An Exciting Publishing Goal Met: “I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry”

As I shared in a recent writing update, this past year did not feel very successful in terms of my publishing goals. I received many more rejections than the previous year. However, with the many rejections also came one acceptance which was very exciting for me!

Toward the end of 2023, I heard about the opportunity. A small publishing company, Bandersnatch Books, was accepting submissions for a new illustrated children’s poetry anthology.

I was the kind of child who actually read poetry anthologies cover to cover! A.A. Milne’s When We Were Very Young and Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses were hugely influential in the development of my love of poetry and language. Favorite Poems Old and New, edited by Helen Ferris, was another favorite anthology. I shared some of my thoughts on poetry in this blog post, several years back.

After hearing about the opportunity to submit poetry, I thought about my favorite poems as a child and about my dear former 1st grade students. I had tried to pass on all my love for poetry to them! I wrote and developed two poems which I submitted in January 2024. In October 2024, I found out that one of my poems was accepted and signed a contract! It was such an honor when I saw the list of poets to recognize names of published poets who have already contributed beautiful, interesting, and fun poems to the world.

The anthology still has a long way to go, but the Kickstarter will be opening next month. You can read a little more about the project and request to be notified of the launch here!