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"LOVE AND LOSS AND WIDE-EYED WONDER. ANN MCGOVERN SEES SO MUCH
AND SPEAKS VOLUMES." -- Jules Feiffer, cartoonist, novelist,
playwright, writer and illustrator of numerous children's books.
Ann has embraced poetry after 45 years as a prize-winning author of more
than 55 books for children, included the now classic Stone Soup
and Too Much Noise. Her books in print number 25 million copies.
A tireless traveler who has visited every continent, McGovern is always
refueling ideas of place and purpose into her poems. And as a scuba
diver, she writes about the underwater world of coral reefs from the
Caribbean to China.
Her 70 poems have appeared in more than 50 journals, including
Confrontation, Georgetown Review, Nimrod, Rosebud and
Fulcrum. Her poems have been printed in many anthologies and have
won numerous prizes. She has been featured in many poetry readings at
libraries, The National Arts Club, and coffeehouses in the USA and
abroad.
She says, "It's a challenging, heady experience to weave reflections,
insights, sensations, thoughts and feelings into the many-faceted fabric
of a poem."
Poet Tony Hoagland says: "Her poems are witty, wry, punchy, sexual and
tough-minded. She has a fine-tuned sense of the strange poetry of this
life, its poignant, catastrophic and ribald comedy, and she makes tight,
dark, fun poems out of it."
McGovern grew up in New York City where she lives today. Her interest in
books and writing began at an early age. "As a child, I developed a
terrible stutter and never raised my hand in class," she says, "I became
a writer and poet to express the feelings that I couldn't speak about
and I became an avid reader as a way to escape a sad home life. I practically
lived in my local library." These days, McGovern performs poetry
readings without a trace of a stutter and she is a popular key-note
speaker at educational conferences.
Ann is a passionate promoter of literacy around the world. The Ann
McGovern Reading Room at the New York Public Library's Muhlenberg
Library provides an important resource for the Chelsea neighborhood of
New York City. She is on the Board of Goddard-Riverside Community Center
and a strong supporter of peace and justice around the world. She was
awarded the 2002 Laura Parsons Pratt Award for her efforts to improve
the status of women and children. Her poetry workshop conducted for
inmates of Bedford Hills prison resulted in the publication of Voices
From Within.
Ann has four children and three grandchildren scattered around the
world. She also has three grandcats and a granddog.
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