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WORK TITLE: The Illustrated Dickinson
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.ryangvancleave.com/
CITY: Sarasota
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 241
http://unplugged.hcibooks.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangvancleave http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/%E2%80%9Cyour-princess-is-in-another-castle%E2%80%9D/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born May 20, 1972, in Neenah, WI; married; children: two daughters.
EDUCATION:Northern Illinois University, B.A. (English), 1994; Florida State University, M.A. (American literature), 1997, Ph.D. (American literature), 2001.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author, educator, editor, and writing coach. Clemson University, assistant professor of English, 2002-07; Eckerd College, member of writing faculty, 2009-10; Ringling College, Sarasota, FL, member of writing faculty, beginning 2009. Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury fellow, Florida State University, 2000; Anastasia C. Hoffman poetry fellow, University of Wisconsin—Madison, 2000-01; Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington, George Washington University, 2007-08. C. & R. Press (publisher and literary nonprofit), Chattanooga, TN, cofounder with Chad Prevost, 2006. Teacher of creative writing at prisons, community centers, and urban youth centers. Speaker on video-game addiction.
MEMBER:Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Poetry Society of America, Southeast College Art Conference.
AWARDS:Theodore Christian Hoepfner Award, Southern Humanities Review, 2000; American Poetry Anthology Award, 2003, for Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America; Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers selection, American Library Association, 2012, for Unlocked.
WRITINGS
Also author of poetry collection The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears.
SIDELIGHTS
In college, Ryan G. Van Cleave trained to become a teacher of creative writing, and he has also found success as a poet and the editor of a number of prose and poetry anthologies. Reviewing Van Cleave’s collaboration with fellow editor Virgil Suárez, Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America, Booklist contributor Donna Seaman praised the work as “deeply resonant” and full of “fresh, searching, and necessary poems that together create a compassionate and momentous anthology.” In addition to his work as a poet and anthologist, Van Cleave also shares his experience as a life-long World of Warcraft gamer in Unplugged: My Journey into the Dark World of Video Game Addiction, and he has also produced a verse novel, Unlocked, intended for young adults.
In Unplugged Van Cleave recalls his own relationship with video games, one that started when he was a boy. “Many gamers feel trapped by their love of games,” he noted in an interview with Randolph Carter for Grinding to Valhalla online. While parents have difficulty understanding why their child is drawn into interactive online gaming, they sense that the compulsion is an unhealthy one, as well as being disruptive to families. While noting that “video games provide some terrific and useful experiences” and even enhance “memory and motor function,” they “are doing something to us emotionally, socially, and intellectually. I’m including information about some of those things in this book to help wake people up about the true costs. If they then still choose to make an informed choice to play, great.”
In Van Cleave’s novel, Unlocked readers meet Andy, a fourteen year old whose father is the janitor of his school. As the janitor’s son, Andy has resigned himself to being a social pariah. However, when a rumor circulates that another social outcast, Blake, has a handgun hidden in his school locker, Andy senses the opportunity to become a school hero. Taking his father’s master keys, he opens Blake’s locker, but when no gun is found the taunting directed his way escalates. As fellow outsiders, Blake and Andy gradually strike up a friendship, and it turns out that Blake does indeed have a handgun. Firing the gun at targets gives Andy a rush of power as well as a rush of mixed feelings: both a fear of what the gun can do and the realization that the gun could be a way to balance the social scales after years of bullying.
Noting that the “suspenseful ending and short” length of Unlocked will attract even reluctant readers, Shawna Sherman added in School Library Journal that Van Cleave’s young-adult novel “is strong on insight into the lives of those bullied in high school.” In Voice of Youth Advocates Christina Fairman recommended the author’s “compelling free verse” in which “sparse words and vivid phrases reveal the multilayered dilemma confronting Andy.” Michael Cart also weighed in on Unlocked in a Booklist review, concluding that Van Cleave focuses on an “all-too-familiar” situation in writing that reveals “both empathy and authority.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Van Cleave, Ryan G., Unplugged: My Journey into the Dark World of Video Game Addiction, Health Communications (Deerfield Beach, FL), 2010.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2002, Donna Seaman, review of Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America, p. 1079; March 1, 2011, Michael Cart, review of Unlocked, p. 59.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, April, 2011, Claire Gross, review of Unlocked, p. 395.
Kliatt, January, 2002, James Beschta, review of American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement, p. 22.
Library Journal, April 1, 2002, Rochelle Ratner, review of Like Thunder, p. 112.
School Library Journal, April, 2011, Shawna Sherman, review of Unlocked, p. 187.
Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2011, Christina Fairman, review of Unlocked, p. 71.
ONLINE
Grinding to Valhalla Web log, http://grindingtovalhalla.wordpress.com/ (March 24, 2010), Randolph Carter, interview with Van Cleave.
