Drawing together Jennifer A. McGowan's poetry of myth and folktale, and the frailties - human or otherwise - behind them, With Paper for Feet explores, mostly from a female perspective, the guts it takes to live or - often - die, un-heroically. Her characters laugh, argue, complain, suffer,
curse.
...Gold is heavy,
and chafes....
aware that more is expected of them, but unwilling to play up.
Praise for Jennifer A. McGowan's work
...gritty thought; wit; striking candour - an unafraid recognition
of life's richness and desolation; memorable detail; all these are
underpinned by a graceful, subtle, quite lovely way with language.
Kevin Crossley-Holland
...bedecked with wit, irony, bittersweet folly and dictional-shifts
jazzy enough to make a reader dance. Gray Jacobik
... precise, observant and deep into mythology.
Claribel Alegría
Autorentext
Jennifer A. McGowan lives in Oxford. Despite being certified as disabled with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome at age 16, she became a semi-professional mime artist and performed until the disability became too much. Recently she has worked as researcher, editor, and writer for a UK company in 'devil's advocacy'. She has taught both under- and postgraduates at several universities, across English, history, and heritage studies. Jennifer's first full collection 'With Paper for Feet' was published by in 2017, and her follow up HOw to be a Tarot Card (Or a Teenager) in 2021 She has poems in Arachne anthologies 'The Other Side of Sleep' and 'No Spider Harmed in the Making of this Book'. Jennifer's poems have also appeared in literary journals on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Connecticut Review, Gargoyle, Storm Cellar, Envoi, Acumen, and Agenda; her chapbooks, 'Life in Captivity' and 'Sounding' are available from Finishing Line Press. Her work has been anthologized in 'Birchsong' (Blue Line Press, 2012), 'A Moment of Change' (Aqueduct Press, 2012), and Arachne Press' 'The Other Side of Sleep'. Her songs have been recorded on several labels.
Klappentext
Jennifer A McGowan's collection of themed narrative poems is steeped in the traditions of oral storytelling and folklore. Each section addresses a different source: world folk stories, Shakespeare and the Iliad; skillfully mining old stories for new truths, giving a voice to silent characters, or an alternative take on the accepted view - especially of women.