We are excited to welcome Allan Wolf back to the Children's Festival of Reading after 15 years.
Two time winner of the North Carolina Young Adult Book Award, as well as Bankstreet College’s prestigious Claudia Lewis Award for Poetry, Allanis the author of picture books, poetry, and young adult novels. Booklist has named his historical verse novel, The Watch That Ends the Night, one of “The 50 Best Young Adult Books of All Time.” Also a skilled and seasoned performer of 30 years, Allan Wolf’s dynamic author talks and poetry presentations for all ages are meaningful, educational and unforgettable. Florida Reading Quarterly calls Wolf “the gold standard of performing poetry.” Wolf believes in the healing powers of poetry recitation and has committed to memory nearly a thousand poems. Wolf has an MA in English from Virginia Tech where he also taught. He moved to North Carolina to become artistic and educational director of the touring group Poetry Alive!. Wolf is considered the Godfather of the Poetry Slam in the Southeast, hosting the National Poetry Slam in 1994, forming the National Championship Team in 1995, and founding the Southern Fried Poetry Slam (now in it’s 27th year).
Wolf’s books for young people showcase his love of research, history, science, and poetry. His YA novel, Who Killed Christopher Goodman?, is based on the murder of a high school friend during the summer of 1979. His latest book, The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur, is a non-fiction graphic novel format telling of one of the most amazing disasters that no one’s ever heard of: the Lake Peigneur Texaco disaster of 1980.