Kitty O'Meara's Hopeful Poem "And The People Stayed Home" About The Pandemic to Be Published as an Illustrated Book by Tra Publishing

And the People Stayed Home by Kitty O'Meara

Tra Publishing has announced that in Fall 2020 it will publish And the People Stayed Home, a picture book for children ages 4–8 (and readers of all ages) by Kitty O'Meara, featuring her popular prose poem about the global coronavirus pandemic. 

The poem suggests there is meaning to be found in our shared experience of the pandemic, and it conveys a hopeful message about the possibility of profound healing for people and the planet. The piece has been so widely circulated through social media, news media, and by influencers such as Deepak Chopra, Bella Hadid, and Lindsay Lohan that O'Meara, a former teacher and chaplain and currently a spiritual director, has been called "the poet laureate of the pandemic."

"The response has been overwhelmingly positive and humbling," O'Meara says. "There have been so many astonishing, touching, and global connections made because of the vision this poem presents and affirms."

O'Meara wrote the poem on Friday, March 13. She then posted it on Facebook and it quickly went viral. There has been a great deal of misinformation about the poem's authorship, much of it confusing O'Meara with a 19th-century Irish-French writer with a similar name. In fact, Kitty O'Meara is alive and well and lives outside Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, Phillip, and their five rescue dogs and three cats. 

Spread from And the People Stayed Home by Kitty O'Meara

• And the People Stayed Home will be O'Meara's first print book.

"We are thrilled to be working with Kitty on this book. The message she conveys is timeless. While her words have already reached hundreds of thousands of people and offered much-needed comfort, hope, and perspective, publishing the prose poem in book form will help it live on long after this pandemic is a memory," says Ilona Oppenheim, publisher and creative director of Tra Publishing.

The 32-page book is illustrated by Stefano Di Cristofaro in collaboration with Paul Pereda and is art directed by Jefferson Quintana of Ilona Creative Studio. 

An ebook is also being published, and Tra is partnering with Vooks to create a read-along, animated version. A dedicated website will include activities for kids and a teacher's guide (www.andthepeoplestayedhomebook.com).

About Tra Publishing

Tra Publishing, based in Miami and founded in 2016, creates beautifully crafted books about the arts, architecture, and design that inspire social, cultural, and environmental awareness. Tra's books are distributed worldwide through Simon & Schuster. 

• Visit www.trapublishing.com for more information.

SOURCE: Tra Publishing