A Hatful of Dragons Author Interview II

Hello Again,

There was simply not enough room in one Poetry Friday blog post for all the goodness Vikram Madan shared about reading, writing and illustrating his new collection, A Hatful of Dragons: And More Than 13.8 Billion Other Funny Poems (Wordsong 2020). 

This is part II

First, a correction. The editor for this book is Rebecca Davis. I mistakenly used the wrong last name yesterday.

Now for the fun!

Reader Questions
(My 6th Grader Hat)

Q: Do you think in rhyme? Tell me about your thinking...where do your ideas come from?

Vikram Madan: I don’t think in rhyme, but rhyming comes naturally to me. I wrote my first poem for a third-grade assignment. The entire poem went like this: “There was a king / Who liked to sing.” 8-year-old me was so excited at producing this opus that he’s never stopped writing poems since.  

Q: What is your favorite poem in the collection and why?

Vikram Madan: I’m quite fond of ‘The Flippy, Floppy Flappers’ (p.13). I was painting a mural project a few years ago for which kids submitted imaginary creatures that I then repainted in my own style. A 3 year old’s sketch turned into these two bouncy characters:

(c) Vikram Madan

Every time I looked at them, I imagined them bouncing around, ears flapping up and down, begging to have their own poem. And now they do!

Q: Where do you connect with audiences?

Vikram Madan: I love connecting with kids through school visits where I read poetry and do a raucous creativity exercise where I prove to them that they are all more imaginative than Shel Silverstein. It gets them very excited about writing and drawing.

Adults who follow my art and writing usually connect through social media: @ArtByVikram (instagram, facebook, twitter), my website www.VikramMadan.com , and my art gallery in Seattle.

Writer Questions(Wearing a Poet's Hat)

Q: Tell me about when you knew this was a collection

Vikram Madan: I’m fond of thick books (I like getting my money’s worth J) and had this fantasy of publishing a fat 500-page poetry book. So I was targeting creating a collection right from the very beginning, although I wrapped up my manuscript at 150 pages for practical reasons. For even more practical reasons, the publishers distilled my manuscript into a 64-page collection.

Q: Who do you write for? 

Vikram Madan: My inner kid, first and foremost! J

Q: Who are your writing heroes?

Vikram Madan:  Guy Wetmore Carryl, Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, Terry Pratchett.  

Please join me in thanking Vikram for sharing a bit of his reading, writing and illustrating self with us. I have no doubt that A Hat Full of Dragons will be making its way into homes, classrooms, libraries and reading spaces of kids from three to one-hundred-and three very soon. We all look forward to seeing your future successes in publishing.