Member Spotlight: Joan Bransfield Graham

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? Writing is my response to and my conversation with the world. Writing leads to understanding, empathy, new perspectives, knowledge, and allows us to learn from the ages, connect with others through time and space. Writing helps us become who we are meant to be. As a children’s book writer and former teacher, I have an opportunity to widen the world for students. I’ve been fortunate to be able to visit about 50 countries and enjoy using some of my photos from around the globe in my Author Visits. I’ll never forget one little boy who came up after my presentation and said, “That’s the FUN-est thing I’ve ever seen—I’ve never seen a waterfall before.” There are children in L.A. who have never seen the ocean, and schools take field trips to see it. With my new book AWESOME EARTH I am able to show some of Earth’s wonders to help students appreciate the Earth we all share, while also learning about science, poetry, and art.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? It’s funny you should ask that because my last book The Poem That Will Not End: Fun with Poetic Forms and Voices is the opposite of Writer’s Block. It’s about Ryan O’Brian who can’t stop writing poetry and does so in very unique ways. What finally stops his poetry writing spree? I guess you’ll have to read the book. I do think it is good to “fill the well.” Nature is always inspiring, the ocean, new surroundings. I can’t go to an art museum without wanting to write or take photos. Once I heard Betty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, speak, and she suggested making good use of that twilight state before the editorial side of your brain wakes up. I keep a pencil, paper, and a flashlight next to my bed.

What is your favorite time to write? My favorite time to write is whenever something makes me laugh, captures my attention, grabs my heart, teases my curiosity, my creativity. My newest book Awesome Earth: Concrete Poems Celebrate Caves, Canyons, and Other Fascinating Landforms was inspired during my yoga class. We were doing the “Mountain” pose, Tadasana, and the teacher said, “Feel the power and majesty of a mountain” . . . and I did. I started writing a poem in my head in the voice of the mountain—a “mask” poem. Of course, I had to run to my purse to find a scrap of paper to write it down. “Mountain” became the first poem in that book and made me think of many other landforms that grace our Earth. What better way to deal with forms than with shape itself—concrete poetry.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? “Show, don’t tell” is important. Wonderful writer Sid Fleischman used to say, “If you have a problem in your story, point to it”– amazingly, it disappears. His equally talented son Paul said that sometimes you have to build a porch to get into your story, but. once you’re in, maybe you don’t need it anymore. Poet Myra Cohn Livingston would say, “The lesson of haiku is the lesson of poetry.” Yes, less can be more. My photography teacher Warren King would say, “Move in as close as you can, then move in closer.” Poetry and Photography share a lot in common—both capture a moment in time, an amazing thing to accomplish.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? I believe I would have become a writer in any age–I like to think outside the box (or make my own box). Since I am a very visual person, I am grateful that in today’s technology I can combine my love of poetry, art, photography, science, and travel. Let me mention just two incredibly exciting things that have happened to me as a writer. The Casablanca American School flew me to Morocco for a week-long Author Visit, working with their students. On the weekend our school hosts treated me and the other author to a trip, by train, to visit Marrakech! When “Wicked” was a play, I won the L.A. Times “Wicked Around the World” Contest with a poem! They flew my husband and me to NYC to enjoy “Wicked” at the Gershwin Theatre with a two-night stay at the Westin Times Square, then on to London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre with orchestra seats, and a three-night stay at the Sheraton Park Lane. Back in L.A. I invited my daughter Aimee to join me at the Pantages for the last part of this amazing prize. I love being around the energy and imagination of creative people! And, the teacher in me loves challenging and encouraging students to leap from knowledge into creativity themselves. How joyful it has been to do Author Visits in so many places, meet and learn from other authors and artists, meet teachers and librarians at conferences, and help spread the pleasures of literacy! I feel very fortunate.

Joan Bransfield Graham’s Awesome Earth: Concrete Poems Celebrate Caves, Canyons, and Other Fascinating Landforms, illustrated by Tania Garcia, is out now with Clarion Books.