I’m in the process of writing a children’s book series, so I’ve been reading and rereading picture books, middle grade, and YA. It’s so fun! This week, I am reading The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill and am absolutely taken by the voice. It’s dazzling.
Since I have children’s literature on my mind, I’d have to say Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
I am energized by non-traditional approaches to literature. Novels in verse. Epistolary novels and memoirs. Alternating points of view. Fairy tale retellings.
Attending the Poetry at Round Top conference. I first attended in 2012 and I haven’t missed a year! It’s a beautiful community of people in the most idyllic setting.
I have myriad visions for lives that I might live: bookshop owner, European tour guide, florist, real-estate agent, tarot card reader at the Renaissance festival, or one of those people who dress up as Disney characters at the Magic Kingdom…I’ve daydreamed about a lot of different adventures!
Lauren Berry received a BA in Creative Writing from Florida State University and an MFA from the University of Houston where she won the Inprint Verlaine Prize and served as poetry editor for Gulf Coast. From 2009 to 2010, she held the Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellowship at the Wisconsin Institute. Her work has appeared in magazines such as Agni, Silk Road, The Adroit Journal, Denver Quarterly, and Iron Horse Literary Review. Terrance Hayes selected her first collection, The Lifting Dress (Penguin, 2011), to win the National Poetry Series prize. Her second collection, The Rented Altar, won the C&R Press Award in poetry (C&R Press, 2020) and the 2021 gold medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. She teaches AP English Literature at YES Prep Public Schools, a charter school that provides college preparatory education to Houston’s most underserved communities. Additionally, Lauren leads poetry workshops for local non-profits, Inprint and Grackle and Grackle. She recently became president of Glass Mountain’s board of directors.
