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Review in Maynard Online Poetry Magazine

A review of my book, page as bone ~ ink as blood, was just featured in Maynard Online Poetry Magazine. It is a fascinating review done in the form of a conversation between Jami Macarty and Nicholas Hauck (see excerpt below). "NH: There are many voices being taken up in these poems, voices that are not light—sometimes witness, sometimes victim, then healer and healing, among others still. But at no point in the collection do I feel that the writer/speaker takes the clear, sole position as victim. There’s too much in process for it to be reduced to victimhood. Healing, I agree with you, there is empowerment in that. I’m wondering if this empowerment can lead itself from personal trauma to collective restoration or does it remain encoded (which is better than my “hermetic”) within the singular writer/voice? JM: I think personal healing and restitution has to lead to collective healing and restitution because the personal is part of the collective. In the poem, “(re)vision,” “old papers” are “shredded in the co-op office” and the writer stands “at the threshold of a new life.” From here she can see the complexities of the man who is her father, who in “Mystery Man” reveals himself and his pain from leading a life of denial of his identity as an Indian and talented sportsman. This poem is one of the most important and significant in the collection for it expresses acceptance of the past and the perpetrators in it. This recognition will resonate backward and forward through personal and familial lives. That’s how it will affect the collective. There are some “good men” in the collection—the partner and the son. This point is not to be taken lightly in a book that chronicles sexual abuse. Representing all sides, rather than one side, adds to the book’s authority and consciousness." It is rare that ones work gets this kind of attention. It is a review that I will read again and again and that I will have in mind as I work on my next book, An Honest Woman, to be released in April 2017 with Talon Books. Many thanks to Jami and to Nicholas for their kind words. ~ All my Relations ~ Jónína http://www.themaynard.org/views/kirtin0616.php Photo taken at Wanuskewin Heritage Park (overlooking the buffalo jump).

Photo taken at Wanuskewin Heritage Park (overlooking the buffalo jump). A place of quiet contemplation for me and many others.

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