Red Shoes Poems

“Sexy, telegraphic, edgy, and rapt. . . . Exquisitely visual, cuttingly witty, Moore’s poems are at once cool and searing.”—Booklist

A NCTE Notable Poetry Book Twenty-two poems capture the amazing power of writing and will inspire even the most reluctant writer to begin putting words to paper. Write! Write! Write! is a poetry collection that explores every stage and every aspect of the writing process, from learning the alphabet to the thrilling moment of writing a thought for the first time, from writer's block to finding inspiration, and from revision to stapling your finished work into a book. These poems also celebrate how writing teaches patience, helps express opinions, and allows us to imagine the impossible. This book, brimming with imagination and wonder, will leave readers eager to grab a pen, pencil, or keyboard--and write!

There was once a poor little girl called Karen. In summer, she walked barefoot and in winter, she wore clogs that hurt her feet. She had no choice, it was all she had. Dame Shoemaker wanted to help her and sewed, as best she could, a pair of red shoes. When she wore them for the first time, Karen’s life took an unexpected turn. Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author, poet and artist. Celebrated for children’s literature, his most cherished fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Nightingale", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Match Girl". His books have been translated into every living language, and today there is no child or adult that has not met Andersen's whimsical characters. His fairy tales have been adapted to stage and screen countless times, most notably by Disney with the animated films "The Little Mermaid" in 1989 and "Frozen", which is loosely based on "The Snow Queen", in 2013. Thanks to Andersen's contribution to children's literature, his birth date, April 2, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.

Red Shoes in the Rain is Jan E. Conn's first published collection of poems, though her work has appeared regularly in magazines. Her poetry is characterized by the meticulous observation of a scientist, fired by intense human engagement; it reflects the range and variety of her travels without ever descending to mere notation.

Sex, jazz, glam icons, green crochet bikinis, Gossard wonderbras, white nights and blueblack seas - the usual colourful, sensual Jeremy Reed imagery in this brand new collection. Jeremy Reed's many poetry books include Saints and Psychotics (1979), By the Fisheries (1984), Nero (1985), Selected Poems (1987), Dicing for Pearls (1990), Nineties (1990) and Kicks (1995). Reed's books on poets include studies of Rimbaud (Delirium: An Interpretation of Rimbaud), Rilke, Hopkins, Madness: The Price of Poetry and Angels, Divas and Blacklisted Heroes (1999). Reed has translated Novalis's Hymns of the Night and Montale. His novels include The Lipstick Boys (1984), Blue Rock (1987), Isidore (about Lautreamont), When the Whip Comes Down (on the Marquis de Sade), and Chasing Black Rainbows (1994, a fictionalized account of Antonin Artaud). His biographies include Lou Reed, Brian Jones: The Last Decadent (1999), Scott Walker: Another Tear Falls (2001) and Marc Almond (1999). Other books include: St. Billie (2001), Sister Midnight (1997), Heartbreak Hotel (2002), The Purple Room (2000), Dorian (1997), Inhabiting Shadows (1990), Diamond Nebula (1994), Black Sugar (1992), Escaped Image (1988) and Red Hot Lipstick (1996), The Pleasure Chateau Omnibus (2000), Pop Stars (1994), Trucks in Camera: Bedford (1996). Reed has won an Eric Gregory Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, and the National Poetry Competition.

In Bad Red Shoes, her first collection of poetry, Betty delves into intimate recollections. Drive with her as she delivers her father's ashes to their final destination, feel the chills as she recalls the fateful words of a murdered friend. Whether she's proclaiming a new holiday - "Mother-less-day", chastising an ex-lover, or dancing with her first grandchild in her arms, Betty's poems tell stories that will touch you at the very core of your heart. She sings of her childhood and love for West Virginia, recalling her trek through Catholic schools to painting her very own rainbow stones on a wall in her back yard. There is humor and satire, as evidenced by the poem Bad Red Shoes, and it is up to you, the reader, to determine just where the truth ends and fiction begins. Happy reading!

International award-winning and best-selling author, Canadian cultural icon, feminist role model, "man-hater," wife, mother, private citizen and household name -- who is Margaret Atwood? Rosemary Sullivan, award-winning literary biographer, has penned The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out, the first portrait of Canada's most famous novelist, focusing on her childhood and formative years as a writer and the generation she grew up in. When Margaret Atwood was a little girl in 1949, she saw a movie called The Red Shoes. It is the story of a beautiful young woman who becomes a famous ballerina, but commits suicide when she cannot satisfy one man, who wants her to devote her entire life to her art, and another who loves her, but subjugates her to become his muse and inspiration. She struggles to choose art, but the choice eventually destroys her. Margaret Atwood remembers being devastated by this movie but unlike many young girls of her time, she escaped its underlying message. Always sustained by a strong sense of self, Atwood would achieve a meteoric literary career. Yet a nurturing sense of self-confidence is just one fascinating side of our most famous literary figure, as examined in Rosemary Sullivan's latest biography. The Red Shoes is not a simple biography but a portrait of a complex, intriguing woman and her generation. The seventies in Canada was the decade of fierce nationalist debate, a period during which Canada's social imagination was creating a new tradition. Suddenly everyone, from Robertson Davies to Margaret Laurence was talking, and writing, about a Canadian cultural identity. Margaret Atwood was no exception. For despite her tremendous success that transcends the literary community, catapulting into the realm of a "household name," Margaret Atwood has remained very much a private person with a public persona. Rosemary Sullivan reveals the discrepancy between Atwood's cool, acerbic, public image and the down-to-earth, straight-dealing and generous woman who actually writes the books. Throughout, she weaves the issues of female creativity, authority and autonomy set against the backdrop of a generation of women coming of age during one of the most radically shifting times in contemporary history.