Diverse Verse on the National Stage

Written By Diverse Verse

We will soon celebrate our coalition’s slow and steady growth at NCTE 2024! We’re greatly looking forward to meeting poetry teachers and poetry-loving librarians at our panel discussion on

Diversifying Verse:

Expanding the Poetic Canon by including BIPOC Poets in Classrooms and Collections

Friday 22 November, 3:30 - 4:45 p.m. Room 162 B (meeting level 1)

Diverse Verse will be represented by panelists Lisa Stringfellow, Valerie Bolling, and Suma Subramniam and moderator Padma Venkatraman.

Panel description:

Young people need access to historically marginalized voices in poetry. Five BIPOC authors will amplify these voices and present activities to build critical literacy in K-8 students through the reading and writing of diverse poetry. Attendees will be connected to various resources, including a list of recommended works by poets from underrepresented communities.

#DiverseVerse at #NCTE2024

In this post, we highlight and give thanks to our panelists, as well as some of our faithful and hardworking members who poured time and energy into our wildly successful and first annual call for poems by young poets. We look forward to our next call in April 2025. But first, thanks to:

Edna Cabcabin Moran author and illustrator of HONU AND MOA

Ranjeeta Ramkumar author of HOLI

Lisa Stringfellow author of KINGDOM OF DUST

Valerie Bolling author of I SEE COLOR

Suma Subramaniam author of MALAR: THE GREATEST HOST OF ALL TIME

Hanh Bui author of ÁNH’s NEW WORD

Nadine Pinede author of WHEN THE MAPOU SINGS

Arya Shahi author of AN IMPOSSIBLE THING TO SAY

Padma Venkatraman author of SAFE HARBOR

Below, we highlight some recent releases by the team that will be speaking at NCTE this November, and by the judges who reviewed the poems we received this April.

Padma Venkatraman, the founder of the Diverse Verse website and coalition, will serve as the moderator for the NCTE panel discussion. She is the author of The Bridge Home (Global Read Aloud and WNDB Walter Award winner), Born Behind Bars (Junior Library Guild selection), A Time to Dance (ALA Notable), Island’s End (South Asia Book Award winner) and Climbing the Stairs (Julia Ward Howe Boston Authors Club Award winner). Her poems have been published in Poetry and nominated for the Pushcart Prize and her second novel in verse, SAFE HARBOR, which School Library Journal, in a starred review, called a “must read” and a “perfect fit for middle grade library collections” sails into the world in January 2025.

Lisa Stringfellow, who was a pillar of support during our first call for poetry, and who will be speaking on our NCTE panel, writes middle grade fiction and has a not-so-secret fondness for fantasy with a dark twist. She is the author of two books for young readers, Kingdom of Dust, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and A Comb of Wishes, which Newbery Award–winning author Kelly Barnhill called “one of the most promising works of fiction in a long time.” Lisa writes for her twelve-year-old self, the kid waiting to be the brown-skinned hero of an adventure, off saving the world. Her work often reflects her West Indian and Black southern heritage. Lisa is a middle school teacher and lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her children and bossy cat.

Lisa’s latest novel, KINGDOM OF DUST, can be ordered here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/kingdom-of-dust-lisa-stringfellow?variant=41310004412450

Lisa wrote a wonderful post for our blog, which you can find here: https://www.diverseverse.com/blog?author=60783b864a9720254f80b088.

Engage with her on social media: @EngageReaders on Instagram, Threads, and X

Valerie Bolling is one of the pillars of support at Diverse Verse. She’ll join us on the national stage at NCTE. Valerie was an educator for 30 years and is passionate about creating stories in which all children can see themselves and feel seen and heard, valued and validated. Her debut picture book, LET’S DANCE!, was published in March 2020 and won SCBWI’s Crystal Kite Award in 2021.
Valerie is the author of five more picture books (Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection I SEE COLOR; Kirkus Prize Finalist TOGETHER WE SWIM; TOGETHER WE RIDE; RIDE, ROLL, RUN: TIME FOR FUN!; and BING, BOP, BAM: TIME TO JAM!) as well as a Scholastic Acorn early reader series, RAINBOW DAYS.
Sharing her books with children and inspiring them to write their own stories brings Valerie immense joy! Valerie and her husband live in Connecticut and enjoy traveling, hiking, reading, going to the theater, and dancing.

