+ By Desiree Smith-Daughety + Photos Courtesy of Nate Whiting + Illustrations by Shayna Renee Oliver
“Onomatopoeia” isn’t a word you see every day—unless you’re reading a Nate Whiting poem. Whiting weaves positive messages into poetic strands that captivate young and old alike. His fanciful stanzas are brought to vivid life through color-saturated illustrations.
The Accidental Poet, as a friend nicknamed him, was once simply Mr. Whiting, an elementary school physical education and health teacher who, for 12 years taught in Fort Washington, Maryland. He left teaching in 2006 and now, through his books, reaches a wider audience, retaining a connection to children and offering a different avenue for focusing on children’s health and well-being. He has penned verses since he was around seven years old. His mother would send them to newspapers, and a teacher might read one to the class. When he became a teacher, he’d write one for a student having a bad day or to tie in with a teacher’s lesson plan theme.
Only recently has he started publishing his work. His wife, Jo Gilley, whom he met in 2018, gave him the nudge after witnessing a Christmas tradition: Whiting pulling from a drawer a tale he’d written and read annually to his sons, Leif and Clay, every Christmas Eve. The poem, “The Tale of the Christmas Wish Crackler,” had sat in that drawer for 11 years. “It’s a new origin story on using the Christmas stocking,” says Whiting. “Ted Spackler learns of ‘The Sock-ivorous Crackler’ from his brother Ned, who warns him on Christmas Eve to keep his feet tucked tightly under his blanket. He never expected what would happen next! The Wish Crackler will take you back to a time and place when the world was a bit simpler and magic was woven into the fabric of life.”
Gilley said that the poem should be published, and on his next birthday, she gifted him with an illustrator’s services. Whiting wanted an old-world, Victoria-era feel and hired a Romanian illustrator, Viorica Vander. “I never really thought about publishing my poetry when I was younger, because the costs involved felt out of reach on a teacher’s salary,” says Whiting. Gilley, a graphic designer and editor, managed the publishing. Released in September 2022, the first run of 100 copies was given to friends and family. After receiving positive feedback, a second run of 500 copies sold out, as have subsequent runs. Over 2,000 copies have sold over the past three years.
Whiting’s writing evokes some familiar names. “I’ve been told that if Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss had a baby, it would be me,” he says. “Jo calls me the Pixar of Poets.” This refers to how he inserts literary winks and nods to the adults who read his books to children—it is similar to how Pixar films include humorous references that go over children’s heads. Whiting was also influenced by children’s authors A. A. Milne (author of the Winnie-the-Pooh books) and Maurice Sendak (author and illustrator of books that include Where the Wild Things Are).
“I use whimsical, imaginative prose to ask, ‘What if you thought about things like this?’ The reader can take their imagination and go one step further,” says Whiting. “For example, one of my books is If Whispers Could Wonder. It prompts your imagination to soar beyond what you’re reading.”
“If whispers were able
To think all these things,
I think they’d be thinking
Bout the fun it would bring!
The world would be brighter.
You’d see way more colors.
It wouldn’t be awkward
To wonder with others.
Take just a moment…
Try to capture a whisper!
You might hear it wonder…
…so be a good listener!”
© Nate Whiting, excerpt from If Whispers Could Wonder, 2025
Whiting promotes his books at various events, including the First Sunday Arts Festival, the Annapolis Holiday Market, and Christmas in July at the Howard County Fair, where he served as an event entertainer, reading to children hourly. He also does book signings, such as at Wyrd Bookstore in Edgewater. In 2025, Whiting was selected (out of hundreds of author submissions received) to be one of two featured authors at the Maryland Renaissance Festival’s Children’s Weekend.
“I love watching people walk up to my table and seeing their eyes light up!” says Whiting. Credit also goes to his current illustrator. Wanting to evoke a different feel for his next book, he searched online and found Shayna Renee Olivier, based in South Africa. Seven months later (she’d missed his email), he learned that she was unavailable for six months, but she loved his poems. To ensure that he would have access to her illustration services, he contracted with her for five years to illustrate 20 books.
Gilley edits and designs each book, then publishes under JAW Drop Productions, the company she launched to handle Whiting’s work. Olivier’s illustrations work visual magic with Whiting’s words, bringing to life the Whimsies of an Accidental Poet—the subtitle featured on his first series. Book one is Burplefizz Philosophizzm, infused with a positive message to think more with the heart, not the head, and is followed by A Squirrely Breakfast, Shy-rannosaurus Wrecks, If Whispers Could Wonder, and Where’s the What Thing?!
The forthcoming A Sock Monster Army is the first book of a new series, The Adventures of Julie & Tristan, and has a local connection. Julie Cymek of the band Sweet Leda couldn’t find a pair of her favorite socks before a gig and posted about it on social media. “I responded with stanzas. I write poems to get my point across,” says Whiting. That response seeded the idea for the new series. Whiting, who is also a musician (singing in Nate and Jim Acoustic Duo and in Left of the Dial), is friends with Cymek. He has joined Sweet Leda onstage for a song or two, and they often run into each other when playing at venues. Cymek inspired the heroine of the series, and Tristan is inspired by Sweet Leda’s current drummer, Tristan Gilbert.
Whiting’s musical side infuses his poetry. He always includes rhymes because he believes that children want to feel musical. His words flow like a gentle amusement ride, rising and falling. “It’s soothing to me to write, and what I write is also soothing to kids with its meter and sing-song cadence,” he explains. As the Pixar of Poets, Whiting doesn’t dial down the words he uses in his poetry, either. His audience is anyone—children through adults—though his intention is to reach younger children and connect with what they feel. But he often hears from parents that they think they may like his books more than their children do.
“I write my poetry in a way that helps me recall how I felt when I read poetry that I loved as a child. The smile in my heart when I read Shel, or Seuss, or Milne, or Sendak,” says Whiting. “The positive message I always get, even today! I read those stories now, and they still inspire me. It continues to motivate me to keep writing positivity into the universe. If I can offer a positive message in my own writing, maybe it will inspire another to add their poetic or literary flavor to the world. Even if it only happens once, we’ll all be better off because of it.”
