• Happy Poetry Month!

    To kick off National Poetry Month, 2021, I’d like to share this fun video of The Haiku Song. Please share it around, and remember that April 17th is National Haiku Day. This 3-minute video snippet is a part of a full-length video I’ve put together for the older elementary grades. New Author/Poetry Videos for Elementary Grades While in-person author visits are on hold due to the pandemic, I’ve begun to offer full-length videos for the elementary grades. Each video features fun performances and talking points just as my live presentations do. Available for classrooms, schools, and libraries in search of an asynchronous author experience, we can also arrange synchronous on-line…

  • The questions hunger asks

    I was interviewed by Bookpage about The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep! In his new novel in verse, critically acclaimed author Allan Wolf revisits a grisly chapter of westward expansion with a fresh and thought-provoking look at the doomed travelers of the Donner Party, a group of 89 pioneers who became trapped in the Sierra Nevada and infamously resorted to eating their dead to survive. We spoke to Wolf about the unique narrator of The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep, some of the unexpected ways he researched the book and why cannibalism wasn’t the hardest part of the book to write. Read the rest here.

  • Finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize!

    My latest novel, The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep: Voices from the Donner Party, has been chosen as one of five finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature. While the winners will not be announced until April 16, I’m honored simply to be in the running for this prestigious prize. There is no “campaigning” for inclusion. No author, publisher, bookseller, editor, or publicist is allowed to directly recommend books to the 3-person panel of judges.  In a tumultuous year of racial,  political, and pandemic upheaval what would cause a book about the Donner Party to rise to the surface of such crowded, choppy waters? The…

  • No Buddy Like a Book Virtual Party Feb. 12th!

    I’m excited to celebrate the release of my new picture book No Buddy Like a Book with the illustrator Brianne Farley at my favorite independent bookstore Malaprops! RSVP here February 12th, 6 pm EST Preorder the book here and get it signed and personalized if you want! Just indicate in the comment section of checkout.  

  • Why a novel about the Donner Party is the perfect thing right now

    “Disasters are fascinating,” Wolf says. “You know what’s going to happen, and you know it’s going to be bad, but the characters don’t.” The Mountain Xpress  interviewed me about the new book.  It gives some background on how I did my research, and touches on why this book is so relevant right now. Like all good stories, we are drawn in to relate to the characters, and gain insight into how they behaved under difficult circumstances. You can’t help but see eerie similarities to our current crisis. How do you keep your humanity in a situation like that? So I guess this book, like COVID, it’s just a bunch of…

  • New Book & Pandemic Update

    I’m pleased to announce the release of my latest historical novel in verse (for grade 6 and up), The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep: Voices from the Donner Party.  Please join me for a short virtual book launch on Wed, September 9 at 6:00PM ET hosted by Malaprops Bookstore & Cafe. Three Graves will be released simultaneously as an audio-book, with a full-cast of voices featuring Bahni Turpin who just won an Audie Award for narrating The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. Turpin is joined by a veteran ensemble of voice actors including Ramon de Ocampo who is the voice of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid audio books.…

  • What Matters Most: A Poem for Teachers

    Plan A. Plan B. Plan C. The world is in the middle of a Plan-demic. I wrote the poem What Matters Most below as a reminder that determining what to do is easier if we first determine what we believe. The new realities of the Pandemic require us to be grounded and rational, and yet our irrational imaginations are working overtime to innovate, recreate, readjust, and reinvent. During challenging times, when you feel a little lost, Poetry can be your compass needle’s North. What Matters MostA Poem for Teachers If you believe that you can teachand students can be taught,let all you do be guided bythose two essential thoughts. If you feel…

  • Poetry Palooza: Episode 4

    Poetry Palooza, Episode 4: THE QUARANTINE QUARTET. In which Allan writes a poem about making the most of quarantine. Doodle, and James get into the act, as well as a mysterious stranger.

  • Poetry Palooza: Episode 3

    Poetry Palooza, Episode 3: Iambic Titanic. In which Allan uses a human heart to demonstrate how he uses iambic pentameter to give voice to an iceberg and then re-enacts the sinking of the Titanic in his living room!