General Artist Information
Name: Anna Paige
Artistic Discipline: Literary Arts (writing and poetry)
Grade Level Preference: 3rd-5th grade
Address: Fargo, ND
Geographic Availability: Statewide
Fee Per Day: $1250 for a 12-week residency (one hour lesson per week = ~$105/lesson/classroom
Website: https://penandpaige.com
Biography
Anna Paige is an award-winning journalist, photographer, poet and co-founder of Young Poets, winner of a Library of Congress Award for Literacy. After spending two decades in Montana, where she worked as a journalist for the Billings Gazette, Yellowstone Public Radio and Montana Free Press, Paige moved to North Dakota to join the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead in January 2024 and is the organization's first female photo editor.
Founded in Montana, Young Poets encourages students to express themselves with poetry, and in collaboration with the Kindred Area Arts Partnership and the North Dakota Council on the Arts, Young Poets expanded into North Dakota in 2026. Anna is the current artist-in-residence at Kindred Elementary, serving four classrooms of third grade students with 12-weeks of poetry lessons.
Recipient of the Library of Congress State Literacy Award, Young Poets has been recognized for outstanding contributions to promoting literacy and/or reading in a state or local community!
Teaching Philosophy
The 12-week program, founded in Montana and now operating in North Dakota, integrates weekly lessons in elementary classrooms. Each lesson helps supports school curriculum, including writing, comprehension, reading proficiency, and public speaking skills while furthering creativity and thoughtful expression in the classroom.
Throughout the 12-week residency, students engage in creative brainstorming, analysis, and problem solving, while creative writing fosters a sense of agency in these students who begin to see themselves as writers.
Sample Lesson Plan
The three tenants of the 12-week program:
1) Read poems: Students read various poems and learn about the poets who wrote them.
2) Write poems: Students write their own poem or poems based on a prompt or example.
3) Share poems: Students practice reading their poems aloud and being attentive audiences.
Here is a sample of the first lesson:
Lesson 1 – 3rd Grade: Acrostic Poem
(Miss?) Anna Paige
I work in Fargo as a photographer for a newspaper. My work appears in other newspapers and online. I am also a published writer, journalist, and a poet.
As a poet, I collaborate with others and encourage people to express themselves with their words, feelings and thoughts. This is why I’m here today! This is the first day of Young Poets!
How many of you write poetry?
How many of you feel like you’re a poet, on the inside?
Would you believe me if I told you that you were a poet? You might not even know it.
Each one of you is a poet. How?
Poetry is a form of writing where you express yourself and how you see the world around you.
Poetry stirs a reader’s imagination or emotions.
The poet does this by carefully choosing and arranging language for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. Some poems are simple and humorous. Other poems may try to express some truth about life, to tell a story, or to honor a person or a belief.
People throughout the world have been writing poems for thousands of years. Poetry appears in a great many forms and styles.
Poems are creative sources of energy that come from inside you. We will learn techniques to bring those poems out of you and onto the page.
In our 12 weeks together we will
Read poetry by published poets and students
Write our own poetry each week
Share our poetry aloud with each other
Listen to poetry and be respectful of everyone’s words and their feelings
At the end of 12 weeks we will
Publish an anthology of poetry (a collection) that will include your work
Conclude with a special celebration and poetry reading for friends and family
What are some techniques for writing poetry?
Poets use their senses to describe their unique experience. Name five senses!
Poets use memory, feelings, and descriptions in their poems.
Poems can rhyme, but they don’t have to!
Poems can be happy, or sad, or informative, or silly, or all of that! It’s up to you what you want to do.
LESSON NOTES: ACROSTIC POETRY:
Each line starts with a letter that spells out the poem's theme vertically. Pick a word that describes you. Or you can start with your name. Use a dictionary if you need help. **Poems are different from other types of writing because of their structure. The words of a poem are arranged in lines and groups of lines, called stanzas.
Apsáalookebia, which means “Apsáalooke Woman” by * Kami Jo White Clay
KamiJo Whiteclay is a member of the Apsaalooke (Crow) Nation and a student at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. “I write poetry as a way to communicate the complex thoughts and feelings within myself. My written prose and poetry is inspired by growth, healing, women-empowerment, and traditional Apsáalooke values.”
Apsáalookebia (Apsáalooke Woman)
by Kami Jo White Clay
A fter all
P ast
S truggles
A woman warrior
A rises
L eading
O ther women
O nward
K nowing
E very Apsáalooke
B ia
I s following, Unapologetically
A psáalooke
Student poem, 1st grade
Blue is a color, a
Lovely color that is
Under the sun
Everywhere, even in thunder
Student poem, 4th grade
Nothing is more beautiful than a
Universe.
Mama, give me a
Ball.
East is the way.
Rounding is the sound.
Sound is my number.
“Abecedarian” poem, 4th grade
A magnificent rainbow
Bellowed the sky with rays of
color
Cast the beautiful fairies
Dawned the twilight’s mist
Even turned the world to rubies
Fascinating
Gorgeous
Heaps of gold and silver are here
I never heard the music the gold
played
Jungle of white ivy—I
Know the world is all turned
around
Lovely the perfect place to be
by the
Murmuring brooks of crystal blue
Nothing ever would turn the
world back—
Open the golden doors
Past the mountains of ice
Quiet place
Running past the silver trees-the
Sun is made of white diamonds
Turning the twilight to dawn
Unicorns made of white rubies
Violets of shimmery purple
White beautiful bushes
eXtraordinary
You will find the magic there
Zap—it’s gone forever