Clay Carmichael's Blog: Clay's Occasional

My book and reading poster art with my Alpha Beta alphabet is on display through September at the Orange County Public Library in Hillsborough, NC

http://claycarmichael.com/ClayCarmich...

This open letter, calling for the immediate repeal of the discriminatory HB2, tonight went out to North Carolina Governor McCrory and the NC General Assembly from 48 Tar Heel Children's Book Creators, including yours truly, with the support and solidarity of 17 North Carolina Bookstores. Heartfelt thanks to all:

http://www.claycarmichael.com/OpenLet...

Wild Things has been a battling book in many other places, but this is the first year it's been selected in my home state of North Carolina!

http://www.ncslma.org/msbob

Reader Resources: www.claycarmichael.com

October 6 2014: The Rhino Magazine Das Nashorn arrives fr0m Germany ! (For a history and my own rhino poem, see the previous post, below.)

Boy, do I have a lot of Google translating to do. But what delightful pictures and poems so far and what company I'm in these pages, wow and zounds!

Just a few of my fascinating offbeat, wildly talented and far-flung fellow rhino poets and translators: Macedonian poet Lidija Dimkovska, Cameroonian writer Patrice Nganang, Hans Christian Anderson Award recipient Jutta Bauer, Julia Donaldson, 2011-2013 British Children's Laureate and MBE; Lebanese writer Jabbour Douaihy, German Jazz Master Eberhard Weber, Algerian author Yasmina Khadra, and three particular favorites: Slovene writer Boris Pahor "internationally most notable for his Holocaust experience described in the novel Necropolis" and who, as notably if you ask me, is 101 years old; Harry Rowohlt, "German writer and translator who also plays the role of a derelict in the famous German weekly soap Lindenstrasse"; and Marianne Koch, retired German actress "best known for her appearances in spaghetti westerns," most famously mit Clint Eastwood in Fur eine Handvoll Dollar.

read the end of the post here:

http://www.claycarmichael.com/ClayCar...

"Brother, Brother" is a Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year. Lovely Friday surprise, BSC, thank you!

See all the BSC selections here:

http://bankstreet.edu/center-children...

Ten days ago, the marvelous but mysterious letter below arrived from Germany via Macmillan, one of my publishers. Would I write a four-line stanza about a rhino for the rhino-pupils in Breman, Germany?

Read more:

http://www.claycarmichael.com/ClayCar...

Clay Carmichael

'Brother, Brother' by Clay Carmichael
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
December 17, 2013
examiner.com

This review is part of a recap of this reviewer's picks for the Best YA Books of 2013.

What happens when your entire world is turned upside down? That’s exactly the dilemma facing Billy “Brother” Grace in Clay Carmichael’s Brother, Brother, a stunning story of self-discovery.

Read more, here: http://www.examiner.com/review/best-y...

#Litchat on Twitter with @ClayCarmichael, author of BROTHER, BROTHER on Fri 12/6 4-5 pm/EST.

http://litchat.com/2013/12/05/guest-h...

I love when so many reviewers "get" my book. Here's an excerpt from the latest if these from the BCCB:

"When seventeen-year-old Brother Grace loses the wise, warm, lively grandmother who reared him, he doesn’t know where to turn. Mem, his grandmother, had always been tight-lipped about his background, stressing only that going to visit the island where she grew up as the daughter of the housekeeper of a wealthy family was out of the question. Now that she’s gone, however, Brother makes an unsettling discovery about what the island holds, and he makes the trek to the island to uncover the secrets of his family. Carmichael deftly creates an atmospheric setting...(read the rest of the excerpt here: http://www.claycarmichael.com/)

Honored that one of my illustrations--inspired by E.B. White's frequently challenged classic "Charlotte's Web"--will be a Banned Book Week Trading Card at Chapel Hill Public Library. See the art and read why Wilbur and Charlotte have been recently challenged:

http://claycarmichael.com/ClayCarmich...