One Step Forward by Marcie Flinchum Atkins

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Denise at Dare to Care for Roundup.

Here on the eve of National Women's History Month, I am delighted to welcome Marcie Flinchum Atkins to the blog to share about her beautiful and informative verse novel One Step Forward, a historical YA verse novel that tells the story of Matilda Young, the youngest suffragist to be imprisoned for protesting for women’s suffrage. Named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and earning a starred review from Kirkus, this novel is a must-read! Visit Marcie's website to discover other goodies, including a Teacher's Guide.

Before we get to all the goodness, a reminder about next Monday's FREE poetry reading! Please come. It's going to be all kinds of inspiring!

Now, for more about One Step Forward. If you follow Marcie's blog, then you know what a generous, talented, and inspiring woman she is, always giving us haiku, photographs, reading lists, and new challenges to adopt or at least follow along with! And now, finally (!), her verse novel is entering the marketplace and the lives of readers.

Lucky me, I got an early look at One Step Forward. I read it all in one sitting and marveled at the history (which I did not know) and how beautifully Marcie used poetic tools to tell the story. Women marched for voting rights, and Marcie's words march down the page. Women were jailed in their pursuit of voting rights, and Marcie creates a "jail" with her words. You will never again take your voting rights for granted after reading this book. It left me grateful for those who fought so long (!) and so hard for us to exercise this right. Marcie's book really shows that. Here's the blurb I wrote:

And now, please welcome Marcie as she responds to a few prompts (that originated with the publication of my book Fresh Delicious: Poems from the Farmers' Market)!

FRESH: I love stories that have never been told before. In 2020, the United States
celebrated the centennial anniversary of women’s right to vote. I wanted to tell the
story of Matilda Young, a teen who worked for suffrage in Washington, DC. Outside of some mentions in the historical record, Matilda’s story had never been told. You can see a picture of Matilda Young at the Library of Congress.

Marcie's manuscripts

DIFFICULT: Matilda’s story is the one I ended up telling, but I didn’t start there. 
I swam around in a bunch of different POVs before settling on Matilda’s. I started with a collective we voice, then I wrote the whole book from multiple POVs, each from different suffragists’ perspectives. Then I found Matilda. To be a teen novel, it made sense that the voice carrying the story was a teen. Finding the story was a long road.

Occoquan jail cell

I also struggled with the time covered in the book. I knew the midpoint of the story was going to be the Night of Terror in 1917, a night in Occoquan Workhouse where many women were jailed and tortured for protesting at the White House. But the time I wanted to cover was more than that night. It needed context. I wanted to feature the Women’s March of 1913 all the way to the ratification of the 19th amendment in 1920. I cover seven years in this book, which made pacing tricky.

All of these were difficult decisions marked by trial and error.

Uncovering history can also be marked by difficult things. While I knew that 1920 didn’t allow ALL women to vote, I was horrified by how many women were disenfranchised for decades after the 19th amendment—including Matilda.

The residents of Washington, DC (Matilda was one) couldn’t vote for president until
1961. It took the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to open the doors for people of color to
vote. And many people still deal with voter suppression in this country today.

But I couldn’t shake the idea that many women who worked for suffrage still didn’t get to exercise that right even after the 19th amendment was passed.

It was also difficult to know that finding my way through this book meant that 2020,
and the centennial anniversary, was coming and my book still wasn’t quite ready. I felt like I was missing a perfect opportunity to capitalize on the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. And then COVID19 shut down the world in 2020 and the world wasn’t paying much attention to books.

DELICIOUS: I love words! It’s probably no surprise to the poets among us. I could play with words all day long. But in a verse novel, story must be paramount. As I wrote this book, I wrote out of order, and I wrote by hand—at first.

I start most of my picture books, poetry, and verse novels by hand. I love the XL blank Moleskine books for this type of writing. Then I type it up into Scrivener while I’m still playing around with it.

But the dessert is playing with the words. When you know I have the story down, then I play with the words and figure out how to utilize white space and form.

One of the most delicious things that has happened on this journey is seeing how other storytellers tell the story of the Silent Sentinels—those ladies who quietly, but boldly, protested at the White House. In 2024, I went to NYC to see Suffs on Broadway. It was a true highlight of the year. I knew the whole story, and I still was moved to tears. It’s no longer on Broadway but it is going on a national tour, and I highly recommend seeing it.

ANYTHING ELSE: I love telling stories from my backyard (or area). I discovered Matilda’s story because my husband told me about a local jail—where suffragists had been jailed—that had been converted into an arts center. I honestly didn’t believe him at first. We were new to the area at the time. We went to visit together and toured the suffrage museum. Just a few miles down the road from me, history happened. And yet, every time I discover a new story in my backyard (and there are MANY stories), I get that same feeling of excitement as when I found out about Matilda and her fellow suffragists.

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THANK YOU, Marcie! Y'all, do NOT miss this book. It will change you!

And now for this week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO offering. 

I've wanted to try a trinet ever since learning about the form on Rose's blog. So today I tried two! 

I should say that these poems were also influenced by reading (listening to) Our Infinite Fates by Laura Stevens, a debut YA love story with a compelling, fantastical premise AND the (lovely) fact that all my guys gifted me flowers of one kind or another for my birthday! So the house is full of flowers, and so is my heart...and now these poems! 

ALSO. I generally don't like ending a line of poetry with the word "and." But something I've found that helps me grow as a writer is pushing against my preferences. In this case I made myself write a poem with at least one line ending with "and."

And you know what? I discovered the repetition of "and" affects the poem's energy in a kind of smoldering sunrise/sunset way, so YAY! (Still don't think you'll find me writing lines ending in "and" very often, though.:) Thanks so much for reading!

Alabama Sunrise Trinet

yellows and

pinks and

peaches arrive first—a nest for

one sweet juicy star we call

sun and

orange and

we reach

- Irene Latham

Key West Sunset Trinet

yellows and

pinks and

peaches linger—perfect kindling for one

fireball star that licks our skin

sweet and

sizzle and

we burn

- Irene Latham