2002 Annual Report, Selection Committee for the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children

The NCTE Poetry Committee met at the Baltimore convention and also sponsored a session there that featured a number of notable children’s poets reading from their works in an interactive session.  In addition, the Committee sponsored a session with poet Nancy Willard as featured poet at the Spring NCTE Meeting in Portland. 

The Committee is sponsoring a session at the Atlanta convention.  This session will feature poets, teachers, and librarians and was designed as a celebration of poetry after 25 years of the NCTE Excellence in Poetry award.  The teachers and the librarian will focus on celebrating poetry in their classrooms and library, while the poets will reflect on their lives as poets.

The Committee will be meeting in closed session in Atlanta in order to complete its deliberations as it selects the next NCTE poet.  We hope to announce this information during the Convention, with the selected poet featured in a session at the 2003 Convention to be held in San Francisco.   

OShirley B. Ernst, Chair