Bio:

In my newest book, Write a Poem Step by Step: A Simple, Logical Plan You Can Follow to Create Your Own Poems, you'll find the tools you need to write and revise your own poems, a plan you can follow from choosing a good idea to polishing a final draft, and model poems written by elementary school students in my poetry workshops. Thousands of students use this helpful method to create their own poems. Now you can, too!

Baby Says, "Moo!" is a cumulative rhyming picture book published in spring 2011 by Disney-Hyperion Books. David Walker created the adorable illustrations.

Waiting Out the Storm is a rhyming picture book published by Candlewick Press in spring 2010. Susan Gaber created the gorgeous, perfect illustrations, and Booklist gave it a starred review.

Flip, Float, Fly! Seeds on the Move is a nonfiction picture book that describes the many ways seeds travel. Pam Paparone illustrated it, and Holiday House published it in 2008. It received the Growing Good Kids - Excellence in Children's Literature Award from the American Horticultural Society and the National Junior Master Gardener Program.

My rhyming picture book Sing-Along Song, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, was published by Viking in 2004. The Texas Library Association chose Sing-Along Song for the 2005 Texas 2 x 2 Reading List. My first picture book, Cats on Judy, was illustrated by Judith DuFour Love and published by Whispering Coyote Press/Charlesbridge Publishing in 1997. I've also written poems, articles for writers, and more than one hundred nonfiction books for school and library publishers.

I speak to children, teens, and adults about poetry and writing at schools, libraries, and conferences. I received the Barbara Juster Esbensen 2000 Poetry Teaching Award for my work with a third grade class. For more details about my presentations, please see my web site at www.joannmacken.com.

I am a graduate of the M.F.A. in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program at Vermont College, and I teach writing courses at Mount Mary College, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Writer
PAL
Member since 1996
Region: Wisconsin

Contact Information

Website:  http://www.joannmacken.com

Published In Children's Market: Yes
Available for Speaking Engagements? Yes