Celebrating our first year

Diverse Verse celebrated its first birthday - and poetry month 2022 - by shining a spotlight on some highly respected and deeply inspiring poets who self-identify with underrepresented and marginalized communities. We posted a 7-day poetry challenge on social media, inviting our followers to write poetry inspired by these poets. Here, below, are all 7 of our writing prompts, beginning with living legend Jacqueline Woodson…

…continuing on, with Newbery Honor winner Carole Boston Weatherford and NCTE award winner Janet Wong…

…Newbery Medalist and poet Linda Sue Park,

Young People’s Poet Laureate Emeritus and Neustadt Laureate Emeritus Margarita Engle…

…award-winning author and poet Joseph Bruchac…

…and ending, for our grand finale of the challenge, by honoring the grandeur of Nikki Grimes’s poetic legacy.

Our intern, Avalon Felice Lee, created a series of blog posts (which were published earlier this week) to collate information on and pay tribute to the accomplishments of our featured poets. Avalon Felice Lee is already an accomplished poet. She received a nomination for Best Small Fictions 2022. Her words are internationally recognized by Brain Mill Press, Capsule Stories, Kissing Dynamite, The Lumiere Review, and elsewhere. She and her kitten, Esquire Mona Lee, are on Instagram at @avalonfelicelee.

We are so grateful for the support of all our members, who worked hard to make our first birthday celebration a success.

Tremendous appreciation to Aida Salazar for creating our social media presence. If you’d like to follow our newly established accounts, you’ll find us @DiverseVerse on IG; and @Diverse_Verse on TW. To thank our followers, we ended with a book giveaway, and announced the winners on social media at 7 p.m. EST 4/29/2022.

Immense thanks to Edna Cabcabin Moran for creating all the amazing graphics for our poetry prompts, including the wheel of names below to choose our giveaway winners.

Edna Cabcabin Moran also designed our beautiful logo, showing a lotus with differently colored petals. A lotus is a symbol of many wonderful things in different cultures: enlightenment, strength, and rebirth, among them; because a lotus flower retains purity and freshness despite growing in marshy swamps.

Last but not least, our joyful gratitude to you, readers of this blog and supporters of our efforts. If you would like to join us, or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We ask for your good wishes as we continue to grow.