Join us tomorrow for the 8th Annual African American Children’s Book Fair hosted by the Reginald F. Lewis Museum. For a long time, this was one of the only book fairs that invited indie authors and this year I’m honored to be on a panel with Just Us Books founders Cheryl Willis Hudson and Wade Hudson. The fair starts at 11am and concludes with our panel at 2pm. Get your free tickets here. We tried and tried to figure out why my mic works but not my camera. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a solution so I will be audio only, which suits me just fine; I’d much rather have folks listening to my ideas. And that means I can wear my pajamas if I want!

You can also hear my voice in of the Little, Brown podcast. For about forty minutes Victoria and I discussed mentor texts and the mechanics of writing poetry. I also got to share my experience teaching poetry to teens—and my next online class will start on July 7 with the Hennepin County Library. It’s open to teens everywhere but I’m looking to hearing from young poets in Minneapolis. After everything that’s happened in the past month, I imagine they’ll have a lot to share.