significant disruptions helped spur a new push to target books. The first was the coronavirus pandemic, during which many children shifted to remote learning. Several parents, often politically conservative ones, took issue with what they observed their children being taught. School board meetings became centers of ferocious conflict centered on pandemic restrictions and curriculums.

This overlapped with the second disruption: the renewed focus on racism that followed the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police. The Black Lives Matter movement, viewed with skepticism by right-wing Americans, gained new prominence even as a small number of protests devolved into vandalism or violence. Donald Trump made this criminal activity a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, giving the issue added political salience.

These two disruptions were intertwined by politics. The argument (promoted by Trump and others) was that kids were somehow learning to hate America because they were learning about its racial history. There was a tangible fear promoted by Trump and in right-wing media like Fox News programming centered on that vandalism but, more broadly, on how the country was growing more accepting of the idea that marginalized populations should have a visible presence or a voice. School curriculums became a way to fight back; excising stories about Black leaders or LGBTQ+ Americans from libraries was a way to keep America from changing.

The data from ALA show how 2020 was a turning point. From 2021 to 2023, the number of titles being challenged in nearly every state spiked. From 2011 to 2020, an average of about 300 titles were challenged across the 50 states (including duplicates in multiple states). From 2021 to 2023, more than 6,800 were on average.

You can see the surge in each state below. Each state's number of challenged titles is compared with the 1990-to-2013 annual average, with each graph scaled to the state's smallest and largest annual totals since 2014.

Almost uniformly, the columns representing 2021 to 2023 are far higher than those prior. The number of challenged titles shot up in the past three years.

If we normalize those values, giving each state's graph the same scale, we can see how the phenomenon was more significant in states that voted for Trump in 2020 (identified with red).

The quarter of states that had the smallest average increase in challenged titles from 2021 to 2023 preferred Joe Biden's 2020 candidacy by about 11 points on average in 2020. The quarter of states that had the largest increases in challenges backed Trump by an average of 12 points.

One element of this is that challenges tend to target more titles. Before 2020, most states had about as many cases of challenges as titles; that is, a challenge targeted one book. Since then, the ratio has skewed heavily toward more titles per case. Here, again, you can see the shift in recent years.

The quarter of states with the most titles challenged per case (a 7-to-1 ratio since 2021) again preferred Trump by a 12-point margin on average in 2020.

In other words, it's not just that books are being targeted more often. It's that they are being targeted en masse, often by a small group of people (as The Post has reported). The effort is less about taking issue with individual titles than with trying to broadly purge libraries of material deemed unacceptable.

It isn't because kids are reading propaganda in school that younger Americans are more likely to identify as LGBTQ+; after all, older Americans have similarly grown more accepting of LGBTQ+ Americans without spending much time in middle-school libraries. It also isn't because kids are encountering stories about civil rights leaders that Americans are more open to combating systemic racism. Instead, it's the success of such movements as Black Lives Matter in drawing attention to those issues.

But calling for curriculums to be changed or books to be banned feels like doing something, one of the most sought-after sensations in our modern culture. It feels like a victory on behalf of the United States, though leveraging government power to restrict speech is obviously antithetical to the country's values.

If you're convinced that your opponents have been brainwashed, though, you're going to try to figure out where that happened. Libraries and schools have borne the brunt of that search.

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Analysis | The post-2020 surge in calls for banning books, visualized

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Data from the American Library Association shows how calls for removing books have been more common in red states.