* (This seems to be Kelly’s favorite exclamation) . . . <\/p>\n
Whew, it’s been a while since we’ve posted a blogger interview, but there are still a veritable slew<\/em> of bloggers left with whom we want to chat it up. This week it’s Kelly Fineman<\/a><\/strong> of the LiveJournal, Writing and Ruminating<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. Kelly’s posts are always a) fun and b) informative to read, two of our favorite things about our favorite bloggers, if you haven’t already noticed. But the best thing about Kelly can be summed up well in a comment she made to us when she sent in her interview responses: When pointing out her rather bold yet candid answers to such questions as “what is your favorite word?” and “what is your least favorite word?”, she told us, “I tried very hard to be truthful instead of clever.” Yup, that’s what we like about her — and that’s what you can expect over at her blog. <\/p>\n Over at Writing and Ruminating<\/em> — “I figured that what I\u2019d be using the blog for is to talk about writing (and life as a writer), and to share my thoughts. Hence, ‘Writing and Ruminating: One Children\u2019s Writer\u2019s Journey'” — Kelly is, for one thing, always dependable for a good Poetry Friday entry. She’s a poet, in case you didn’t know it (read two of her original poems here<\/a><\/strong> and here<\/a><\/strong>), so of course she’s all SQUEE!-y over those Poetry Friday entries. In fact, want to read a funny story? Here’s what she said about Poetry Friday:<\/p>\n I thought I {had} invented {it} back in April 2006 after I did a month\u2019s worth of poetry posts, only to find out that Kelly H.<\/a><\/strong> was there before me -\u2013 talk about Zeitgeist (here\u2019s my post<\/a><\/strong>). I even called it Poetry Friday<\/a><\/strong>, only to find out much later that others were doing the same thing. Funny, right? . . . <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Kelly even did us the favor of pointing our her favorite and “most representative” Poetry Friday posts, all fairly recent ones. “I\u2019m particularly proud of this one<\/a><\/strong> about Emily Dickinson, this one<\/a><\/strong> on Yeats, and this one<\/a><\/strong> on Wordsworth.” <\/p>\n Kelly also reviews books (“when the spirit moves me”) at Writing and Ruminating<\/em> — here’s<\/a><\/strong> a fine example, a pair of book reviews on “Graphix for Girlz,” reviews of To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel<\/em> and The Plain Janes<\/em>. Or, this one<\/a><\/strong> about Sara Zarr’s<\/a><\/strong> book, Story of a Girl<\/em>. Here are her wonderful reviews of Jazz A-B-Z<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, Dear Mr. Rosenwald<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, and Hugging the Rock<\/a><\/strong><\/em> from the recent multi-blog Under the Radar event<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n Really, folks, you can get a lot out of Kelly’s blog, but one of the best things is that she is really and truly a very reliable and informed poetry source. She reviews new anthologies like nobody’s business — see here<\/a><\/strong>, here<\/a><\/strong>, here<\/a><\/strong>, and here<\/a><\/strong> for just a few examples. It’s no surprise that, as she announced yesterday<\/a><\/strong>, she’ll be heading up the nominating and judging committees in the Poetry category for the upcoming Cybils 2007<\/a><\/strong>. We think those folks are in good hands. <\/p>\n Bottom line is that Kelly is your gal for both old-skool poetry classics<\/a><\/strong> (our apologies to Shelley for using the phrase “old-skool” to reference one of his poems) and newer anthologies<\/a><\/strong> — and everything else in between<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n And — once again, when the spirit moves her — she’ll conduct some pretty great interviews. You may have noticed in our recent interview with Adam Rex<\/a><\/strong> that we linked to Kelly’s previous interview with him<\/a><\/strong> from March of this year. And she’s also brought us some fabulous interviews via the Summer Blog Blast Tour<\/a><\/strong> (SBBT) and the Under the Radar event<\/a><\/strong> (and she’ll be participating in the upcoming Winter Blog Blast Tour as well). For the SBBT, she treated us to an interview with Laura Ruby<\/a><\/strong>, Jordan Sonnenblick<\/a><\/strong>, and Sara Zarr<\/a><\/strong>. For the Under the Radar event, she brought us an interview with Tony Mitton<\/a><\/strong>, but she also reviewed and generally praised the merits of his 2003 poetry anthology, Plum<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (that is, the U.S. edition from 2003, with illustrations by Mary GrandPr\u00e9<\/a><\/strong>; it was originally published in the U.K.). In fact, Kelly says this was one of her favorite posts. <\/p>\n “And I also talk about writing and editing poetry from time to time,” she told us. “Here\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> ‘How to write a sonnet.’ And here<\/a><\/strong> are some thoughts on how to critique rhyming poetry.”<\/p>\n Do you want to know the coolest thing about Kelly Fineman? John Green called her a Nerdfighter Extraordinaire. Not that we’re jealous or anything. Check her out in this Brotherhood 2.0 video<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n