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    • Home
    • About
    • Life Lessons
    • Inspirational
    • How To
    • Writing
    • Jenny Margotta
    • Anita Holmes
    • Mary Ruth Hughes
    • Marilyn King
    • Ann Miner
    • Dwight Norris
    • Roberta Smith
    • Mary Langer Thompson
    • Joan Rudder Ward
    • Freddi Gold
    • Jim Grayson
    • Michael Patrick Brewer
    • Michael Raff
    • Panels
    • Paul Sebastian

On-Topic Speakers for You

On-Topic Speakers for YouOn-Topic Speakers for YouOn-Topic Speakers for You
  • Home
  • About
  • Life Lessons
  • Inspirational
  • How To
  • Writing
  • Jenny Margotta
  • Anita Holmes
  • Mary Ruth Hughes
  • Marilyn King
  • Ann Miner
  • Dwight Norris
  • Roberta Smith
  • Mary Langer Thompson
  • Joan Rudder Ward
  • Freddi Gold
  • Jim Grayson
  • Michael Patrick Brewer
  • Michael Raff
  • Panels
  • Paul Sebastian

Mary Langer Thompson


Site Content

Mary's Biography

Mary Langer Thompson, the 2012 Senior Poet Laureate of California, also writes short stories and essays and is completing a memoir of her first year as a public-school principal. She is a contributor to two poetry writing texts, The Working Poet (Autumn Press, 2009) and Women and Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching (McFarland, 2012). Her children's books, How the Blue-Tongued Skink got his Blue Tongue and The Gull Who Thought He Was Dull were published by Another Think Coming Press. A retired school principal and former secondary English teacher, Langer Thompson continues to enjoy conducting writing workshops in her community where she won the 2019 Jack London Award from the California Writers Club High Desert Branch. 


Mary is on Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/mary.langerthompson 

Mary is willing to do Zoom meetings

Contact: mh_thompson@hotmail.com


Presentation Topics

Writing Poetry:

Workshops available for Found Poems; Ekphrastic Poems (poems based on another work of art); Poems of Place or Legacy Poems (Memoir). Participants will come away with a poem or poem draft. Available for school classrooms, grades 3-college. One hour or class period. 

Writing the Story of Your Life

Where do you start? You will begin to write the story of your life by looking at Turning Points. One hour. 

How to Write a Flash-Fiction Story of 1,000 Words or Less

The group will write a collaborative FF story based on Kurt Vonnegut's advice of determining first what your character needs. 1-2 hours. 

How to Write a Children's Book and find an Illustrator

Mary is the author of two children's books with one forthcoming and will help you plan and make the decisions needed to help you write your own. One hour. 

Healing Through the Arts (University of Florida Certificate)

Mary has a University of Florida Certificate to help you deal with grief through various art forms, including writing, drawing, painting and creating. A bibliography will be provided on her recommendations for the ten best books on grief. One hour. 


Books by Mary Langer Thompson

How the Blue-tongued skink got its blue tongue

  "My 10-year-old had this to say after reading Mary Langer Thompson's story:"
"I loved the book. It was interesting and I think it taught a lesson to always do your best to stand up for what you think is right, and to help others do the right thing. The art was very good and it made what was going on in the book real." Mary Mack, Writer 

The gull who thought he was dull

  I loved your book! It was so good I want to read it 1,000 times. I liked it because the gull Gus was determined to be fancy not dull. But in the end he knew he did not need to be fancy. he needed his family to support him." 3rd Grade Student 

Poems in water

operation desert haiku

  "Poems in Water is a tender and empathetic collection written in accessible language about our shared human experiences." John Sibley Williams, Poet and Writer 

operation desert haiku

the language of my lake

operation desert haiku

Mary returned to writing haiku after many years

Grief Dialogues

the language of my lake

the language of my lake

Mary is included in this anthology with an essay on the grief experience.

the language of my lake

the language of my lake

the language of my lake

Poems about Mary's experiences in Big Bear Lake, California

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