October Artist of the Month – Neal Zetter
Our October ‘Artist of the Month’ is the wonderful poet Neal Zetter. An award-winning comedy performance poet, author and entertainer, Neal and his enthusiasm for poetry made him a perfect choice for the author interview month that National Poetry Day falls in.
About Neal Zetter
Neal is an award-winning comedy performance poet, children's author, entertainer and educator with a 25-year background in communication management and mentoring. He uses his interactive rhythmic, rhyming poetry to to develop literacy, confidence, creativity and communications skills in 3-103 yr olds, making words and language accessible for the least engaged whilst streeeeeeetching the most able.
What a visit from Neal entails
Neal encourages students to take risks with their writing and have fun with words and language while developing their imaginations. Students will learn simple but effective poetry structures, improve their use of language tools and ‘word choice’ consistent with the curriculum and will perform their work too.
Primary Schools and Secondary Schools
Neal’s workshops can run from 30 mins to all day, depending on the school’s requirements and students’ ages, numbers and abilities. One class per workshop is optimum with smaller groups for, EAL, G&T, SEN, low confidence children etc. He will work a very full school day so long as he has voice breaks, normally when staff and children break too. He also performs his interactive comedy poetry to any number of children in an assembly – no limit – and incorporates a Meet the Poet Q&A session within the performance. His one-day workshop needs are simple: pencils, paper and white board. For performances to very large audiences he might need a mic and a PA system, depending on acoustics and size of the auditorium.
Poetry Styles and Themes
Depending on age and ability, Neal may use these original or established poetry styles: thin, blank verse, repetitive, step, stair, rap, recipe, interactive poems etc. He encourages a range of ‘language tools’ when participants write their poems e.g., metaphors, similes, alliteration, onomatopoeia, adjectives, adverbs, synonyms, personification, senses etc. His workshop themes cover a wide range of fun and serious topics with over 40 different to choose from, e.g. Superheroes, Food, My Favourite Place, War & Peace, Emotions, Dreams & Nightmares, London, If…, Music, the Moon Landing, Black History Heroes, Animals, Insects, Self-Identity, Relationships, Sport/Olympics/Football World Cup, Respect, The Elements, Colours, Weather and many more.
Workshop Outline for Primary and Secondary Schools
Optimum workshops size is one class, each workshop runs from 30 mins to all day (depending on the school’s requirements and students’ ages, numbers and abilities). Neal’s typical workshop would be:
• Neal reads/performs his own poems – many of which are interactive
• Neal outlines poetry theme
• Neal’s ‘how to write poetry in six simple steps’
• Neal provides supporting framework or example
• Participants plan/brainstorm content
• Participants write poems
• Participants edit poems
• Participants read aloud/perform with tips from Neal
• Neal closes with Q&A and a poem.
Feedback from Neal’s previous visits
“Neal was amazing with the children - he tailored his poems to their ideas and topic, and he was very good with the children. The organisation was very easy and efficient also.”
Lake Farm Park Academy
“The day was fantastic, thank you! The kids really enjoyed it and the work they produced was very good indeed. Neal was brilliant!”
Prospect House School
“Yesterday’s visit with Neal went exceptionally well. It was the first time I had the pleasure of meeting him. I took him from class to class as he gave his workshops and the children were all thoroughly engaged, joining in and even composing their own poems, and his props were delightful and really elevated the workshops. He was very undemanding and courteous. We even chatted during his lunch break about books, and he recommended me several, which took me back to my bookselling days.”
The Gower School
“The children absolutely loved listening to his poetry and writing poems of their own. He was entertaining and all the staff found him very easy to work with.”
St Mary’s Catholic Primary School
Read about Neal and his author visits on his author page here
Interview with Neal Zetter
How and why did you join Authors Abroad?
I joined AA as I knew many poet and author friends who were working with you and all of them spoke very highly of the company. I felt 'signing up' would provide me with access to new schools and opportunities in areas where I had not worked before, given AA's track record and contacts. I was also very keen to run Able Writer Days which of course are unique to AA. As for the 'how' – it was easy: I phoned you, introduced myself and my CV and was more or less immediately offered work.
It's been a very bizarre year – how have you found it? What did you do to occupy your time during lockdown?
Of course the pandemic has been awful but I have been extremely fortunate as my work grew massively during it. This was due to the extensive amount of time I spent on social media raising my profile, developing a YouTube Channel, a blog for my website and spending so much time writing that I have now completed my next six books. I also produced an online 'Covid Collection & Diary' (www.cccpworkshops.co.uk/poems/covid-collection-amp-diary) AND, as a result of all my efforts, have been running virtual performances, Q&As and workshops all over the UK and beyond since March 2020 – I'm 'in Singapore' for National Poetry Day!
How did you manage with the switch to virtual school visits during the pandemic? Are you looking forward to getting back into schools in person?
When I developed my virtual sessions I thought children's focus and concentration would be more limited so I streamlined my workshops to keep them faster moving and produced back up materials/worksheets etc for teachers to use pre or post sessions to fill in the gaps. I also invested in some hardware such as a headset and whiteboard and made it my business to use all virtual platforms e.g. Zoom, Google, MSTeams. One must always adapt and move with the times to survive! I went back into schools on 18 March when they reopened and have been doing a mix or F2F and virtual since then and it's great to be able to do both as it enables me to extend my reach to schools who can't afford the travel and hotel costs if they are too far from where I am in London.
