The Father Goose FAQ | children's author, childrens poet, school assembly, speakers schools assemblies, school author visits

The Father Goose House is a 100-year-old English Tudor cottage located in the old Edgewood section of Homewood, Alabama,
home to Debra and Charles Ghigna for the past 50 years. Affectionately known as "Father Goose," Charles has written more than
100 books and 5,000 poems in The Father Goose House. His writing room which he calls his "treehouse" is located in the attic.

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Charles Ghigna - Father Goose® lives in a tree house in the middle of Alabama.
He is a poet, children’s author, nationally syndicated feature writer, and the author
of more than 5000 poems and 250 books and anthologies for children and adults from

the 1990 Pulitzer Prize nominee Returning to Earth to the popular children's books

The Very Hungry Caterpillar's First Poems illustrated by Eric Carle

and The Father Goose Treasury of Poetry: 101 Poems for Children.

His books are published by Random House, Simon & Schuster and Disney.
His poems for adults have been published in numerous journals and magazines including
Harper’s, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, The Saturday Evening Post and The Wall Street Journal.
His poems for children appear in Highlights for Children, Cricket, Ranger Rick, Humpty Dumpty,
Jack and Jill, Spider, Ladybug, Babybug, Caterpillar, Children’s Digest and The School Magazine.

Ghigna served as poet-in-residence at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, instructor of creative writing
at Samford University, and has received fellowship grants and various awards and recognitions
from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation,
the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Library of Congress.
A popular speaker at schools, conferences, libraries, he has spoken at the American Library in Paris,

and at schools and conferences in South America, Alaska, and throughout the U.S. and overseas.

FUN FACT: Father Goose does NOT own a cell phone!

Interview

Frequently Asked Questions for Father Goose

Have fun playing with words. Their possibilities are endless. Let them create new worlds for you, worlds real and imaginary. Put down your phone and go outside. Look around. Look up. Listen. When you come back inside, find yourself a little notebook and a cozy quiet little writing space. Read a new poem every day. Write a new poem every day. Don't worry about spelling or punctuation. Writing is talking on paper. If you can talk, you can write. Everyone sees the world in their own way. You already have tons of poet ideas inside you waiting to burst out into words. Start by writing just a few sentences each night before you go to sleep. Write as though you’re whispering a big secret to a best friend. Write every night for two weeks — then stop — if you can. If you can't, you're a writer! And no one no matter how hard they may try will ever be able to stop you from following your writing dreams. Your dreams are your magic power. Enjoy those dreams. Follow them. Make new ones. Share them. Write of your passions, your loves, your fears, your joys. Make up new stories and poems whenever you are and wherever you go. Find your writer's voice by listening deep inside. It's that little voice that says in a low, soft whisper, "Listen to this..."

I'm inspired by little things, quiet moments. I listen and observe. I celebrate life. I practice gratitude. I take long walks. My inspiration and ideas come from Nature, children, pets, animals, family, friends, and from the real and imagined visions I see along my daily walks. Much of my inspiration comes from my beloved grandchildren, Charlotte Rose and Christopher. Their names are proudly displayed on the dedication page of many of my latest books. My son's art also inspires me. You can see samples of his paintings at ChipGhigna.com

I was born August 25, 1946, in Bayside, Long Island, Queens, New York. When I was five, my family moved to Fort Myers, Florida. I lived in Florida until 1974 when I received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and moved to Alabama and took up residency as poet-in-residence at the Alabama School of Fine Arts at Birmingham-Southern College. I've now lived in Alabama for more than 50 years in a cottage that was built a hundred years ago! It's my beloved home. Alabama is where I met my wife and fell in love. It's where my son was born. I enjoy traveling and spreading the joy of poetry with people all over the world. During my travels, I'm often asked, "Where do you live?" When I say "Alabama," people sometimes look confused and say, "Alabama? But you're an author. You can live anywhere you want." I always smile and say, "Yes. I know. That's why I live in Alabama."

I received my B.A. in English (1967) and my Master in English Education (1970) from Florida Atlantic University. I did my postgraduate studies in literature and creative writing Florida State University (1973).

I taught English and creative writing for six years at Cypress Lake High School, Fort Myers, FL (1967-1973), creative writing for one year at Edison College (now called Florida SouthWestern State College), Fort Myers, FL (1973), creative writing for eighteen years at Alabama School of Fine Arts, Birmingham, AL (1974-1993), and creative writing for one year at Samford University, Homewood, AL (1985).