Ryan G. Van Cleave Home Page, http://www.ryanvancleave.com (May 1, 2012).
Unplugged Web site, http://www.unpluggedthebook.com/ (May 1, 2012).
THE BULLET-POINT BIO
LGBTQ+ (he/they).
Author.
Writing Coach.
The Picture Book Whisperer™.
Ringling College of Art and Design Professor.
Editor at Bushel & Peck.
Viking descendant.
Lover of #2 pencils.
Oxford comma champion.
Amateur ninja.
Penguin patronus.
Root beer connoisseur.
More shoes than sense.
Winner of World’s Best Spouse Award (Category: Cold Toes)
Muppet Ryan
Hipster Ryan
Smirky Ryan
Prizewinner Ryan
THE BIGGER "BETTER" BIO
I’m the kid who ruined their eyes thanks to reading by flashlight under the covers. Now I help others read, write, and appreciate books, too. My passion is the written word in all of its impressive incarnations. And I’m always on the prowl for new writing, coaching, editing, speaking, teaching, or other creative projects–I’ve yet to run across an opportunity too small or too big!
These days, I run the creative writing major at the Ringling College of Art and Design which has an annual free-to-enter creative writing contest for high school students. I also serve as Editor at Bushel & Peck, which publishes a wide range of exciting titles for kids, tweens, and teens.
I’m not-so-secretly known as the Picture Book Whisperer™–the industry’s go-to person to help celebrities and high-profile clients write and sell children’s books.
I love making new professional connections. Reach out if you want to talk about writing, reading, publishing, creativity, teaching, penguins, “American Idol,” or the NFL (pro OR con).
Ryan G. Van Cleave
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Ryan G. Van Cleave
Born Ryan Van Cleave
1972 (age 50–51)
Neenah, Wisconsin, U.S.
Occupation Poet
Nationality American
Alma mater Northern Illinois University
Florida State University
Subject Poetry
Ryan Van Cleave (born 1972 in Neenah, Wisconsin) is an American freelance writer, writing coach, and keynote speaker. He runs the creative writing program at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Florida.
Life
Van Cleave was raised in the Chicago suburbs. He taught creative writing at a number of US universities including Florida State University, the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Clemson University. He is the author of twenty books, including the creative writing textbook Contemporary American Poetry: Behind the Scenes, Memoir Writing for Dummies, and The Weekend Book Proposal: How to Write a Winning Proposal in 48 Hours and Sell Your Book. His work has been published in The Christian Science Monitor, The Iowa Review, Harvard Review, Mid American Review,[1] The Missouri Review, Puerto del Sol,[2] Ploughshares,[3] The Progressive, Southern Humanities Review,[4] TriQuarterly, and Writer's Digest.
In 2006 he co-founded C&R Press[5] (with fellow writer Chad Prevost[6]), a non-profit literary organization that publishes early career poets and offers free community writing workshops throughout the Southeastern US. He currently works as a freelance writer, writing coach, and script doctor in Sarasota, Florida; he is also a professor of liberal arts at Ringling College of Art + Design and a contributing writer for Sarasota Scene Magazine[7] and The Writer.[8]
In 2010, he published Unplugged: My Journey into the Dark World of Video Game Addiction, which was the first memoir on video game addiction; subsequently he became a popular speaker on digital media addiction and recovery at schools, conferences, and corporate events. After learning that a chair he sat in at Northern Illinois University had bullet holes in it after Steven Kazmierczak's school shooting on February 14, 2008, Van Cleave wrote a young adult book about gun violence in schools called Unlocked. This book received a Gold Medal in Young Adult Literature from the Florida Book Awards and was named a Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers by the American Library Association. About writing for young audiences, Van Cleave says, "They're the best audience in the world. They read for the pure pleasure of it, and they're at a crucial point in their lives where the right book at the right time can change everything for them."
Awards
Van Cleave was the 2000-2001 Anastasia C. Hoffman Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Institute of Creative Writing.[9]
He was the 2007-2008 Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington at George Washington University.[10]
His poem Aesculapius in the Underworld was included in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin's, 2002).
In 2000, he was an Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Fellow at Florida State University.
His YA book Unlocked received a Gold Medal in Young Adult Literature from the Florida Book Awards (2011).
Education
Van Cleave obtained a B.A. in English from Northern Illinois University in 1994, an M.A. in American literature from Florida State University in 1997, and a Ph.D. in American literature/creative writing from Florida State University in 2001.
Works
Poetry
"Epistaxis—n., Med., a nosebleed" from Ploughshares
"Mensa Bob's Father" from Sonora Review
"Lesson #2" from New York Quarterly
"Cultural Piracy" from North American Review
Ha Ha Tonka: A Book of Rune. Higganum Hill Books. 2003. ISBN 978-0-9635185-7-6.
Imagine the Dawn: The Civil War Sonnets. Wordtech Communications. 2005. ISBN 978-1-932339-92-5.
