The Poetry Foundation is pleased to announce that poet Kenn Nesbitt will serve as the next Children’s Poet Laureate: Consultant in Children’s Poetry to the Poetry Foundation. In awarding the $25,000 cash prize and two-year title, the Poetry Foundation aims to raise awareness that children have a natural receptivity to poetry and are its most appreciative audience, especially when poems are written specifically for them.
Kenn Nesbitt, 51, is the author of numerous books of poetry for children, including The Tighty-Whitey Spider (2010), My Hippo Has the Hiccups (2009), and Revenge of the Lunch Ladies (2007). His books abound with humorous and silly situations, and his poems have appeared in hundreds of anthologies, magazines, and textbooks worldwide. His poems have also been adapted to other media, including music and film. Nesbitt wrote his first children’s poem, “Scrawny Tawny Skinner,” in 1994, and published his first poetry book, My Foot Fell Asleep, in 1998.
Nesbitt succeeds J. Patrick Lewis to become the fourth Children’s Poet Laureate, and the youngest ever to hold the title. Born in Berkeley, California, Nesbitt grew up in Fresno and San Diego and majored in computer science at National University in San Diego. He currently lives in Spokane, Washington, with his wife and two children.
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