Welcome.
Thanks for visiting my blog, Dr. Sasslyn’s Thoughts.
A little about the name — when I was in Hamline’s MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, my cohort found out that I had a PhD. They encouraged me to embrace my Dr. They also saw me go from a shy, quiet, not talking person in the back row, to a strong individual with a lot of opinions. Thus, my nickname was born. Dr. Sasslyn.
I hope to post every two weeks or so with a combination of opinions about the world, writing thoughts, book observations and an on-going discussion of my favorite — verse novels and poetry. I hope you’ll come back and check it out!
Brilliant Memoirs of Jacqueline Woodson and Marilyn Nelson
Jacqueline Woodson and Marilyn Nelson wrote extraordinary memoirs, which are also verse novels. If you haven’t read them, you should. Right now. Brown Girl Dreaming won the 2014 National Book Award and is Jacqueline Woodson’s autobiography told in free verse. Covering...
Some of my favorite historical fiction verse novels!
One of the things verse novels do best is bring the reader into the mind of the character. That ability renders difficult subjects like rape and abuse intimate and painful to read. In Blood, Water, Paint Joy McCullough writes about an Italian Renaissance...
Margarita Engle – Poet, Historian, Transformative
Margarita Engle is the 2017-2019 National Young People’s Poet Laureate. She's a Cuban-American poet whose work is grounded in Cuban history. Her language is evocative and beautiful - I think that’s what makes these stories transformative. Part of why I...
History! Fiction! Poetry! History and Non Fiction and Historical Fiction in Verse Novels
It’s a trifecta for me. These authors do something amazing. They craft a verse novel around a historical subject — sometimes nonfiction sometimes in the genre of historical fiction — in POETRY. For me, poetry is challenging. Studying history is...
Welcome.
Thanks for visiting my blog, DR. SASSLYN’S LOG/BLOG!
... read more
A little about the name — when I was in Hamline’s MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, my cohort found out that I had a PhD. They encouraged me to embrace my Dr. They also saw me go from a shy, quiet, not talking person in the back row, to a strong individual with a lot of opinions. Thus, my nickname was born. Dr. Sasslyn.
I hope to post every two weeks or so with a combination of opinions about the world, writing thoughts, book observations and an on-going discussion of my favorite — verse novels and poetry. I hope you’ll come back and check it out!
Latest Posts:
Writing White
I’m struggling with a writing issue. I’m deep into a revision of my verse novel. I wrote the initial draft quickly during NANOWRIMO – it was no where near 50K words, but folks, it’s poetry. As I dig through this first really big revision, I’m starting to see...
The Start of What I Learned From When They See Us
I’m 45. Soon to be 46. When the Central Park jogger case happened, I was a junior in high school. I’m also white. And yes, that’s important to know. Here’s what I remembered: Wilding – scary thing happening with young men in Central Park. Young black men were accused....
Upon Waking: 58 Voices from the Shadow of Abuse
I’m excited to announce the publication of an anthology – Upon Waking: 58 Voices from the Shadow of Abuse. One of those voices, is mine. Two of my poems are included – “The Child Knows No” and “In Which I Sue for Memory and Associated Damages.” I’m honored and proud...
Making Defining
I told my therapist last week, as we admired the pretty picture of Defining on my phone, writing it was a little bit like vomiting up word nails. Now, as I read it, I understand those words spell out some bad shit. Sad shit. Some trauma. But do you know what I see?...
My Poetry Obsession – The Acrostic
I’m a huge fan of form poetry. Sestinas. Pantoums. Haiku. But lately, it’s been acrostic – all day, all the time. Acrostics are fascinating. Basically, the first letter of each line spells out a name, a word, a message. We usually encounter acrostics when we’re in...
How Ms. Shimkus and Pre-Calc Taught Me About Me
This one’s not about writing. Not exactly anyway. But it is about me. And a lesson I learned a long time ago. I was sixteen and in Pre-Calc. My junior year of high school. Math was never my best subject and I hated it. It was like a strange language and I...