First slate of authors present their works

The long-awaited and highly anticipated Bemidji Library Book Festival opened Monday morning with children’s author Phyliss Root, a well-published author of children’s literature.

Root described in her biography how her father would catch her at night reading under the covers with a flashlight. Because our grandchildren are here for the Fest and because we can catch them every night reading under the covers, we decided to be in the front row of the Bemidji Public Library for her talk.

Root is a professor in the Master of Fine Arts program at Hamline University in the Writing for Children Program. She has been writing for the past 20 years, but still recalls those stories she wrote as a child where she was always the heroine; her cousins especially liked her ghost stories. But on Monday morning, her book about Paul Bunyan’s sister Paula captured the attention of the many children and mothers dotting the floor in the children’s reading room.

In the afternoon, Sandra Benitez spoke at Headwaters School of Music and the Arts. Benitez, although known as a fiction writer of award-winning publications, wrote her first nonfiction book, “Bag Lady: A Memoir.” She was recognized as a recipient of the Great National Comebacks Award by ConvaTec and the Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis Foundation of American in 2005.

The last author of the day was Todd Boss, a Minnesota native, who was a guest at the 2010 Key West Literary Seminar. His poetry is reader-friendly and draws upon his rural upbringing.

“Apple Slices” – eaten right

off the jackknife in

moons, half moons,

quarter moons and

crescents – tells the story of summers spent working with his father in construction long years ago. As Boss wrote, “In this poem I used chewy words that would physically remind the reader of the pleasures of eating. Read it aloud slowly and you’ll see what I mean.”

“For me, words are a kind of food,” said Boss, “and that poem with all those sounds in it creates a kind of chewing in the mouth.”

Boss’ first book of poetry, “Yellowrocket,” was published by W.W. Norton in 2008 and is now out in paperback. The work was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award. Perhaps his new book coming out later this year will get the award.

With the publication of “Yellowrocket,” Boss is now able to write full time and devote time to his motion poems. One such poem was shown to an appreciative audience: “The God of Our Farm Had Blades.” Google “kickstarter motion poems” for examples of Boss’s and other poets’ work.

stargilpierei: cute mothers day poems

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Grand mothers, poems, reminiscences, and short stories about the keepers of our traditions

Mother Poems

Poems from the Heart, A Journey of Life and Love

Poems of Petition, Praise, Perception, People, & Playfulness

Story stretchers, activities to expand children's favorite books