Author Description

Jane Blanchard’s Sooner or Later is a collection of conversational poems in polished couplets, quatrains, sonnets, villanelles, and epigrams, with an occasional rondeau or sestina. Her interests range from ekphrastic poems on tapestries or self-portraits, to personal poems about meeting an ex again or having conflict with a grown child, to wide-ranging topical poems, about everything from Elizabeth II’s decision to let the royal yacht be turned into a tourist attraction to a natural disaster in Cameroon that killed over a thousand people. Her wry, often ironic, observations and deft rhymes offer an engaging take on contemporary life and the world around her.—Susan McLean, author of The Best Disguise and The Whetstone Misses the KnifeThere are few—if any—better antidotes to forgetfulness than the music of a poem whose meter and rhyme are wed in a till-death-do-us-part agreement, from which hale and hearty offspring are born. Jane Blanchard’s most recent collection Sooner or Later is a cornucopia of such fruitful marriages. With her inimitable wit and wry sense of humor, she conveys oft-overlooked verities found in such diverse things as antique cups, condo railings, and papier-mâché dragons. These and others are conduits for more essential matters: marriage and aging, art and artifice, faith and divine forgiveness. So, dive in! —Sofia Starnes, Poet Laureate of Virginia (2012-2014) and author ofThe Consequence of Moonlight and other worksIn this delightful collection of lyrics, sonnets, and villanelles, Jane Blanchard touches on subjects from Rembrandt to “second cousin” George Washington, and places from Sewanee to the Cincinnati Zoo. My favorites deal with faith, love, and family, and make such cheering discoveries as that “There often is no need for clothes.” Humor is found able to handle most situations. You will find the poems here to be entertaining company. —Gail White, author of Asperity StreetandCatechism