Tuesday 20 May 2014

NEW: Australian Children's Poetry Website

 
Di Bates had a vision to create a site dedicated to showcasing contemporary Australian children's poets and their work. Today she tells us more about this website which is now a reality.

AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN’S POETRY
There was a time when poetry was routinely taught in Australian schools and children memorised and recited poems. However, this practice seems to have died and so it seems timely, especially with the new national curriculum pressing for the teaching of poetry, for closer attention to be paid to bringing poetry into the lives of all Australian school students.
In Australia at the moment there is only one regular outlet for children’s poetry: the NSW Department of Education School Magazine. The publishers in our country that release collections and/or anthologies of children’s poetry can be counted on one hand.

So it is that I decided to introduce a blog called Australian Children’s Poetry, http://wwww.australianchildrenspoetry.com.au which was launched in March 2014. This free site features an A to Z bibliographical database of contemporary Australian children’s poets, listing their collections of poetry (or verse novels), providing a showcase of their poems, and detailing how interested parties can contact the poets.
The Australian Children’s Poetry site also features interviews with poets, compilers and publishers about their work, and provides lists of Australian children’s poetry anthologies and collections. As well, there are links to children’s poetry websites in Australia and overseas, and articles about children’s poetry and poets plus reviews of poetry books.
At the moment I am seeking people who would like to compile biographies and bibliographies from a list I have of deceased Australian children’s poets. If you are interested, please feel free to contact me at dibates@outlook.com. If you have a relevant article or other information for the blog, I’d love to hear from you, too.
Dianne (Di) Bates is the author of 120+ books for young readers including a verse novel, Nobody’s Boy (Celapene Press).
Her website is www.enterprisingwords.com.au
 
Congratulations Di on creating such a wonderful and valuable site.
Best wishes with all it's endeavours!

 

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