My classes at ASFA were held in a hodgepodge of different rooms during my first few years there as poet-in-residence. Later as chairman of the ASFA writing department, the administration invited me to submit a design for the new writing lab for the new school. I created cubicle designs for each student located around the perimeter of the room with a large table in the center for critiques. The next year that dream came true. Each cubicle came equipped with a new typewriter for each student, along with these five books waiting on their shelves: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Handbook to Literary Terms, The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, and The Norton Anthology of Modern Fiction. We met every morning at 10 am to write, then reconvened in the afternoons at 2 pm for our critique sessions. In 1993 I took two of my students from ASFA to New Yor1 to receive their writing awards at the National Scholastic Writing Awards Banquet held at the Waldorf Astoria. Brad Armstrong won the 1st Place Award for Poetry and Heather Brinson won for the 1st Place Award for Fiction. Past recipients of that prestigious writing awards include: Truman Capote, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath, and John Updike. The director of the awards ceremony told us that they have never had two students from the same state in the same year, not to mention two students from the same school! The next year I signed a four-book contract with the Walt Disney Publishing Company and left ASFA to write full time. I figured it was a good time to try my own writing wings and see if I could reach even more students with my books than I could from the classroom. So far, so good.

I began writing poems and keeping a journal when I was a kid. Some of my poems began appearing in literary magazines when I was in college. My first books of poems were published by university presses and small presses. I began writing poems for children when my son was born in the mid-1980s. Some of those poems began appearing in children's magazines such as Cricket, Highlights for Children, Ranger Rick, Spider, Ladybug, Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Children's Digest and other magazines. I signed a four-book contract with Walt Disney Publishing Company in 1992 and left teaching the next year to write full-time.

Yes! I love visiting schools and libraries! It's always fun sharing the wonder, excitement, and joy of poetry with children. I've traveled around the world sharing poems with children, from Florida to Alaska, from New York to California, from South America to France and beyond. I always arrive back home more inspired than ever ready to write more poems and books to share.

Students and teachers began calling me "Father Goose" during my school visits. My editors at the Walt Disney Publishing Company suggested I use that moniker for one of my first books, TICKLE DAY: POEMS FROM FATHER GOOSE. Illustrator, Cyd Moore, created the first image of Father Goose. Other illustrators have continued the tradition, often including a goose or two in my new books. One of my latest books, THE FATHER GOOSE TREASURY OF POETRY: 101 POEMS FOR CHILDREN, is illustrated by Italian artist Sara Brezzi. She illustrated a beautiful abstract Father Goose flying off the last page of the book with a young goose following him.

I have been writing poems all my life. Besides my books for children and adults, I also wrote a syndicated poetry feature that appeared daily in newspapers for many years. I have written more than 5,000 poems. That number continues to grow each week.

• How many books have you written?
I have written more than 100 books and 150 anthologies. People sometimes ask me, "Which one is your favorite? My books are like my children. They're ALL my favorites!

Yes, thank you for asking! You can see a complete listing of my magazines here at my Complete List of Magazines.

It's been fun seeing my books and poems receive honors and awards over the years. That helps get more books and poems into the hands of eager readers. You can find a list of some of my awards here at Honors & Awards.

My favorite hobby is writing! Writing is my vocation — and my avocation! I also love reading, hiking, exploring, playing rummy, solving crossword puzzles, and collecting old books. I also have a growing gaggle of geese collectibles (figurines, statues, and miniatures) here in my Treehouse that children, teachers, librarians, friends and family give me as gifts. I have geese all over place! — on my desk, shelves, filing cabinets, and on the top of my Victrola. At night when I turn out the lights and go downstairs, they sneak around the room and visit each other. Sometimes I find them in different places other than where I left them. Sometimes I find more than I had the day before! Most of the time they are well-behaved.

I'm probably the only person on the planet over the age of twelve who doesn't own a cell phone. I know. You must think I'm a dinosaur. I am. I still use a landline and a desktop computer. That's all I need. I'm here at my desk in the tree house writing every day, often late into the night. When I'm away from my desk traveling to schools and conferences, I'm completely unplugged. Completely disconnected. And free. And it's wonderful. It's heaven. When I'm out on my hikes, I see people looking down at their phones. We miss a lot when we look down at those little screens. We miss the smiling faces of friends passing by. We miss the hawks circling above. We miss the endless parade of glorious clouds. The whisper of the trees. The horizon. The glorious sunrises and sunsets that mark the beginning and end of each and every glorious day.