Teach Living Poets opens up the flourishing world of contemporary poetry to secondary teachers.
It is designed to give advice on reading contemporary poetry, discovering new poets, and inviting living poets into the classroom, as well as sharing sample lessons, writing prompts, and ways to become an engaged member of a professional learning community.
The #TeachLivingPoets approach, which has grown out of the vibrant movement and community founded by high school teacher Melissa Alter Smith and been codeveloped with poet and scholar Lindsay Illich, offers rich opportunities for students to improve critical reading and writing, opportunities for self-expression and social-emotional learning, and, perhaps the most desirable outcome, the opportunity to fall in love with language and discover (or renew) their love of reading. The many poems included in Teach Living Poets are representative of the diverse poets writing today.
Illich, Lindsay: - Lindsay Illich is the author of Fingerspell (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), Rile & Heave (Texas Review Press, 2017), and Heteroglossia (Anchor & Plume, 2016) and the co-author of Teach Living Poets (NCTE, 2021). Rile & Heave won the Texas Review Press Breakthrough Prize in Poetry. She teaches at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts.
Smith, Melissa Alter: -
Melissa Alter Smith is the creator of the #TeachLivingPoets hashtag and teachlivingpoets.com. She is a National Board Certified high school English teacher in Charlotte, NC. Melissa is co-author of Teach Living Poets (NCTE, 2021) and the Norton Guide to AP Literature: Writing & Skills (W.W. Norton, 2022). She is 2017 District Teacher of the Year, an AP Reader, and an AP Consultant.
She has presented at NDCTE, MCTE, NCTIES, WVELA, SSCTE, NCETA, NCTE-WLU Summer Institute, NCTE, AWP, the AP Annual Conference, the Poetry Foundation, and facilitates professional development sessions for schools. Melissa is also a co-author of the Instructor's Manual and AP Correlation Guide for the 13th high school edition of The Norton Introduction to Literature, was a member of an advisory board to the Library of Congress' Poet Laureate Project educational toolkit, and the conversation host for W.W. Norton's Poets on Poetry series. She is featured on LitHub.com, in The New York Times, NEATE News, Mind Shift KQED, NCTE's Council Chronicle, ASCD's Education Update, Prestwick House, The Poetry Question, and on Education Talk Radio.
Her work is focused on complicating the canon, supporting teachers, and empowering students through poetry. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @MelAlterSmith.
