Erin Bow

Authors’ Booking Service is pleased to announce that YA author Erin Bow is now scheduling visits to Ontario schools. 

She would love to plan a visit to your school or library.  Her rate is $250 per session, plus travel from Waterloo.

Erin Bow is the author of two books of poetry, a memoir, and a hot forthcoming young adult novel called Plain Kate, which was the subject of a five-way auction and eventually sold for six figures.  Erin's writing has won several national literary awards, including the CBC Literary Award.  Her all-time favorite job was as the Writer in Residence at the Waterloo Public Library.   

Published Works:

Plain Kate, Arthur A. Levine Books at Scholastic, and Scholastic Canada.  Forthcoming September 1, 2010. 

The Mongoose Diaries (memoir) Wolsak and Wynn, 2007

Seal up the Thunder (poetry) Wolsak and Wynn 2005

Ghost Maps: Poems of Carl Hruska (poetry) Wolsak and Wynn 2005 

Awards and Honours:

KW Arts Award for Literature 

The Mongoose Diaries: 

Long-listed for the Edna Staebler award for Creative Non-Fiction 

Ghost Maps:

Winner of the CBC Canadain Literary Award in the category English-Language Poetry

Winner of the Acorn/Plantos Award for poetry "in the people's voice". 

Short-listed for Pat Lowther Award for best book of poetry by a woman 

Presentation Details: 

From words to book:

Writing Plain Kate took me six years.  Let me walk students through getting an idea and creating characters - through writer's block and the long slog of the first draft - through editing your own work - through finding an agent and the excitement of making a sale. 

And then comes the fun part:  a two-foot tall stack of manuscripts that represent my work with my editors and copy editors.  I'll show specific examples of editorial comments and revisions, and talk generally about how to make a story stronger.   

I also resources for students who are interested in publishing their own work, and I take questions all along the way. 

This is a lively, interactive presentation, best suited for grades six and up.     

A different kind of history book

My award-winning poetry book Ghost Maps is drawn from six months of interviews I did with a veteran of World War II's Battle of the Bulge.  I meant to write a novel, but I found all of the action of a novel is not recorded in history books:  how DO you sleep in a fox hole?  What do you eat?  How do you keep your socks dry?  

In reading from this book and telling the story of its creation, I'll provide a gentle introduction to the concept of  social history, and bring the real experience of our veterans to life. 

If it fits your class's needs, I give practical advice on how to collect an oral history from parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends.  What will future generations want to know?  How can your students, as young historians, bring those lives to light? 

This presentation works best with a single or double classroom of up to fifty high school students. 

Haiku:

I'm a well-known haiku writer, and I lead haiku workshops for students as young as grade two.   Get beyond 5-7-5 and learn about season words -- about the haiku leap -- and about looking at the everyday world with haiku eyes.   My most recent class, fourth graders, wrote these: 

My beautiful horse
had a beautiful foal
too close to winter 
The maples are fire colour
We are bourning lefs
The smoke smells yello  

I can also talk about how haiku is traditionally combined with images and used in decoration.  A "tanabata tree" makes a great all-school project. 

This presentation works best with a single class of up to thirty students, and requires a chalkboard, white board, or flip chart.