The Writer’s Center welcomes author Sharon Darrow and illustrator Marianne Murphy for a book launch celebration of their new book, Rainbow a Poem.

Sharon Darrow (sharondarrow.com) was a member of the faculty of the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, Vermont College of Fine Arts, from 1997 to 2019. She is the award-winning author of Picture Books (Old Thunder and Miss Raney, art by Kathryn Brown; Yafi’s Family, co-author Linda Pettit, art by Jan Spivey Gilchrist; Through the Tempests Dark and Wild: A Story of Mary Shelley, Creator of Frankenstein, art by Angela Barrett) and Young Adult novels (The Painters of Lexieville and TRASH). Her poetry for young people has been included in Home to Me: Poems Across America, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and her poems, short stories, interviews, and personal essays for adults have appeared in literary journals Rhino, Folio, Whetstone, ACM (Another Chicago Magazine), Columbia Poetry Review, Great River Review, Other Voices, The Writer’s Chronicle, and in the anthology, In the Middle of the Middle West. Her most recent books are Worlds within Words: Writing and the Writing Life, and now in a far sky: Vermont poems. The Darrow Lecture Series, named in her honor, is held annually, with lectures delivered by distinguished authors who are graduates of the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program.

Marianne Murphy is an illustrator, animator, and writer. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from VCFA, and a BFA in Animation at the University of the Arts. Her work has been printed in publications such as Ladybug, Spider, Cricket, Highlights for Children, and The Quiet Ones, and she currently works developing courses, animations, and experiences for educational software. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and their many pets. You can see more of her work at www.flamingoboots.com.

About the Book

Rainbow a Poem is a rhyming Picture Book for ages 3-8 about creating poems and having fun with words. Lively colorful and engaging illustrations enhance the poetry and lead readers to an understanding of what a poem can be, as well as encouraging even very young children to create poetry. No matter what your age, you can be a poet!