The magical breasts of Britney Spears. Red Hen Press. 2006. ISBN 978-1-59709-067-4.
Editor
Virgil Suárez; Ryan G. Van Cleave, eds. (2001). American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-0-87745-746-6.
Virgil Suárez; Ryan G. Van Cleave, eds. (2002). Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-0-87745-791-6.
Virgil Suárez; Ryan G. Van Cleave, eds. (2003). Vespers: Contemporary American Poems of Religion and Spirituality. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-0-87745-855-5.
Virgil Suárez; Ryan G. Van Cleave, eds. (2004). Red, White, and Blues: Poets on the Promise of America. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-0-87745-917-0.
Ryan G. Van Cleave is the author of more than twenty books, including Memoir Writing for Dummies and the award-winning YA novel Unlocked. He is the Coordinator of Creative Writing at the Ringling College of Art + Design in Sarasota, Florida, where he lives with his wife, two daughters, and a feisty Shih Tzu named Ladybug. Find out more about his work at www.ryangvancleave.com.
VAN CLEAVE, Ryan G. The Illustrated Dickinson. ISBN 9781638191070. --. The Illustrated Robert Frost. 9781638191063.
ea vol: illus. by David Miles. 64p. (The Illustrated Poets Collection). Bushel & Peck. Aug. 2022. Tr. $18.99.
Gr 6 Up--In sections designated "Exploring Nature," "Innocence & Inspiration," and "Choice & Change," Frost's poems include the expected: "Birches," "Nothing Gold Can Stay," "The Road Not Taken," "Fire and Ice," "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," and "Mending Wall," and the less well-known but excellent selections: "Mowing," "The Oven Bird," "Hyla Brook," "Desert Places," "The Wood-Pile," and more. Dickinson's are similarly ranged in "The Natural World," "Ideas & Imagination," and "Heart & Spirit." Again, the familiar "Because I could not stop for Death" and the worth-knowing-better are here. Fans of each poet will miss some favorites, such as Dickinson's "Wild Nights-Wild Nights!" and Frost's "After Apple-Picking." In a margin on the right of each spread, several words per poem are helpfully defined; however, boldfacing these words within the lines of the poem gives them an importance that changes the impact of the lines. Oddly, in Frost's "The Door in the Dark," the word "native" is defined, but "simile" is not. The margins also contain pertinent, thoughtful, original questions about the poems. Dickinson's idiosyncratic punctuation has been slightly adjusted. Miles's attractive collage illustrations were created digitally with bits of Modigliani, Van Gogh, Friedrich, and more among a lot of colorful 19th-century popular images. Back matter includes a summary and something to notice about each poem; this information extends and enhances readers' experiences and adds greatly to these books' values. VERDICT Admirable introductions to poetry in general and to these poets in particular. --Patricia D. Lothrop
KEY: * Excellent in relation to other titles on the same subject or in the same genre | Tr Hardcover trade binding | lib. ed. Publisher's library binding | Board Board book | pap. Paperback | e eBook original | BL Bilingual | POP Popular Picks | SP Spanish
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Lothrop, Patricia D. "VAN CLEAVE, Ryan G.: The Illustrated Dickinson." School Library Journal, vol. 68, no. 10, Oct. 2022, p. 103. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A720065790/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6f26600b. Accessed 17 Mar. 2023.
City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry. Ed. by Ryan G. Van Cleave. Apr. 2012. 192p. Univ. of Iowa, paper, $19.95 (9781609380908). 811.008.
How fitting it is to showcase the vibrant poetry of contemporary Chicago as Chicago-based Poetry magazine celebrates its 100th anniversary. Harriet Monroe published Carl Sandburg's now iconic "Chicago," with its ringing line, "City of the Big Shoulders," in Poetry in 1914. Now Patricia Smith offers an indicting variation that includes the line, "City of Cold Shoulders." Editor Van Cleave, a prolific poet and writer, organized this peppery anthology's 100 poems alphabetically by author's name, creating striking chance juxtapositions. Edward Hirsch writes of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, while Lola Haskins writes, "Because in all this wide city, there is not / enough light." Quraysh Ali Lansana and Martin Espada write of gang life, Susan Elbe of the stockyards, and Renny Golden of striking steelworkers. A Columbus Day parade inspires Elise Paschen, while Puerto Rican-born Johanny Vazquez Paz writes of Humboldt Park, a Latino neighborhood, "Our homeland in exile that floats like a desert island / in the deep and vast sea of the city of Chicago." Provocative reflections on a great American city in all its harsh and inspiring complexities.--Donna Seaman
Seaman, Donna
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2012 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Seaman, Donna. "City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry." Booklist, vol. 108, no. 16, 15 Apr. 2012, p. 14. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A287956553/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3d8f2231. Accessed 17 Mar. 2023.