Come join us at our new home for AAR After Hours located at the main AAR Site.

 Please update your bookmarks and we're looking forward to seeing you.

Congratulations to all our winners!  Pat W., Maribelle M., Ruchanee N., Mary K., Rhonda P., Marissa B., Shelley A., Regina L., Leigh D., and Debbie F. all win an autographed copy of The Winter Sea.  Virginia C., Julia, Amanda C., Denise L. and Martha L. all win an autographed copy of Mariana.

Trivia contest answer:  When she was seven years old, Susanna Kearsley wanted to be just like Jo in Little Women.

Thanks to Susanna Kearsley for contributing these books!

You may not have realized it.  It's not as high-profile as Sexual Assault Awareness Month (which April has also been designated), and both of those are much less known than other months, like Black History Month (February) and Women's History Month (March).  But I've chosen to celebrate it by having poems sent to my e-mail daily, from poets.org.

Sadly, I've been less than impressed with the poems they've been offering me.  Some have been decent, others were just forgettable.  So instead, I've been seeking out poems on my own.  I had a mini-argument over facebook about this poem, a sestina called "Six Words."  I think it's brilliant; a friend of mine thinks it's terrible.  Part of the enjoyment of this poem is knowing what the hell a sestina is, though.  They're difficult to explain, but let me just say that they're really complicated.

When I was in high school, my English teacher junior and senior years started this thing called "March Madness of Poetry," where we all chose two poems, she made brackets, and then two poems would face off and the class would vote on their favorite.  This would inevitably take longer than the month of March, so it was always very convenient that March Madness was followed by National Poetry Month.  I never won, but my most successful poem was e e cummings' "somewhere i have never travelled " which remains one of my favorite poems still.  Probably my second favorite poem, after that one, I encountered in my creative writing class in college.  Usually analyzing a piece of writing makes some people hate it, but I'm the opposite.  I wrote a response paper on Sharon Olds' "I Go back to May 1937" and fell in love with it.  The imagery!  The sword-tipped fence!  The plates of blood!  Reading it now, a year later, still makes me go into paroxysms of joy at the words.

Though I can't write poetry at all, I do enjoy reading it. I'd love to hear about your favorite poems.  But for now, I'll leave you with the winner of the first March Madness of my English class:

This week, we have 10 autographed copies of Susanna Kearsley's new book, The Winter Sea (which is nominated for a RITA award), and 5 autographed copies of her re-released classic, Mariana.  Neither book is available from U.S. publishers at this time.

To have a chance to win a copy of one of these books, you need to answer this question correctly:

At age seven, what fictional character did Susanna Kearsley want to be like?

Send your answer to aarblog@gmail.com  Fifteen winners will be chosen at random from all correct entries submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Thursday night, April 23, 2009.  (Unfortunately because of high postal rates, we can only ship to US addresses.)  The winners will be announced here and notified by email on Friday, April 24, 2009.  Good luck!

Congratulations to Cassandra F.!  Her name was drawn at random from all of the correct entries in this week's trivia contest.  Cassandra wins autographed copies of Karen Templeton's Baby I'm Yours; Yours, Mine...and Ours?; Dear Santa and Hanging by a Thread.

Trivia contest answer:  Karen Templeton's stories have been published in 13 different languages.

This week, our prize is autographed copies of the following Karen Templeton books:  Baby, I'm Yours, Yours, Mine...or Ours?, Dear Santa and Hanging by a Thread.

To have a chance to win these books, you need to answer this question correctly:

In how many languages have Karen Templeton's stories been available for purchase?

Send your answer to aarblog@gmail.com  One winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Thursday night, April 16, 2009.  (Unfortunately because of high postal rates, we can only ship to US addresses.) The winner will be announced here and notified by email on Friday, April 17, 2009.  Good luck!

Congratulations to Annie D. and Sana R.!  Their names were drawn at random from all of the correct entries in this week's trivia contest.  They each win an autographed copy of T.J. Bennett's The Legacy.

Trivia contest answer:  T.J. Bennett taught college writing.

Don't forget to stop by next Monday for another chance to win free books in AARAfterHours' trivia contests.