What has your experience been like as the nation’s first Children’s Poet Laureate? What have you most enjoyed?

My life is more or less the same as it was before I was honored with the laureateship. At first I was doing a lot more interviews than previously, but that’s pretty much died down now. I still sleep a little too late, eat a little too much, and don’t get enough exercise. I’m working on all three problems.

Has your role as Children’s Poet Laureate influenced your writing?

It’s had absolutely no effect on my writing. I’ve never written with fame, money, or awards in mind. I write for myself and my audience, most of whom seem to be quite a bit shorter than I am.

My Dog May Be a Genius is your fifth book with illustrator James Stevenson. What’s your collaborative process like?

Actually, it’s our sixth book together. In 1982, two years before the publication of our first “big” book, The New Kid on the Block, we collaborated on a smaller book of poems about imaginary animals entitled The Baby Uggs Are Hatching. As soon as I saw Mr. Stevenson’s drawings for that book, I knew that he was the perfect choice to illustrate The New Kid on the Block. I made this suggestion to my editor, Susan Hirschman, and she agreed. It’s a decision we’ve never regretted.

It wasn’t until we’d completed three books together that we finally met, purely by accident, in the offices at Greenwillow Books. We’d never even spoken before. All the same, we seemed to like each other, and had a pleasant chat.

Our collaborative process is much like the one that I have with most of my illustrators, all of whom are professionals and wonderful at what they do. My editor sends or hands Mr. Stevenson the manuscript of my poems, and he starts to draw. When he’s finished, he then hands or sends his drawings to my editor, who lets me see them. If I happen to notice a problem with his interpretation of a poem, I express my concern to my editor, who relays my thoughts to him. If he agrees with me, he alters the drawing. It’s that simple. Basically, as with all my illustrators, he doesn’t tell me how to write, and I don’t tell him how to draw.

What’s next for you?

I’m always working on lots of projects. I’ve recently written a book of around-the-year holiday poems, a strange little book about a strange little planet, and sequels to Scranimals and Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant. I’m currently working on a book of lullabies.

For the past couple of years, I’ve spent a lot of time on a gigantic and extremely silly book about birds. I’ve also been teaching myself computer graphics, and hope to illustrate the bird book myself. Will I succeed? I don’t know.

Because of my current interest in birds, I’ve become a serious bird photographer. Perhaps I’ll publish a book of my photographs someday. Again, I don’t know.

How do you come up with such creative characters? Are they ever based on people or animals you know?

My characters arise in many different ways. Sometimes they come from my dreams, sometimes from just sitting and thinking and waiting for an idea to happen, and sometimes from seeing something as simple as three letters on a license plate. For example, the “baby uggs” came about because I noticed a license plate had the letters UGG on it. That sounded to me like a combination of “ugly” and “egg” and I knew that it had the makings of a poem.

Many of my characters are based on people and animals I know. My mother was the world’s worst singer, and the poem “Euphonica Jarre” in The New Kid on the Block is based on her. A few years ago, my wife and I “dog sat” a friend’s retriever. Whenever the word “walk” came up in conversation, that dog went a little crazy and started yelping and jumping up and down. The title poem of My Dog May Be a Genius is based on our friend’s dog.

What is your writing process like? What’s a typical day for you?

I don’t have a typical day. Most days I don’t write at all, though I always have a notebook with me and probably jot down an idea or two. On the other hand, there are some days where I do little else but write. I get out of bed and start writing immediately, and don’t stop until I’m starving or exhausted.

Almost all my poems begin with an idea that I find in one of my notebooks. It may be something I jotted down that morning, or something that I jotted down ten years ago—it’s unpredictable. Then I get down to business. I transcribe my notes into a computer and begin shaping them into a poem. I work on the computer till I can’t stand it anymore, and print out what I’ve done so far. Then I sit in a comfortable chair and scribble with a pen on the computer printout. Eventually, the printout becomes illegible to practically anyone but me. I go back and transfer my scribbles to the computer and work some more on the poem. I may repeat this process once, twice, a dozen, or even a hundred times. Eventually, I’m satisfied with the poem, and I go on to the next one.

Your poetry is very funny! How important do you find humor to be in poetry for children?

I believe that humor is extremely important in children’s poetry. Humor grabs kids and is one of the best ways of introducing poetry to them. Of course, not all children’s poetry has to be funny, or should be, but humor is a good starting place.

Humor comes naturally to me, just as rhyme does. Every once in a while I write poems that are a bit more serious, but I always return to the funny stuff. It’s simply who I am.

Who has inspired you in your writing?

No writer exists in a vacuum. We’re all inspired by others, even if we don’t necessarily recognize it. I know that I’ve been inspired by comedians as diverse as Groucho Marx, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, and my Uncle Charlie—and by a wide range of poets, such as Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Edgar Allan Poe, and even Shakespeare. I’ve also been influenced by folk music, trips to the zoo, newspaper cartoons, and conversations with friends. I suspect that I have many more sources of inspiration—it would take me hours to list them all.

Jack Prelutsky
Bainbridge Island, Washington, 2008