Chaucer’s Poetry Celebration

Tuesday, April 29 5:30 PM 

Chaucer’s Books (3321 State Street)  presents A Poetry Month Celebration featuring poet and artist Sharon Frances (Ash & Feather), young poets’ prize winner recognition from CalPoets in the Schools, and typewriter poetry via poets Simon Kiefer, Diana Raab, 2009-’11 Santa Barbara Poet Laureate David Starkey, and newly installed Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, George Yatchisin. 

Description of Ash and Feather

When fourteen-year-old Phoenix learns of her parent, Eagle’s cancer diagnosis, her shoulder blades start to itch. It’s the end of summer vacation, eighth grade starts next week, and Phoenix’s world collapses. Every hall she runs down, every room she hides in, Phoenix feels herself changing, growing wings while Eagle may be dying. She builds a new nest from the comfort of grandparent Duck, counselor Hen, and sweetheart Ing. But cancer is like a coyote howling in the hills waiting for Phoenix to land so it can destroy everything. If she is to rise from the ashes of this uncertain world- one of surgery and medicine, classes and teachers-Phoenix must learn to feel everything, and become the bird she always imagined.

Ash and Feather is an illustrated novel in verse for upper middle grade and early young adult readers. This story will be loved by anyone interested in supporting the mental health of tweens and teens; using literature and the arts to address cancer and other difficult experiences; reading magical realism, including animal/human hybrid characters.

 

About the Author I am a queer poet, artist, educator, and performer/workshop presenter who specializes in processing emotions through writing and art-making with youth and families. Creating art and poetry about my emotions has inspired me to share my writing through books. I have been a depression, panic and anxiety survivor since childhood. I earned a BA in English and Women’s Studies, MA in Art Education, and PhD in Education, focusing on how language and creativity can help young people develop their voices and identities in the world. I was a bilingual K-8 teacher in California and Texas for six years, then  a teacher educator at California State University for eleven years. While there, I taught courses  in language arts, visual arts integration, social justice, and bilingual education. I was also a gender diversity and LGBTQ+ inclusion specialist in K-12 schools and trained in the Human Rights Campaign’s Welcoming Schools Program in 2016.

In late 2017, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and, during treatment, began to help families, like my own, as they navigated the confusion, fear and grief of being treated for a life-threatening illness. I co-founded a non-profit project, Well Beings Studio, and supported families impacted by cancer through literature and the arts for four years. Since cancer, I have written and self-published four children’s literature books, and secured grant funding to donate over 6,000 copies to families, cancer support organizations, hospitals, libraries and schools. I have conducted hundreds of in-person and virtual art-making and book workshops, as well as presented at dozens of professional workshops and keynote talks for teachers, social workers, family liaisons, and nurse navigators.