Poet Artists

There are many poets who also produce the illustrations for their own poetry collections. They are known for their art, as well as their writing, including Douglas Florian’s distinctive paintings+collages, the outrageous cartoon monsters of Adam Rex, the iconic photography of Charles R. Smith, Jr., the textured quilts of Anna Grossnickle Hines, the irreverent pen and ink sketches of Shel Silverstein, and more. Here are a few titles by each of a dozen poet-artists and artist-poets. Encourage young people to collaborate with a partner, one as illustrator and one as writer, in creating their own poem and art.

The list begins:

Agee, Jon. 2009. Orangutan Tongs; Poems to Tangle Your Tongue. New York: Disney-Hyperion.

Brown, Calef. 2010. Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness. Houghton Mifflin.

Cyrus, Kurt. 2005. Hotel Deep: Light Verse from Dark Water. Harcourt.

Ehlert, Lois. 2008. Oodles Of Animals. New York: Harcourt.

Florian, Douglas. 2005. Zoo’s Who. San Diego, CA: Harcourt.

For more details, get your copy of The Poetry Teacher’s Book of Lists.

And if you already have the book and would like to offer additions, corrections, or other input, please do so in the COMMENTS area. Thanks!