Only Begetter

"The experience of reading Jane Chance's Only Begetter is akin to watching a surrealist florist weave a wreath of unexpected objects: taxable laughter, eyes that 'glimmer like bruised prunes,' a coughing caterpillar, and 'a mean seamstress' to name just a few. And yet these playful, varied ornaments are festooned along a sturdy branch of literary tradition that references Ovid, Eden, and Flannery O'Conner. What is pleasurable about Chance's poetry is the unwavering sense that through the looking glass of her book, anything goes." -Lauren Berry, author of The Lifting Dress, National Poetry Series Winner, 2010, and former poetry editor at Gulf Coast "'There is a wisdom here in roots,' Jane Chance writes in Only Begetter, and this is a voice seeking poetry's roots in Shakespeare and sonnets but also in live oaks and lovers. As conversant with allegory as with Ash Wednesday, with Pynchon as with prairies, as urgent as it is observant, Only Begetter finds a play staged in each of its myriad little rooms." -Joseph Campana, author of Natural Selection, Iowa Poetry Prize winner, 2012 "'She's her own cocoon,' says one of these poems. 'Beer-happy,' says another, or 'tricky magician.' These are wonderful episodes in consciousness-aware of fragility, bright with objects, solid in every act of speech." -John Gorman, Professor of Literature at University of Houston- Clear Lake and poet and founder of Galveston Poetry Roundtable "Only Begetter is refreshing, poignant, and remarkably tender. The lyrical voice of Jane Chance resonates beautifully through poems of happiness and sorrow, redemption and despair. The imagery painted in its pages is breathtaking. Taken singularly or cumulatively, these are poems to be celebrated and savored for years to come. An exceptional debut collection!" -Stacy R. Nigliazzo, B.S., R.N., author of Scissored Moon, finalist for the 2014 Julie Suk Award and the Bob Bush Memorial prize for poetry