Nancy Merritt Bell -Teacher, Editor and Poet

Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST!  LISTEN to my WIOX show (originally aired May 7th, 2024) featuring teacher, editor, poet and writer, Nancy Merritt Bell.  How do you teach young children to write poetry?  Nancy shares her methods and also reads from works she has edited and written specifically for children.  The show also features Pamela Manché Pearce, Planet Poet’s Poet-at-Large, who brings us Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia. Visit: Sharonisraelpoet.com.  Nancy Merritt Bell is the great-great-great- grand-niece of the poet Christopher Smart, and also a writer, book editor and poet.  Nancy grew up in the 60’s in Athens, Greece, and Tucson, Arizona and then moved to Toronto, Canada.  Her two beatnik parents didn't allow her to watch TV, so what better to do but read? Everyone had to recite poems by heart on birthdays and special events, and long car rides – which was often as Canada is a big country and all car rides are long. This came in handy when Nancy studied epic poetry at the University of Toronto and did graduate work at New York University. Nancy underwrote her academic career by successfully working in development on a dozen TV series, including the Emmy-winning Anne of Avonlea, The Odyssey and Degrassi, and writing as many plays, such as The Mean Time at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. In 2006, Nancy edited William Loizeaux’s prize-winning kids’ book WINGS! After moving to Brooklyn, Nancy went on to edit 20 books, including four by her husband, author Michael McKinley, with the most recent one, Diamond Dust, coming out in July. Nancy is currently editing the collected works of the poet Callum Tichenor, and also a collection of children’s poetry by Sara Fymme, as well as Sara’s chapter book for kids in verse, Invisible Isabel.