Cynthia’s poetry appears in The Toy, Nature Edition, Little Thoughts Press, Hit the Road Edition, and The Dirigible Balloon.
The Stuck Bumblebee Poetry-Illustration Challenge
WELCOME TO THE STUCK BUMBLEBEE POETRY/ILLUSTRATION CHALLENGE!
Who: Hosted by children’s authors, Joyce P. Uglow and Cynthia Mackey
What: One word prompts to spark your poetry and illustration work - use the hashtags #StuckBumblebee #PoetryChallenge #IllustrationChallenge
Each word is taken directly from Joyce P. Uglow’s nonfiction picture book, STUCK! The Story of La Brea Tar Pits with illustrations by Valerya Milavanova or from Cynthia’s fiction picture book, IF A BUMBLEBEE LANDS ON YOUR TOE with illustrations by Vikki Zhang
When: March 14 - April 14 (but you can use the prompts any time)
Where: Instagram and Bluesky with details on Joyce and Cynthia’s websites
https://joyceuglowauthor.com https://www.booksbycindy.com/
Why: To inspire you to create more poetry and/or more illustrations and help you get unstuck
To celebrate our book birthdays
How: You can make this challenge your own.
Teachers can use the one word prompts with their class.
Writers can take up the challenge to create new poems or drafts of poems
Illustrators can take up the challenge to create an illustration inspired by each prompt
Post your poems or illustrations in the comment section on Instagram and/or Bluesky
Use the hashtag #StuckBumblebee #PoetryChallenge #Poetry
Create your own poetry posts using the hashtag #StuckBumblebee #PoetryChallenge #Poetry
Keep your poetry and illustrations to yourself if you like (you are not required to share)
Poets are encouraged to post a photo or image along with their poems
Try to complete the challenge in 30 days or, keep creating until you get it done!
Questions:
Are there prizes? No prizes in the challenge but if you complete it, you will have 35 new poems. Hooray!
Do I need to post my poems/illustrations? No, however, you are welcome to share them if you choose to do so.
Why am I only seeing some of the prompts? You need to be following BOTH Joyce and Cynthia to see the prompts because we will alternate days with a prompt word taken from Cynthia’s book, If a Bumblebee Lands on Your Toe and then a prompt taken from Joyce’s book, STUCK: The Story of the La Brea Tar Pits .
What if I get stuck on one of the prompts? It’s a 30 day challenge, but we have 5 bonus words at the end so if you are stuck or you miss a day, you can swap out a word from one of the last five days of the challenge. When you’re finished, you’ll have 30 new poems or 30 new illustrations. What an amazing feeling!
Bonus: For super keen participants, share a poem/illustration each day - if your poem/illustration gets published because of the challenge, we want to hear about it, so let us know even if it’s years down the road. We love to boost fellow creatives!
Share the challenge on your own social media to help other creators get “unstuck”
Use the hashtags #StuckBumblebee #BookBirthdayBash #PoetryChallenge #IllustrationChallenge