Author-in-Residence Reminders

Our visit with Naomi Shihab Nye is just a few days away! There are many wonderful events and celebrations taking place this week. Families, make sure to check See Saw or Google Classroom for updates and details of each grade level's workshops.

BOOK SINGING

You are welcome to bring in a book to be signed! Please label with your name and description of how you would like it to be signed.

FAMILY POETRY NIGHT

Check our FISW Calendar Highlights sent to families by email for details about the event and RSVP form! Naomi will perform some poetry readings and we will write together as families. Our PTG will kindly provide snacks and drinks.

FISW SPIRIT WEEK

• Monday: FISW Spirit - Show your Warriors pride by wearing maroon and gold.
• Tuesday: Curl up and Read - Wear your pajamas!
• Wednesday: Poem in Your Pocket - Bring your favorite poem to share.
• Thursday: Book Character - Dress as your favorite book character.
• Friday: Fasching - Wear a costume and celebrate the Fasching with your best “HELAU”!

FISW Author-in-Residence: Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye will join our FISW community of readers and writers from February 15-17, 2023. Naomi was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was a Palestinian refugee and her mother an American of German and Swiss descent, and Nye spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas. She earned her BA from Trinity University in San Antonio.

Nye is the recipient of numerous honors and awards for her more than 30 volumes of work, including the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Book Critics Circle, the Lavan Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Carity Randall Prize, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry award, the Robert Creeley Prize, and many Pushcart Prizes. She has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and she was a Witter Bynner Fellow. From 2010 to 2015 she served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In 2018 she was awarded the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Texas Institute of Letters. Nye also served as the Poetry Foundation's Young People's Poet Laureate.

As a culmination to our school-wide inquiry into poetry, Naomi will work with all FISW students from First Steps through Grade 8 engaging them in poetry workshops. Naomi will share her process, write with our students, put poetry to music and encourage all of us to share the gift of poetry with each other.

Please explore the following resources to learn more about Naomi’s work and other poetry for children:

• Poetry Choice Board (also located on the FISW Library home page)

• Naomi Shihab Nye FISW Padlet