Valerie’s latest picture book, I SEE COLOR, can be ordered here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/i-see-color-valerie-bollingkailei-pew?variant=41103387852834

Her posts for Diverse Verse include tips on writing rhyming picture books and on poetry as community.

You’ll find her on

Twitter: twitter.com/valerie_bolling;

Facebook: facebook.com/ValerieBollingAuthor;

IG: instagram.com/valeriebollingauthor and

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/valerie-bolling-223a92271

Suma Subramaniam is the wonderful curator and publisher of Diverse Verse’s annual newsletter. We are thrilled she will also be onstage at the 2024 Conference of the National Council for Teachers of English this year! Suma’s interests and passions in writing for children and young adults are mostly centered around STEM/STEAM related topics as well as India and Indian heritage. When she’s not writing, she’s gardening or volunteering for We Need Diverse Books and SCBWI or blogging about children’s books at Diverse Verse or Cynsations. Suma also loves to cook. Her favorite foods are Indian although Vietnamese runs a close second… which leads to our next featured Diverse Verse author. But first, be sure to add her newest picture book, MALAR: GREATEST HOST OF ALL TIME, which was released just this November, to your bookshelf.

Suma’s latest picture book, MALAR: GREATEST HOST OF ALL TIME, can be ordered here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/767994/v-malar-greatest-host-of-all-time-by-suma-subramaniam-illustrated-by-archana-sreenivasan/

Check out this interview with Suma on our blog:  Songs and Poems: An interview with Suma Subramaniam — Diverse Verse in which she delves beautifully into her heritage and highlights her beautiful picture books.

Follow Suma on social media: IG: Suma Subramaniam (@suma_subramaniam) • Instagram photos and videos; X: Suma Subramaniam (@suma_v_s) / X; Linkedin: Suma Subramaniam | LinkedIn; Facebook: Facebook

Next on our thank you list is Hanh Bui, who helped in the initial stages of drafting our NCTE 2024 proposal. At eight years old, Hanh Bui and her family left war-torn Vietnam for safety and a new beginning. After nine days at sea, they were rescued by the United States Navy. Hanh’s second book,  Ánh’s New Word illustrated by Bao Luu, was released in 2024, and is inspired by Hanh’s own refugee experience. It was written as a tribute to her grandparents and the teacher who taught her English at the refugee camp. Hanh hopes her book embodies the gratitude she feels for the teacher who helped her embrace her voice in a new country. Do read her delightful debut picture book if you haven’t already!

Find out more about her at https://hanhbui.net

Order Hanh’s latest picture book here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250355423/anhsnewword

This April, we sent out a call for poetry by young people, on the theme of hope - and we were overwhelmed with gratitude by the response. We received over a hundred poems, and we recognized all participants with a certificate. We also chose to highlight a few of the poems on our blog - and the young authors of two of those poems will be joining us on stage at NCTE. We can’t wait to meet them in person. Judging the poems was a very hard job indeed, and our heartfelt thanks to two Diverse Verse members who stepped up to the plate: Nadine Pinede and Arya Shahi.

Nadine Pinede’s debut novel for young readers, WHEN THE MAPOU SINGS, is ready for release this December. Kirkus Reviews says “Pinede’s beautifully written debut sharply observes class divisions and encourages readers to ask critical questions about dignity. . . .The well-drawn characters, strong dialogue, and surprising twists add depth. A rich, lyrical story that shows the high cost young women pay for daring to dream of a better life.” Booklist describes it as “Extremely well written” and Publishers Weekly calls it a “thought-provoking read.”

Order Nadine’s WHEN THE MAPOU SINGS:

Find out more about Nadine: http://nadinepinede.com

Arya Shahi is an author, actor, director, playwright, poet, producer, and musician. Born in San Diego, CA, he was raised in Tucson, AZ. He now works in NYC although he lives in LA! Arya graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA with a BFA in Drama. He is a former Curator and Resident Artist at Little Island in NYC, NYCLU Artist Ambassador and is represented by CAA, Writers House, and FKKS. His debut novel, AN IMPOSSIBLE THING TO SAY, was released to 3 starred reviews, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, and received much acclaim and numerous other honors.


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