Author Description

Jane Blanchard's neatly-crafted verse focuses on daily life, marriage, family, travel, gardens and social conventions. But there is much wry wit, from raccoons to royals, and deft use of such forms as haiku, villanelles and sonnets to make for a pleasingly thoughtful and varied collection.<br><p><br>-Jerome Betts, editor of <i><i>Lighten Up Online</i></i><br><p><br>Jane Blanchard writes of contemporary concerns in an easy voice that sometimes mutes, sometimes elevates the traditional forms of her verse. Teasing us with strains of T. S. Eliot, her poetry shifts to entice us with the cutting perspicuity and frustrations of a Georgian (as in "Georgia Peach") mother and housewife. Playful, ironic, sophisticated and down-home, this is a collection of metrical insights into the commonplace, with an often uncommon twist. A veritable (and delightful) Forrest Gump box of chocolates.<br> <p><br>-Paul Schreiber, poetry editor of <i><i>Two Thirds North</i></i><br><p><br>Jane Blanchard has a knack for the well-turned line and the perfectly apt detail. This book is a delight, full of poems that sparkle with wit and stick in the memory.<br><p><br> -Brooke Clark, editor of <i><i>The Asses of Parnassus</i></i><br>