~Irene Latham~ Award-Winning Children’s Novelist

Meet Irene Latham, award winning children’s author.

Irene and I met at the Southern Christian Writer’s Conference

in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 2010.

I was new to that conference and a tad intimidated.

Irene’s smile and genuine hospitality warmed the place and put me at ease.

She kindly answered the many questions I had about writing, gave me many tips, and encouraged me to pursue my dreams.

Later that year, I began a new writing group,

Cahaba Christian Writers.

I invited Irene to come and share the same advice she had given me.

She was a hit.

Take the time to visit her website and read one of her many books.

My favorite is still Leaving Gee’s Bend.

When I think about what writing should be, the word freedom often leaps to mind. I remember all the poems and stories a younger me wrote, just for myself, with no thought at all of publication. I indulged my own whimsy and obsessions, and didn’t consider an audience, since I didn’t have an audience. All those poems and stories went into notebooks and drawers. I never had any intention of showing them to anyone – what if they didn’t like them? It was far easier and safer to keep all those wild imaginings to myself.

And then something changed. I was the mother to three beautiful children, and I was fulfilled my motherhood on many levels. But, I longed for something all my own, all about me, just for me. I looked around my house and saw piles and piles of paper– all those words I’d been writing all those years. And I decided to learn to be brave, to develop my courage. I took a community education class on freelance writing and announced that I wanted to write poetry. I attended conferences on craft. I joined a critique group. I started submitting my work for publication.

I got a lot of Nos. I still get a lot of Nos. But, eventually, gradually, I started getting Yeses. The shake in my voice smoothed, my trembling hands quieted. I learned the freedom and fulfillment found in sharing myself and my work with others.

I still worry sometimes about what people will think, if they will like my stories and poems. But I’m no longer paralyzed by it. I push through it. I write through it.

This month I’m so pleased to announce the release of my third collection of poems for adults THE SKY BETWEEN US. The poems explore what we learn from nature about being human. Here’s a poem on the theme of freedom:

Cartographer’s Creed

We don’t believe in perfection.

We thrive on striving,

we give credit where due.

Arrows warn of steep climbing—

or precipitous descent.

Curving contour lines

offer temporary respite.

Every road ends on

or off the map,

merging with others,

with mountains or meadows.

Just because a lake

isn’t sketched and marked

doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Despite what we’ve been taught,

the legend is not

what’s most important.

Explore, meander.

Leave something out;

allow mystery to watercolor

and soften the ink.

Be tender as you unfold.

Treasure the places

tucked into creases.

What can nature teach us about being human? Find out in my new book of poems THE SKY BETWEEN US, available January 7, 2014.
www.irenelatham.com.

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THE SKY BETWEEN US

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~As Always, THANKS for stopping by~