It’s National Poetry Day this month! Do you think schools and young people are starting to appreciate poetry more and become more enthusiastic about it?
Yes! Poetry books sales, along with all children's books, have been experiencing a bit of a golden age over the last decade as sales have risen year on year. Book publishers have smartened their acts in an attempt to fight off Kindle-type competition and EVERY school has reading as a priority as teachers are only too aware how hard it can be to drag children away from their computer games and social media. We still have a long way to go though and book shops, libraries and schools must play their part. See my recent blog: www.cccpworkshops.co.uk/blog/desperately-seeking-poetry
It’s great that NPD is so popular, but we strongly feel poetry should be celebrated in schools all year round. What do you think, what are the benefits of embracing poetry all year?
They say a dog isn't just for Christmas, well poetry isn't just for NPD. I've advocated for many years that poetry should be hardwired into literacy teaching as it can be a stripped-down form of writing on which we can then build more complex forms such as story writing. A poem can be a few simple words strung together with less emphasis on grammar, punctuation, format etc and therefore so much more accessible to those learning their writing or find literacy more challenging. While most schools now recognise this many still just 'tick a box' on NPD and forget about the power of poetry for the rest of the year. But I am constantly doing my bit on social media and in schools to challenge and change this.
Tell us about your latest book, ‘When the bell goes’ what can readers expect?
As the sub-title says, it's 'a rapping, rhyming trip through childhood' with fifty or so new poems contained within it along with jokes or crazy facts with every poem and some fab illustrations from Emily Ford.
Where do all your ideas for poems come from – is it natural or do you have to work at it and treat writing like any other job?
Nearly all my ideas come from real life experiences e.g. things I hear children or teachers say in school (!), places I go to, people I meet, what I see on the news in movies or read in books etc. The only problem I have with writing is time – I write at least a poem a week and have at least 200 ideas on my list that still still need poems but as I write each new poem I add at least one new idea to that list!
Have you ever struggled to remember the lines of your poems or started giggling when performing them?
I always take my books on stage, into class etc so it's never a problem. I don't try and learn my poems as I have written over 900 but of course the more I read them the more I learn them without even trying to. And making a mistake with the words when reading is not an issue – audiences are very forgiving and like to see someone who recognises their vulnerability. This was something I realised when stumbling through the odd poem or two while performing my adult poems in West End comedy clubs.
What do you enjoy most about visiting schools?
The buzz and adrenalin rush when performing to a large audience in assemblies as children join in with my interactive poems! Virtual is fun and interesting but nothing can replace the excitement of F2F!
As well as your author visits you run Able Writer’s Days for Authors Abroad, how do you tackle AW differently? Are you looking forward to them resuming?
I try to find the correct mix of fun, creativity and streeeeeeeetch. I also place a great emphasis on the day being unlike a regular school day and ban any questions about spelling and punctuation along with the use of rubbers and worries about handwriting. In that way children are unshackled and produce great creative poetry. I also focus on writing in the morning and performance in the afternoon so I test and develop a wide range of skills. Finally I encourage teachers to play an active part in the day and love it when they do. And yes, I'm definitely looking forward to resuming them as I l so enjoy running the days!
Do you think everyone has the ability to write a poem in them?
Absolutely! The only thing that prevents people from doing so is usually their fear of failure, and that's like with most things we find challenging I guess. But in my workshops it's very much my job to remove that fear by example and through encouragement. And I do just that as I have never run a session where a child, teen or adult has failed to write something.
Have you ever had a young person deliver such an astounding line you have been a little bit jealous you didn’t think of it?
Many times. I always say to my workshop participants who have produced a great line or poem that the best praise I can give them is 'I wish I would have thought of that!'
What has been a memorable moment from a school visit?
Unfair question! What's your favourite movie, piece of music, food etc? it's equally impossible to say although I can certainly count the bad visits on the fingers of one hand (we all have them for one reason or another). And that's from thousands of visits over 25 years.
What advice would you give to writers who are confident in writing a poem but struggle with the confidence to read it out loud or share it with others?
I run presentation courses for all children, teens and adults and I stress at the start that most people are terrified of performing in public as they are so exposed. But this is 100% natural and is part of our 'fight or flight' nature (Google it!). The trick is to channel that feeling of fear – which is just adrenalin build up – and use it positively to drive the energy into your performance. Like most things, it comes with experience.
Quick Fire
Starter or dessert?
Starter every time
Would you rather be able to fly like a hawk or swim like a dolphin?
Fly
Paperback or kindle?
You kidding me? www.cccpworkshops.co.uk/poems/175-you-cant-cuddle-up-with-a-kindle
Favourite Mr Man/Little Miss Character or who would you add to the line up?
Mr/Ms Poetryisnotjustfornationalpoetryday
What’s the coolest animal?
Aardvark/Anteater www.cccpworkshops.co.uk/poems/my-anteater
If you were Prime Minister for the day, what law would you introduce?
Easy: www.cccpworkshops.co.uk/poems/304-when-i-am-prime-minister
Arrange for Neal Zetter to visit your school
To make an enquiry about Neal, or any of the other authors, poets & illustrators listed on this website, please phone Trevor Wilson on +44 (0) 1535 656015, or email him at trevor@caboodlebooks.co.uk