Sometimes, in order to get a fresh start, a cleansing is needed. A common practice to start the New Year is to have a burning festival to send off the old. Whether it is Dondo-yaki in Japan or Up Helly Aa in Scotland, communities join together to provide a collectie spark for the New Year.
Jane Hirshfield was born in New York City on February 24, 1953. A poet, translator, essayist, and editor, she received her BA from Princeton University in its first graduating class to include women, and went on to study at the San Francisco Zen Center.
Hirshfield is also the author of Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World (Alfred A. Knopf, 2015); Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (HarperCollins, 1997); and an e-book on Matsuo Bashō, titled The Heart of Haiku (2011). She has also edited and co-translated books with Mariko Aratani and Robert Bly.
Ocean Vuong, born on October 14, 1988, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is a celebrated Vietnamese-American poet, essayist, and novelist. Emigrating to the United States as a child, Vuong navigated the challenges of adapting to a new culture and language. His debut poetry collection included the introspective poem "Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong." Vuong has received prestigious awards such as the T.S. Eliot Prize and a Whiting Award. As an openly gay and immigrant writer, Ocean Vuong's work continues to shape discussions on cultural identity and the human condition.
The best way to start a New Year? Choose to be kind.
"Dinner with Jack" comes from Megan Fernandes' poetry compilation I Do Everything I'm Told, published by Tin House in 2023. It is funny, dark and smart, and according to the publisher, "explores disobedience and worship, longing and possessiveness, and nights of wandering cities".
Fernandes was born in Canada and grew up in the United States. She now lives in New York City. This poem is a good example of Fernandes’ dark irreverence, focused as it is on the underbelly of love, and where it fails.
As both a writer and an illustrator, Taiwanese-American Grace Lin has published prolifically, including the Ling & Ting series and the Pacy series of chidren's books. She drew considerable attention for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, which won numerous awards, including a Newbery Honor. The novel is a fantasy-adventure inspired by Chinese folklore, and has two sequels, Starry River of the Sky and When the Sea Turns to Silver.
ALEBRIJES is a dystopian novel set hundreds of years in the future when Earth's ecosystems have been destroyed. When the main character, Leandro, is falsely accused of stealing, he suffers a bizarre punishment: his consciousness is placed inside a hummingbird-shaped drone. Now, he must begin life anew, with his mind inside a tiny metal animal...
Donna Barba Higuera is a Latin-American author who grew up in Central California and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. She has spent her entire life blending folklore with her experiences into stories that fill her imagination. Donna is also the authour of the novels LUPE WONG WON'T DANCE and THE LAST CUENTISTA, which won the Newbery Medal.
It is nice to start a New Year with new hope, even if so many things seem hopeless. To create goals to build something rather than accept what has always been. Langston Hughes reminds us that it is okay to dream.
The poem, “The Land of Beginning Again” was born in the mind of a troubled young lady named Louisa Fletcher, early in the 20th century. Louisa’s life had been tumultuous at best. Her first husband, the famous poet, Booth Tarkington, was a desperate alcoholic, and their marriage ended in divorce after only a few years, but another marriage soon presented her with a daughter. That child however, was born schizophrenic, ending her young life at the age of 16. A year later Louisa wrote this poem, and shortly thereafter, died herself. The grief of a troubled life is evident between the lines. A life that sought a better station is clear, a place where deeds were forgiven and things became new.
"The Hill We Climb" by Amanda Gorman is a powerful and uplifting poem that addresses the challenges and aspirations of a nation. Gorman, gained widespread acclaim for her performance of this poem at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Beyond her remarkable delivery, Amanda Gorman's accomplishments include being named the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. In her work, she explores themes of unity, resilience, and the possibility of positive change, reflecting on America's historical struggles while emphasizing collective responsibility for a better future. The poet's use of vivid imagery and a hopeful tone celebrates strength in facing adversity and working together.
Ellen M H Gates was born in Conneticuit in 1835. She began writing poems and hymns which were published in various magazines and in her published books including Night, At Noontide, The Treasures of Kurium, and To the Unborn Peoples. Her hymn "your mission" has been sung by many people, inlcuding the group Philip Philips, The Singing Pilgrim, Philip H. Phillips and company, Cincinnati. Abraham Lincoln heard the Cincinnati randision, and it became one of his favourite hymns.
The Giving Snowman by Julia Zheng is a story about kindness and gratitude. A generous Snowman selflessly helps a Bird, Rabbit, Farmer, and Traveler when they are in need. When the Snowman faces his own hardship, Bird, Rabbit, Farmer and Traveler band together to help out their friend. Julia Zheng is a children's author from Fujian, China. She studied English and Western Culture and Nanchang University, and now lives in Massachusetts. Zheng writes children's books with humour, warmth, and twist endings.
"Horses in Snow” by Roberta Hill Whiteman is a frosty depiction of life in the mountains in the middle of winter, and an exploration of hope, desire, and perseverance. An Oneida poet, fiction writer, essayist, and scholar, Hill Whiteman’s work explores the juxtaposition of ancestral Indigenous culture and formal Western approaches to verse. Her poetry has been anthologized in Harper’s Anthology of Twentieth Century Native American Poetry, The Third Woman: Minority Women Writers of the United States, and Carriers of the Dream Wheel: Contemporary Native American Poetry. She is a professor of English and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and she has led Poets-in-the-Schools programs across the United States.
Pablo Neruda, born in Parral, Chile, was a Nobel Prize-winning poet and diplomat whose works resonate with profound emotional intensity and vivid imagery. A literary giant of the 20th century, Neruda's expansive body of work encompasses love, politics, and the human condition. Among his notable poems is "Ode to My Socks," a whimsical yet deeply contemplative piece that elevates the ordinary to the extraordinary. In this ode, Neruda artfully celebrates the humble sock, transforming it into a symbol of beauty, warmth, and the simplicity of life.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gail Mazur grew up in Auburndale, MA. She founded the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Harvard Square which became, with its weekly readings, a center of poetry life, bringing national and international writers to read in a lively informal atmosphere. As an activist with her late husband, the artist Michael Mazur and others Massachusetts writers and artists, she co-founded, in 1968, Artists Against Racism and the War, and later they were activists for a Nuclear Freeze. Blacksmith House presented benefit readings for, among other issues.
Winter Haiku are always fun. These Haiku by 3 of the 4 most significant contributers to the form (Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki) allow for both the wonder and wonderment of the season.
Chelsea Dingman is a former Visiting Instructor at the University of South Florida. She is originally from British Columbia, Canada. She has lived in four countries and countless cities in North America. She currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta with her husband, two sons, and baby daughter. She has written several anthrologies over the years, the most well known titled "Thaw".
Naomi Shihab Nye, born in St. Louis, Missouri, is is a distinguished Palestinian-American poet, essayist, and songwriter known for her exploration of identity and culture. In her poem "Snow," Nye captures the fleeting beauty of this natural phenomenon, intertwining it with reflections on life's transient moments.
Emily Jungmin Yoon is a poet, translator, editor, and scholar. She received her BA in English and Communication from the University of Pennsylvania, an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University, and her PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Korean Literature at the University of Hawai’i. Her poem, “Between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, Today”,employs the word cold to ponder linguistic gaps and the space between seasons.
Kenard Pak, author of Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter and Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring, has experienced changing seasons in his life as well. Starting out as a visual development artist with DreamWorks and Disney, working on movies such as Madagascar, Trolls, The Road To El Dorado and Star Wars: Clone Wars. Pak has also illustrated children's books such as Have You Heard the Nesting Bird? by Rita Gray and The Dinner That Cooked Itself by J. C. Hsyu. He now lives in San Francisco with his wife and their three cats.
As leaves fall from their trees, animals huddle against the cold, and frost creeps across windows, everyone knows—winter is on its way!
Join a brother and sister as they explore nature and take a stroll through their twinkling town, greeting all the signs of the coming season. In a series of conversations with everything from the setting sun to curious deer, they say goodbye to autumn and welcome the glorious first snow of winter in Kenar Pak's Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter