Orel Protopopescu

What Remains

More praise from poets for What Remains:

Orel Protopopescu’s poems travel into the corridors of exile and make you question what you know and refuse knowing, what insists on staying and what is forced to depart. What Remains is paved with music; it palpitates, and reaches where your shadow can’t reach.

--Nathalie Handal

Orel Protopopescu’s first book of poems, What Remains, delves into a life filled with drama, love, acceptance. Her language is generous, well-crafted, her style often narrative, sometimes elliptical. Orel is an accomplished author and writes poetry that is complex but always accessible.

--Claire Nicolas White

Orel Protopopescu is a poet of lyrical mastery and ease—and this, her initial volume of verse! I recall reading in Oberon 2010, a major Long Island journal, her “Listening to My Favorite Things From the Best of John Coltrane,” the poem, somehow, the echo of the man’s very music itself. I was in the presence of an uncommon poet, one to endure, with lines like, “His notes appear and disappear/like those slim, beautiful boys/who played basketball in torn Keds/ and leaned against the rough brick walls/of the projects until their dark skins/were scraped with comet trails.” Such prosody, ease in the telling—then this leap to “comet trails.” I have never encountered such a reaching out in an urban poem, this song to inject meaning into lives of those who… “shot for the stars/and fell, leaving their music in my head,” as it remains in mine.

--Vince Clemente

Quick Links

A Word's a Bird, Spring Flies By in Rhymes

Click here to read about the app in English or French

Jeanne de Sainte Marie

Illustrator of A Word's a Bird

Authors Guild

Advocates for published authors since 1912

Authors Guild Directory

A compendium of member websites

Selected Works

iPad App, Poetry

A Word's a Bird, Spring Flies By in Rhymes

"A Word's a Bird slows down the frantic speed of most apps for children to fit the slower pace of Nature. The beauty of the illustrations, the meticulous work of the artists, and the interactive play combine to make a wondrous learning experience, a terrific way to expose children to poetry, art and Nature itself."

--Billy Collins, Poet Laureate
of the United States from 2001-2003

"A truly enchanting and poetic journey, this application is a treat for the eyes and ears..."

-- iPadou

“In perhaps the app’s most engaging feature, tapping out any melody on the lilies causes the ducklings to mimic it.”

--Kirkus Reviews

Picture book (ages 4-7)

Thelonious Mouse

"Replete with scat-y, cat-and-mouse–y wordplay, this is giggle-worthy fun."

--Kirkus Reviews

"The hip rhythms and tongue-twisting humor in this jazzy, poetic, fun-to-read-aloud book make it a keeper your child will want to read over and over again."

--Cricket Magazine online

—

“Getting the beat and the tongue-twisting phrases just right takes some practice, but the outcome is well worth the effort.”

--SLJ

—

"Children will cheer for this rascally oddball rebel."

--Booklist

Thelonious Mouse got his name from the great American jazz composer and pianist, Thelonious Monk. This jazzy mouse risks his tail and more to fierce Fat Cat, because Thelonious has “too much music in him to stuff into a mouse hole.” Yet beneath the sometimes scary hilarity, young readers discover a vital message: It takes courage to be all we can be.

Thelonious Monk showed that creative courage all his life, persevering with his unique style of music when others called him “eccentric.” He was also a devoted family man, who composed songs for his son and daughter.

Poetry

What Remains

Orel Protopopescu is a poet of lyrical mastery and ease—and this, her initial volume of verse!

--Vince Clemente

Poetry and history (grades 5 and up)

A Thousand Peaks, Poems from China

Thirty-five poems, from the Han dynasty to the modern era, in English and Chinese. “It's about as close to Chinese literature as young English-speaking readers can get.”

--School Library Journal