| |  | Author Lee Bennett Hopkins
Photo courtesy of HarperCollins |
 | | BEEN TO YESTERDAYS by Lee Bennett Hopkins, Boyds Mills Press 1995 |
 | | A PET FOR ME by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Jane Manning, HarperCollins 2003 |
 | | HOOFBEATS, CLAWS & RIPPLED FINS by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn, HarperCollins 2002 |
 | | THE DREAM KEEPER by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Brian Pinkney, introduction by Lee Bennett Hopkins, Knopf 1996 |
 | | PASS THE POETRY, PLEASE by Lee Bennett Hopkins, HarperCollins |
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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: LEE BENNETT HOPKINS
HOLDING FAST TO DREAMS
by Kelly Milner Halls and Roxyanne Young
Lee Bennett Hopkins has been around a while. He's known a lot of great poets, nurtured a lot of new poets, worked with some of the master poets of our time, and become a noted scholar on others, including Langston Hughes. Smart Writers Journal sits down with him to ask what inspires his work, and what
SWJ: Let's start with your "Promising Poet Award" through the International Reading Association. What moved you to create such an award and what made the IRA a good partner for the prize?
LBH: In l972 the NCTE established the first award for poetry in the United States: The NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, an award now given every three years to a poet for his/her aggregate body of work. I never felt one award in the entire country was enough. I thus founded the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and award given annually to a volume of poetry, either an original collection or an anthology. The award is presented via Penn State University. A reason the state of Pennsylvania was chosen is that it is my birthplace.
Then I decided to found the Lee Bennett Hopkins/International Reading Association Promising Poet Award, an award given every three years to a poet who has published one but not more than two books of original verse. I have been active in IRA my entire professional life since I began teaching elementary school in l960. I felt it was ripe to further promote the genre by highlighting new talent.
SWJ: Were you the recipient of any awards as a new poet? And if so, how did the receipt of those awards affect your confidence and ultimately, your career?
LBH: As a 'new' poet I never received an award. As a seasoned one I have received many including the Christopher Award for BEEN TO YESTERDAYS (Boyds Mills Press).
SWJ: What would you say are the most common mistakes a new poet makes with his or her early works?
LBH: I believe the most common mistakes new poets make is that they do not read the best of the past masters in the field of children's literature. This is a must!
I also feel new writers tend to overwrite poetry. Every time I see work surrounded with 'and's' and 'the's' I shudder! These words cry out for adjectives. It's a lazy way of writing.
SWJ: Do you believe children's poetry is respected in the United States?
LBH: Of course I believe children's poetry is respected in America. The genre must be promoted more, of course. What would life be like without poetry? We would starve to death.
SWJ: Can an individual poet make a difference in the world of children's literature and children's lives?
LBH: Yes, an individual poet can make a difference in both children's literature and in a child's life. It did for me!
SWJ: Do you see any promising young poets on the horizon, people we should watch and look for?
LBH: Promising young poets on the horizon? Oh, yes. Many of them. I recently did an independent study of poetry in America from l920-2000; more poets for children came on the publishing scene in the l990's than any other decade in the 20th century. That says a lot!
There are many promising poets emerging. Constantly. Just as there are new artists, new writers of fiction, non-fiction, poets are appearing. How wondrous this is. I go back to my establishing the LBH/IRA Promising Poetry Award. Look at what these winners have done: Debra Chandra, Kristine O'Connell George, Craig Crist-Evans...and what they are having published in the future. It's incredible.
SWJ: If you had to pick three essential books of children's poetry that should be within every young reader's reach?
LBH: I couldn't pick three essential books of poetry for children. There are too many. And it would depend on the child -- his/her interests. Truly there is poetry about almost everything under the sun -- from dinosaurs to dreams, fireflies to fire hydrants,
microscopes to mothers -- on and on.
SWJ: Do you see any wonderful new trends in children's poetry?
LBH: I see wondrous new trends in children's poetry. Of late, poets have been digging deep inside themselves to reveal growing up years. They are letting readers know they are not alone in dealing with social problems.
SWJ: Do you see any trends you find discouraging?
LBH: The one trend I see that is discouraging is that almost anything written in broken lines is called poetry. There is POETRY and there is PROSE. And no matter how it is written PROSE is NOT POETRY!
SWJ: I know you and Myra Cohn Livingston were close friends. Did her work influence your own? If so, how?
LBH: Myra and I were the best of friends. Her vast knowledge of poetry influenced me more than her work, yet, I still maintain she was one of the best writers of poetry in the 20th century. I did know her work long before we met. And from the moment we met in Philadelphia, PA at NCTE in the late 60's through to the time of her death, we had the most incredible relationship. She is sorely missed.
SWJ: What poets did you read as a child and did they influence your work as an adult?
LBH: I didn't read any poets as a child. I barely read! As an adult the poet who had the most influence on my was Langston Hughes. His work was work I could relate to coming from a poor, dysfunctional family life.
SWJ: Among the many interesting things about you is the fact that you're a Langston Hughes scholar. What fascinates you about this influential Harlem Renaissance poet and how does his work fit into a 21st Century world?
LBH: His work speaks to all of us. Hopes, dreams, aspirations, life and love are embodied in his poetry -- poetry about his people, for his people, poems for each and every one of us, universalities that humankind of all ages and races ahve struggled for and will continue to strive for as long as we are on this earth. He told us that we must hold fast to dreams - his dreams, our dreams, the dreams of future generations.
SWJ: What's next for Lee Bennett Hopkins?
LBH: Next on the horizon for me? A lot. A new collection in '04, WONDERFUL WORDS: POEMS ABOUT READING, WRITING, SPEAKING AND LISTENING, illustrated by Karen Barbour (S&S), four exciting new "I Can Read Books" from Harper are in the works; and an opus: DAYS TO CELEBRATE: A POETRY ALMANAC, illustrated by the wondrous, Stephen Alcorn, to be published '04 by Greenwillow Books.
SWJ: What legacy do you hope you leave behind for generations yet to come?
LBH: The legacy I hope to leave behind for generations of children to come: Bring poetry into your minds and hearts. There is nothing -- NO THING -- like this genre. It's food and drink, it's happiness and sadness, it's life and loss. It's like no other form of literature in the whole, wide world.
For over 27 years my professional book, PASS THE POETRY, PLEASE! (HarperCollins),
now in it s 3rd edition, has been used all over the United States and Canada, in colleges, universities, classrooms, libraries, and homes. If nothing else I want everyone to truly pass the poetry, PLEASE.
To learn more about the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award through Penn State, see their Web site at http://app.outreach.psu.edu/childrensliterature/default.asp?WhichPage=award.
To learn more about the Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award through the International Reading Association, go here: http://www.reading.org/awards/Lee.html. | 
