Tell it slant: Talking with Jane Yolen about poetry | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 13, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2042-8022
  • E-ISSN: 2042-8030

Abstract

Among her more than 400 books, Jane Yolen (b. 1939) has written or edited around 50 collections of poetry. In this new interview, Yolen discusses how her poetry developed throughout her writing life. We talk about her early desire in childhood to write poetry and about poets whose work she has admired. Yolen talks about her process in writing works such as the verse novel (2018) or the agonizing (2003) and explains the difference between writing poetry for children and grown-ups, using her (2000–ongoing) series and (2022) as examples. She gives advice to teachers and suggestions to the poetically perplexed, as well as telling stories about encountering W. B. Yeats and reciting poetry to a wombat. Yolen’s poetic oeuvre is by turns whimsical and heart-wrenching, lyrical and conversational. She writes with a demotic lyricism that balances the formal requirements of prosody against the musicality of everyday speech. Her poetry begins from keen observation of everyday life and translates it into the mythic and the elemental, her words creating images that haunt the readers’ imaginations. What emerges is a glimpse of poetic truth—or, perhaps, the glimpse of the way to catch a glimpse.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/btwo_00094_7
2024-02-23
2024-04-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Bruin, Jordi (2023), MacWhisper, Amsterdam: Good Snooze.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Carroll, Lewis (1983), ‘Jabberwocky’, in J. Prelutsky (ed.), The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, New York: Random House, p. 170.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Dickinson, Emily (1999), ‘1263’, in R. W. Franklin (ed.), The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition, Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press, p. 494.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Jane Yolen & 3 Ravens (2018), The Infinite Dark, CD, USA: Lui Collins.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Lear, Edward (1983), ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’, in J. Prelutsky (ed.), The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, New York: Random House, p. 175.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Noyes, Alfred ([1906] 2013), The Highwayman, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Palmer, Parker J. (1993), To Know as We are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey, San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Robbins, Jeff (2020), ‘Basho tells how to make haiku: 19 statements from his letters and spoken word’, New Zealand Poetry Society, 31 March, https://poetrysociety.org.nz/affiliates/haiku-nz/haiku-poems-articles/archived-articles/basho-tells-how-to-make-haiku-19-statements-from-his-letters-and-spoken-word/. Accessed 30 July 2023.
  9. Windling, Terri (2020), ‘Jane Yolen: The everyday-ness of things’, Myth & Moor, 7 March, https://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2020/03/jane-yolen.html. Accessed 24 November 2023.
  10. Yeats, William B. (1996), ‘The Second Coming’, in A. N. Jeffares (ed.), Yeats’s Poems, 3rd ed., Houndsmills and London: Macmillan, p. 294–95.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Yolen, Jane (2003), The Radiation Sonnets, Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Yolen, Jane (2005), Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie & Folklore in the Literature of Childhood, 2nd ed., Des Moines, IA: August House.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Yolen, Jane (2009), A Mirror to Nature: Poems About Reflection, Honesdale, PA: Wordsong.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Yolen, Jane (2011), Things to Say to a Dead Man, Duluth, MN: Holy Cow! Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Yolen, Jane (2012a), Ekaterinoslav: One Family’s Passage to America: A Memoir in Verse, Duluth, MN: Holy Cow! Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Yolen, Jane (2012b), How Do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies?, New York: Scholastic.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Yolen, Jane (2012c), The Emily Sonnets: The Life of Emily Dickinson, Mankato, MN: Creative Editions.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Yolen, Jane (2013), Sister Fox’s Field Guide to the Writing Life: Poems, Fenioux and St Andrews: Unsettling Wonder.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Yolen, Jane (2018), Finding Baba Yaga: A Short Novel in Verse, New York: Tordotcom.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Yolen, Jane (2019), ‘Poetry’, Jane Yolen: Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults, https://www.janeyolen.com/poetry/. Accessed 31 July 2023.
  21. Yolen, Jane (2021a), Kaddish: Before the Holocaust and After, Duluth, MN: Holy Cow! Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Yolen, Jane (2021b), The Last Robot (and Other Science Fiction Poems), Edinburgh: Shoreline of Infinity.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Yolen, Jane (2023), Nana and Me: Special Poems Just for Us, Fresno, CA: Bushel & Peck.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Yolen, Jane (forthcoming 2024a), How Do Dinosaurs Say Trick or Treat?, New York: Scholastic.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Yolen, Jane (forthcoming 2024b), In and Out the Window, New York: Philomel.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Yolen, Jane (forthcoming 2024c), See This Little Dot?, Mankato, MN: Creative Editions.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Yolen, Jane and Stemple, Heidi E. Y. (2019), Eek, You Reek! Poems About Animals that Stink, Stank, Stunk, Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Yolen, Jane and Stemple, Heidi E. Y. (2022), Yuck, You Suck! Poems About Animals that Sip, Slurp, Suck, Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Yolen, Jane and Cleave, Ryan G. Van (2023), Body Music: Poems About the Noises Your Body Makes, Fresno, CA: Moonshower.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/btwo_00094_7
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/btwo_00094_7
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error