Julie Kane officially became Louisiana's eleventh Poet Laureate on May 23, succeeding Darrell Bourque, profiled
here in January. Details about the position, as well as state-specific poetry resources, are found in my earlier post.
During her two-year term (2011-2013), Kane will deliver an annual poetry reading, the position's only requirement, and travel the state to promote poetry.
* * * * *
. . . I look for bravura ice-dancing, for that exquisite
balancing act between tradition and the individual talent.*
~ Julie Kane on Judging Sonnets
Poet
Julie Kane, Ph.D., a Louisiana resident for more than three decades, is the author, most recently, of
Jazz Funeral (Story Line Press, 2009), a collection of sonnets awarded the 2009
Donald Justice Poetry Prize; and
Rhythm & Booze (
University of Illinois Press, 2003), selected for the
National Poetry Series and a finalist for a 2005
Poets' Prize. (It mostly comprises villanelles.) Her early publications include the chapbook
The Bartender Poems (Greville Press, 1991), the chapbook
Two Into One (Only Poetry Press, 1982), half of which comprised the work of poet
Ruth Adatia, and
Body and Soul** (Pirogue Publishing, 1987). Her fourth collection,
No-Win Situations, comprising light verse, is in progress.
Kane, associate editor of the Pearson-Longman Southern literature anthology, also is a nonfiction writer, essayist, and translator. She co-wrote, with Kiem Do,
Counterpart: A South Vietnamese Naval Officer's War (Naval Institute Press, 1998), which was showcased by History Book Club in 1999. With Grace Bauer, she co-edited the anthology
Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Possum: Critical and Creative Responses to Evverette Maddox (Xavier Review Press, 2006; audio
here), a finalist for a 2007 book award in poetry from the
Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.
In an
essay about judging contemporary sonnets, Kane wrote that she dislikes "[a]rchaic language, predictable rhymes, wrenched syntax, forced sentimentality, dullness" and favors "wit, wordplay, thought, craft, subtlety of sound effects, awareness of the past, attention to the present and the world we live in, originality, flair."*** Kane's admirers, while noting the absence of the former from her poetry, would be quick to point to the latter as being fully in evidence. Kane works hard, she says in interviews, to craft "accessible" poetry. Indeed, her skillful, beautifully crafted formal poems display, as does her free verse, a sense of humor and a talent for using a colloquial voice.
In the following, Kane uses details about herself that become a joke on the poem's narrator:
What luck—an open bookstore up ahead
as rain lashed awnings over Royal Street,
and then to find the books were secondhand,
with one whole wall assigned to poetry;
and then, as if that wasn't luck enough,
to find, between Jarrell and Weldon Kees,
the blue-on-cream, familiar backbone of
my chapbook, out of print since '83—
its cover very slightly coffee-stained,
but aging (all in all) no worse than flesh
through all those cycles of the seasons since
its publication by a London press.
Then, out of luck, I read the name inside:
The man I thought would love me till I died.
~ "Used Book" from
Jazz Funeral
Here's an example of one of Kane's villanelles:
The summer we kissed across the bar,
I felt sixteen at thirty-six:
as if you were a movie star
I had a rush on from afar.
My chest was flat, my legs were sticks
the summer we kissed across the bar.
Balancing on the rail was hard.
Spilled beer made my elbows stick.
You could have been a movie star,
backlit, golden, lofting a jor
of juice or Bloody Mary mix
the summer we kissed across the bar.
Over the sink, the limes, as far
as you could lean, you leaned. I kissed
the movie screen, a movie star.
Drinks stayed empty. Ashtrays tarred.
The customers got mighty pissed
the summer we kissed across the bar.
Summer went by like a shooting star.
~ "Kissing the Bartender" from
Rhythm & BoozeThe recipient of a Fulbright scholarship (2002), Kane also has been awarded an
Academy of American Poets prize, a Glenna Luschei
Prairie Schooner poetry award, and an Open Poetry Ltd.
Sonnet Prize. She also has been nominated for a
Pushcart Prize. Her poems have appeared in dozens of journals, including
The Antioch Review,
Prairie Schooner,
The Formalist,
The Southern Review, and
Verse Daily, as well as in
Poetry: A Pocket Anthology (5th Ed., Penguin, 2006),
Voices of the American South (Pearson/Longman, 2004), and more than two dozen other anthologies.
____________________________
* "
On Contemporary Sonnets",
14 x 14, Issue 5, 2008
** This was Kane's first full-length poetry collection. Although out of print, it is available on
Kindle.
Julie Kane
Profile at Northwestern State University of Louisiana
Julie Kane
Louisiana Endowment for the Humannities Announcement of Appointment
Northwestern State University
Announcement of Julie Kane's Appointment as Poet Laureate
Julie Kane's Blog
Julie Kane Poetry Online: "
Particle Physics" at
The Writer's Almanac; "Cardinal", "The Killing Field", "Particle Physics", and "Re-entry, Post-Katrina", All at
Mezzo Cammin: An Online Journal of Formalist Poetry by Women; "Maraschino Cherries", "Egrets", "Kissing the Bartender", "Thirteen", "Reasons for Loving the Harmonica", "Dead Armadillo Song", "Love Poem for Jake and Ithaca", and "The Mermaid Story", All at
The Hypertexts; "Used Book" (Winner, 2007 Open Poetry Ltd. International Sonnet Competition) in 14 x 14; "
Gift Horse" at Connotations Press; "
Learning Curve (What They Taught Me)" at
poemeleon; "
Connemara", "
Prayer to Chaos", "
Dead Armadillo Song", and "
Thoughtball Villanelle", All at Louisiana Poetry Project; "
Thirteen" at Famous Poems; "Family Dramas, Act One: The Glynn-Kanes", "Act Two: The Lynch-Spillanes", "Act Three: The Spillane-Kanes", "Act Four: The Cavan-Tyrones", All at
Druken Boat; "Men Who Love Redheads" and "Birch Thoughts in Louisiana" in Southern Women's Review (pdf)
Julie Kane Light Verse Online: "
Diva" at Umbrella Journal; "
Unplanned Obsolescence" at
Umbrella Journal; and "Sunday Morning", "Funday Morning", "The Emperor of Ice Cream's New Clothes", and "Anecdote of a Litterbug", All at
Umbrella Journal
Interview at Stratosphere, Forum of
Able Muse Review, December 2000 (This post also includes a selection of poems: "The Mermaid Story", "Maraschino Cherries", "Dead Armadillo Song", "Kissing the Bartender", "Airport Bar", "The Maple Leaf Bar", "Particle Physics", "Re-entry, Post-Katrina", and "Used Book".)
Derek Alger, "
Julie Kane", Interview,
Pif Magazine, September 17, 2009
Andi McKay,
Jazz Funeral,
Review,
Front Porch Journal, Issue 120
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