Biography
Carol-Ann Hoyte writes poetry for young people. Two of her favourite ways of enjoying poetry are reading novels written in free verse on her own and to students and sharing and writing riddle poems with kids. Carol-Ann has featured the work of poets from around the world in two self-published collections: the award-winning And the Crowd Goes Wild!: A Global Gathering of Sports Poems and Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems. Scottish poets Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay, both whom she has had the opportunity to meet, are among her greatest poetic inspirations. One day, Carol-Ann hopes to realize her dream of publishing an international poetry magazine for children. Beyond poetry, Carol-Ann has a professional and personal interest in children's literature. She worked as a librarian at Selwyn House School from 2007 to 2022. After a 20-year relationship with the Canadian Children's Book Centre, Carol-Ann joined its team as program and events coordinator in June 2022.
Micro-interview
Since I did not read poetry when I was in high school, there isn't a particular poem that I loved when I was a teenager.
It was 2008 when I first started writing poetry and it was as of then that I started thinking of myself as a poet.
A poet's job is to inspire others to try their hand at poetry, to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary, to see commonplace elements with fresh eyes, to offer accessible entry points into poetry, to view how poetry is present, relevant, and significant in everyday life, and to illustrate how we all can connect to poetry on some level.
"Praise the Rain" by Joy Harjo, who was named the U.S. Poet Laureate in June 2019.