This seems like such a fun thing to try:

Regina Public Library Book Spine Poetry Photo Challenge

Book Spine Poetry is composed using the spines of books, stacked on one another, to create a few verse poem. In honour of both Saskatchewan Library Week and Teen Read Week, Regina Public Library is asking Book Spine Poets to submit a picture of their book spine masterpiece:

1. Compose a poem using books from RPL or your personal library.

2. Take a picture of your poem

3. Submit the photo of your poem to:

Warren James

Programming Unit

ya@reginalibrary.ca

306-777-6151

Winning submissions will be chosen by our Book Spine Poetry team and will receive gift certificate prizes; RPL will accept both hard copy and digital photographs.

— Contest open to all age groups

— Include your name and contact information in your email or on the back of your photograph

— Hard copy photographs will not be returned and should be sent to Warren via PO Box 2311, S4P 3Z5

To see examples of Book Spine Poetry in action, go to the Glen Elm and Albert branches and interact with their Book Spine Poetry shelves.

I’ve been working on cuts (editorial cuts from a book, I mean) this morning and I thought that this might be a fun writing exercise for you to try.

Take a block of text – from the newspaper, a book you don’t love, a blog, and see if you can make cuts and still have the same meaning and intention show through. Be ruthless, then add back in any words you actually need. You may find you can remove entire sentences.

Making cuts is part of the job for a writer. I find it more fun than you might think. I know writers are supposed to love their darlings, but there is something deeply satisfying about removing the mess, the extra, the ‘fat’, and finding the story within.

Let me know how it goes!

Use these three words in a short piece of writing, whether fictional or true:

LAKE

CALL

BENEATH