Poetry Friday: MTV's Poet Laureate John Asbury

If you attended the first-ever YALSA YA Literature Symposium's "Picturing the Story: Teens Get Graphic" pre-conference, you heard Printz-Award winner Gene Yang's reminder that today's teens expect to participate in literature. Want to get teens participating in poetry? Visit MTV's website that focuses on college students: mtvU.com

MTV named a Poet Laureate for university students, and not one you might expect. Eighty-year-old John Ashbury is featured on mtvU.com reading his poems in video clips, along with printable text of the poem. What a great way to introduce this winner of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, a MacArthur Fellowship and The Yale Younger Poets Prize to NetGen learners! Learn more about mtvU's poet laureate, along with mtvU's poetry contest for college students in this New York Times article by Melena Ryzik.