Allan Wolf
As a child
Although I wrote poetry at a very early age, my life as a writer officially began on April 12, 1975 just after my twelfth birthday. That was the day I began to write on my bedroom walls. I started small, writing the date lightly in pencil, behind the bed where it couldn’t be seen. It felt good. It gave me a feeling of peace and relief, as if I had just scratched a really urgent itch. A few days later I wrote some more. I gradually began using permanent markers and writing out in the open where the words were in full view. I wrote words and phrases, poetry and pictures. I wrote deep thoughts and shallow nonsense. My walls became a diary upon which I recorded the events of my life. I wrote on my walls every day for years until my room had become one huge continual tattoo of words and pictures that spread over all four walls, the ceiling, the floor, even some of the furniture.
As an adult
I earned my Master’s degree in English and taught college composition for a while. I left the classroom to join a travelling troupe of poets and actors that performed poetry as theatre in schools all over the United States. My many years with Poetry Alive! taught me much more about poetry than I ever learned in graduate school. Because of my experiences in school and with Poetry Alive!, it was only natural that I became an author of books for young people.
As an artist
My first book for kids, The Blood-Hungry Spleen and Other Poems About Our Parts, was inspired by a sixth grade life science class project I saw while working as an artist-in-residence at a school in Seoul, Korea. The kids created an anatomy chart of the human body by writing poems about all the various parts. On the long plane trip back to the U.S., I began writing. Because I consider myself a life-long learner, I like to write books that require some amount of research. My interest in American history led me to write a novel in verse about the Lewis and Clark expedition to New Found Land. If I really want to learn about something, I write a book about it.
Things you didn't know about Allan Wolf
- Allan can ride a skateboard standing on his hands.
- Allan dreams of one day living in a house with a secret room.
- Allan did not like school.
- Allan can recite hundreds of poems from memory.
- Allan plays drums with a band called The Dead Poets.
- Allan never watches television. (He doesn’t even own one!)
- To relax Allan plays guitar or juggles.
- Allan loves to draw cartoons.
- Allan has two goldfish named Lewis and Clark.
- Allan takes writing breaks by playing basketball.