X for Poets: Children's Book Writing for Poets with Richard Michelson

November 22, 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.

Poetry for Children, Teens, Adults: Commonalities and Differences

Great poetry is great poetry, whether aimed at children, teens, or adults. With any luck we will experience all three phases of life. Yet some of our finest poets are unable to bridge the divide, while others write magnificently for different audiences. 

This workshop will be geared to those writers hoping to spread their wings and broaden their audience. We will look at examples of award-winning adult poets who have been able to connect with children, and well-known children’s authors who’ve broken through writing for adults. We will read poets who are equally at ease in both camps: Richard Wilbur, Ted Hughes, Naomi Shihab Nye, Nikki Giovanni, and others. And we’ll try our hand at crossing those boundaries ourselves.

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Richard Michelson’s books for children, teens, and adults have been named among the

Ten Best of the Year by the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and the New Yorker; and

among the Best Dozen of the Decade by Amazon.com. Michelson has received a National Jewish Book Award and two Sydney Taylor Gold Medals from the Association of Jewish Libraries. Six of Michelson’s children’s books were PJ Library selections. His poetry collections include Sleeping as Fast as I Can (Slant), More Money than God (Pitt Poetry Series), and Battles and Lullabies (U of Illinois Press). The Jerusalem Post says: “Michelson has a profound grasp of Jewish history, of antisemitism and pogroms, of moral teachings and midrash, of sinners and prophets . . . [Michelson’s] is an indispensable Jewish voice in this generation.”

** 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.