Bonfire

by Connie Wanek

Poetry. Connie Wanek is one of my favorite poets. I've been reading her work for years. No poet I know, with the exception of Jane Kenyon, is as able to discover the magic and depth in ordinary, day-to-day life and to do artfully render that vision for the reader. What a pleasure it is to have this first and long overdue collection of her work! (Louis Jenkins). Then came snow with lightning, / beauty with a temper. / And sleet, the compromise that pleases no one; / precipitation by committee. (April). This volume is New Rivers' Minnesota Voices Project Number 83. Connie Wanek lives in Duluth, Minnesota, with her husband and their children.

85 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1997

About the author

Connie Wanke was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In 1989 she moved with her family to Duluth, Minnesota where she now lives.

Her work appeared in Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Quarterly West, Poetry East, Prairie Schooner, Missouri Review.

Wanek has published three books of poetry, and served as co-editor of the comprehensive historical anthology of Minnesota women poets, called To Sing Along the Way (New Rivers Press, 2006). Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate of the United States (2004–2006), named her a Witter Bynner Fellow of the Library of Congress for 2006.

Reviews

[Bill Scheurer · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite contemporary poets

[Thaddeus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful and full of great imagery. Starts with one of my favorite poems ever: April (with the line: “And sleet, the compromise that pleases no one, precipitation by committee”).