I taught myself to read because of Thing One and Thing Two, and what Dr. Seuss had them getting into; because of pictures of locomotives and roosters and kittens dappling pages of Seven Little Postmen. How could I wait a whole five seasons more for Mrs. Cleck’s chalkboard at Dewey Elementary once my mother, shoulders golden in sundress straps, put me on her lap, showed me the book she clasped containing words like scuppernong fleece brethren corral and supine ginger brash limousine All those letters arranged in exotic combinations I had never heard before - pronounced aloud right there on our living room sofa
Shoshauna Shy
Shoshauna Shy is the founder of Woodrow Hall Editions and the Poetry Jumps Off the Shelf program. Her poems have been published by over 200 journals and presses. One of her poems was selected for the Poetry 180 Library of Congress program launched by Billy Collins. Author of five collections, she is the recipient of two Outstanding Achievement Awards from the Wisconsin Library Association, and was a finalist for the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid poetry prize sponsored by Winning Writers. Her poems have been made into video, produced inside taxi cabs, and on the backsides of buses. Not a monogamous writer, she works on 7-11 pieces at the same time. She is also a flash fiction author— but that’s another story!