Overheard in Boyds Mills: Poetry for All!

This Tuesday I come to you from the tiny crossroads of Boyds Mills in Pennsylvania, home of Highlights Magazine founders and now writers' workshop boomtown.  Since building "The Barn," the Highlights Foundation can now host more workshops like the one I'm attending, with more participants.  The Barn is beautiful, convenient and comfortable, and the trend is for workshops to have both multiple leaders--we're enjoying the leadership and modeling of poets David Harrison, Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Eileen Spinelli--and several special guests.

Quite a few fellow participants are recent arrivals to the Kidlitosphere, so I and some other regulars, including Robyn Hood Black (whose newly refurbished blog features lots of info about this and other Founders' Workshops) and Joy Acey, (a daily-poem poster like my new friend Bridget Magee) have been letting them know what a welcoming, generous and supportive community we have here.  The Kidlitosphere site is a place to start, but it appears to be down, so try this Friday's Poetry Friday party hosted by Katya at Write. Sketch. Repeat.  Today she absolutely proves my point about this community! 

Other blogs to visit include A Year of Reading, where Franki covers the library beat and  Mary Lee keeps tabs on the hosting calendar (we all take turns rounding up all the Poetry Friday posts; Irene did it last week and it looks like this).  Steven Withrow up and established PACYA, Poetry Advocates for Children and Young Adults, and the PACYA blog, Poetry at Play, features another participant, Liz Steinglass, interviewing Cynthia Grady, a treat I missed back in April.

More of us have blogs and websites that deserve a mention as we all find each other online, but one of the glories of this retreat is a Bedtime of Your Choice, and I choose now!