Two Chapbooks of Poems just published

The publishing class in the creative writing program at Chatham recently published two chapbooks of my poems.

One a book of nature poems and the other a book of poems about Haiti.

Contact me for more information.

Sangoel Nominated for the Carol W. Field award! And More....

My Name is Sangoel has been nominated for the Carol W. Field award by the Pennsylvania Library Association.  This is an exciting honor.  Check it out at http://palayouthservices.blogspot.com/2010/03/carolyn-field-nominees-selected.html.

And see this review of A Beach Tail in  Booklist.  Gotta love the line, " Williams always takes readers on a worthwhile journey...."

Issue: April 15, 2010

A Beach Tail.

Williams, Karen Lynn (Author) , Cooper, Floyd (Illustrator)

Feb 2010. 32 p. Boyds Mills, hardcover, $17.95. (9781590787120).

The titular tail refers here to a lion drawn in the sand by Gregory, an intrepid boy who, in extending the tail

with a stick, winds up exploring a broad length of beach without quite disobeying his dad’s directive to not

wander way. As the boy goes further and further, he comes across such common seaside sights as a

jellyfish, a crumbling sand castle, a horseshoe crab, and a ghost crab. Finally realizing the distance he has

traveled, he traces his tail, with its swirls and zigzags, back past the objects he has found. Williams, who

always takes readers on a worthwhile journey, accentuates her straightforward telling with the repetitive

sounds of the shore (“Swish-swoosh”), which also punctuate Gregory’s embellishments of the long tail.

Cooper’s warm, peachy-brown palette splendidly evokes the seaside setting, and his talent for expressive

faces and texture (he won the 2009 Coretta Scott King Award for The Blacker the Berry) works to draw in

viewers. A lovely collaboration suited for every collection.

— Karen Cruze