Shady Side Academy will welcome award-winning Palestinian-American poet, writer, anthologist and educator Naomi Shihab Nye for a three-day visit on Dec. 7-9, 2011. Her visit will include readings, presentations and workshops for students and teachers in grades K-12 on all three campuses. Her visit will culminate with a free public reading and lecture on Friday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillman Center for Performing Arts on the Senior School campus in Fox Chapel.
Nye’s visit is being coordinated by a committee of librarians and English teachers at all three campuses, including Reed Williams, Phyllis Guering, Mary Guering, Martha Banwell, Linda McDonald Joseph and Sherri Hallgren. Her visit schedule is as follows:
Wednesday, Dec. 7 – Junior School Campus
Students are reading some of Nye’s children’s books in preparation for her visit. Nye will give a 45-minute presentation on the language of picture books for students in grades K-2 in the morning, then lead a 45-minute poetry presentation and workshop for students in grades 3-5 in the afternoon. At 4 p.m., Nye will lead a workshop for 25 SSA teachers from all three schools on teaching writing and poetry.
Thursday, Dec. 8 – Middle School Campus
Teachers are selecting different Nye works for each grade to read in advance of her visit. Nye will lead three 80-minute reading and writing workshops during the school day for students in grades 6, 7 and 8.
Friday, Dec. 9 – Senior School Campus
All students are reading Nye’s book, I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are You Okay? before her visit. Nye will speak to the entire student body and answer questions at a special 10 a.m. assembly. She'll also hold two 90-minute workshops for smaller groups of students interested in writing and poetry: a beginning writing workshop for 25 freshmen and sophomores in the morning, and an advanced writing workshop for 15-20 juniors and seniors in the afternoon. Students in the advanced workshop will submit samples of their writing to Nye to read in advance.
Friday, Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m. – An Evening With Poet Naomi Shihab Nye
Hillman Center for Performing Arts, Senior School Campus
Nye will deliver a 50-minute poetry reading and commentary, followed by 20-30 minutes of Q&A with the audience. After the show, the author will be available to sign books, and several of her books will be available for sale. The event is free and open to the public.
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Naomi Shihab Nye Biography
Naomi Shihab Nye describes herself as a “wandering poet.” She has spent 37 years traveling the country and the world to lead writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem and San Antonio. Drawing on her Palestinian-American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her experiences traveling in Asia, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America and the Middle East, Nye uses her writing to attest to our shared humanity.
Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes. Her books of poetry include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, Red Suitcase, Words Under the Words, Fuel, and You & Yours (a best-selling poetry book of 2006). She is also the author of Mint Snowball, Never in a Hurry, I’ll Ask You Three Times, Are You Okay? Tales of Driving and Being Driven (essays); Habibi and Going Going (novels for young readers); and Baby Radar and Sitti's Secrets (picture books). Other works include eight prize-winning poetry anthologies for young readers, including Time You Let Me In, This Same Sky, The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems & Paintings from the Middle East, and What Have You Lost? Her collection of poems for young adults entitled Honeybee won the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children’s/Young Adult category. Fall of 2011 saw the publication of two new books, There Is No Long Distance Now (a collection of very short stories) and Transfer (poems).
Nye has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow and a Witter Bynner Fellow (Library of Congress). She has received a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, four Pushcart Prizes and numerous honors for her children’s literature, including two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards. In 2011 Nye won the Golden Rose Award given by the New England Poetry Club, the oldest poetry reading series in the country. Her collection 19 Varieties of Gazelle was a finalist for the National Book Award. She is a regular columnist for Organica. Her work has been presented on National Public Radio on A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer’s Almanac. She has been featured on two PBS poetry specials: “The Language of Life With Bill Moyers” and “The United States of Poetry” and also appeared on NOW With Bill Moyers. She has been a visiting writer for The Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Hawaii. In January 2010 she was elected to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets.