X for Poets: Children's Book Writing for Poets with Lesléa Newman

November 8, 2026
12:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m. ET

Please note that this is one session of a three-part workshop series. If you would like to sign up for all three workshops at once (led by Lesléa Newman, Sarah Sassoon, and Richard Michelson, respectively), please click here. If you have already signed up for the three-part workshop as a whole, you do not need to sign up again.

The ABCs of Poetry: Writing in Verse for Children and Teens

Formal poetry is poetry that sticks to a traditional pattern or structure and often uses rhyme, rhythm, and repetition, as well as other poetic techniques. Writing it is very much like solving a puzzle, and it is thrilling to watch all the pieces fall into place! Young readers love poetry and the seemingly contradictory but actually complementary elements of predictability and surprise it holds. 

This lecture presents an overview of poetic forms, including haiku, pantoum, sestina, ballad, ghazal, and villanelle, with many examples of poems written for very young children, middle-grade readers, teens, and adults. We will discuss the poems of Langston Hughes, Jane Yolen, Meg Kearney, Richard Wright, and Dr. Seuss, among others. The goal of the workshop is to demystify formal poetry, which some poets—even those with years of experience—find intimidating, and inspire writers to try their hand at it to see how much fun it can be to write formal verse for children and teens. Some time will be set aside for writing based on prompts.

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Lesléa Newman has created 90 books for readers of all ages including the memoirs-in-verse, I Carry My Mother and I Wish My Father; the novel-in-verse, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard; the poetry chapbook, I Remember: Hachiko Speaks; the short story collection, A Letter to Harvey Milk; and the children’s books, The Babka Sisters, Gittel’s Journey, Song of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Something Sweet: A Sitting Shiva Story. 

Individual poems have appeared in dozens of literary publications including Lilith, The Sun, Moment Magazine, Tikkun, The Jewish Writing Project, Calul Journal, and Judith Magazine. In addition, her work has been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Serbian, Kazakh, and Chinese. Lesléa’s awards and honors include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two National Jewish Book Awards, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, the Massachusetts Book Award, six Pushcart Prize nominations, the Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Body-of-Work Award, the Keshet Foundation Hachamat Lev Award, the Burning Bush Poetry Award, the Matthew Shepard Foundation Making a Difference Award, and a Christopher Medal. From 2008 – 2010, she served as the poet laureate of Northampton, MA. 

Her newest poetry collection, The Last Flame Last, a suite of 18 post-October 7th poems, will be published in November 2026 by Finishing Line Press.

** If this fee is a hardship, Yetzirah offers a pay-what-you-can option for workshop participation. No one will be turned away for lack of funds, but please contact Program Coordinator Kyra Lisse at klisse@yetzirahpoets.org if you would like a sliding-scale ticket. 

Yetzirah is a nonprofit organization, and any gift you make is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by the law.