"Through your classes, you have shown a great knack for connecting with kids and getting them to dig into the fertile dirt of their imaginations.  In our daughter's case, I believe you started something that will go on for a very long time."

 -- John Thompson and Julia Forster, parents of Liza Thompson, grade 3, downtown Charleston.

Jonathan Sanchez is:

• a serious, award-winning writer of short stories and poems.

• a seriously fun impresario of young talent, helping kids to create works of 'beauty, depth and weirdness.'

In the past four years he's visited dozens of schools, inspiring more than a thousand students from first grade to to 12th.

A Yale graduate and former newspaper reporter, Sanchez is a sought-after workshop leader. His write of summer camps in Charleston and Florida are a big hit, and he and local kids write poems to chamber music together as part of educationSpoleto.

His school visits begin with a lively question-and-answer session, followed by a reading from his work, and ending with students composing and performing poems of their own. Smaller workshops are more intimate, with more time for writing and sharing.

Young people are natural poets, once they leave behind conventions like rhyming and greeting-card subject matter. With the right prompting and creative atmosphere, kids can compose poems of unique beauty and strangeness, unlike anything they've ever written.

Some poems by and for kids.

Sanchez has a deep well of poetry ideas, both his own (Chinese Menu Poetry), and borrowed (Bananaverse), ideas for all ages, like:

 

schools I've been to:

Academic Magnet High School, Ashley River Elementary, Buist Academy, Burke Ninth Grade Academy, Burns Elementary, C.E. Williams Junior High, Charleston County School of the Arts, Charleston Development Academy, Chicora Elementary, Dunston Elementary, Dutch Fork High School (Columbia), Fort Dorchester Elementary, Fraser Elementary, George School (Newtown, Pa.), Goodwin Elementary, Howe Hall Elementary (Goose Creek), Hunley Park Elementary, Hursey Elementary, James Island Charter High School, Ladson Elementary, Lambs Elementary, Midland Park Elementary, Memminger Elementary, Mitchell Elementary, Montessori Program at Springfield Elementary, Moultrie Middle, Mount Pleasant Academy, North Charleston Elementary, Sanders-Clyde Elementary, Trinity Prep (Winter Park, Fla.), Windsor Hill Elementary.

recently:

Mar. 14 - 15, Spent a day and a half at the impossibly charming Mount Pleasant Academy. From the moment I got out of the car and saw the long row of bikes to walking into the school which was as clean and modernist as it was when it was built in 62, I knew it was going to be a good trip. Highlights include Mary Scott's "Spring is cooking bacon with your shirt off" line, and getting to read not only my poems for kids, but ones I wrote for adults as well. The kids were so receptive it was like they were on little rafts and could rise to any heights of language, even if they didn't know all the words I used.

Went to Fort Dorchester Elementary on Mar. 7, where I spent an hour each with two of Kim O'Leary's fifth-grade GATE classes. Again, the all-stars, and they were amazing. One wrote stories about a Matisse painting I projected on the overhead, and another wrote Spring Is... poems, my favorites, besides the space-invaders ones, were about the not-so-sweet elements of spring. "Spring is an umpire calling you out."

I had a great day at Windsor Hill Elementary on Mar. 2, 2006. I met with four groups, all of whom had great questions and wrote beautiful poetry. I got to meet with the "all-star" writers, who really brought their A-game. Most impressive were the first and second graders, already quite prolific.

I spent an incredible week at James Island Charter High School, November 14-18. Laura De La Maza of the art department set up the residency, so I spent a lot of time in art and art history classes, doing ekphrastic writing and some appropriations of William Carlos Williams, not unlike the appopriations of the Mona Lisa the kids had done.

I also hit drama, English and Spanish classes. The teachers (Stafford, Dunlap, Bennett and Lucas) were all so welcoming and the kids had great questions, including one asking if unheralded writers ever think about people discovering their work after they die. It seems an odd thing to ask, yet I'd bet many writers would have an answer. I know I did. I think JICHS is in some ways a very typical American high school, and the fact that there was such great energy and intelligence here made it that much more impressive and satisfying.

Made two trips to the Academic Magnet High School this fall, to Jay Wright's classes, which is always a pleasure. I tried out my "I Saw You" exercise with his creative writing class, based on a poem by Lynn Levin called "If You Are Reading This." (from the Writer's Almanac) The idea is to write a very particular kind of personal ad, to someone you've seen in passing but have no other means of contacting.

I also spoke to the journalism class about my "career" as a reporter and my recent article on childhood obesity. They had lots of great questions and we all enjoyed some Flamin' Hot Cheetos as we discussed this important issue.

Visited Dutch Fork High School in Irmo on Tuesday, Oct. 18. I met with two English classes in the morning. After answering some questions and talking about writing in general, I read from my work and then got the kids writing some of their own. I did my 'pop quiz' exercise, after handing out copies of Chuck Close's Leslie/Fingerprint. The kids wrote stories and poems about the mysterious woman, based on some leading questions. It was inspiring to see this diverse school with great energy. I got to read from my new novel for the first time and was treated royally.