AFTER KENYON, poetry by Jeanne Griggs

by Jeanne Griggs

Genres: Poetry

70 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2025

About the author

Jeanne Griggs is a reader, writer, traveler, and violinist. She directed the writing center at Kenyon College from 1991-2022. Her presentations include “A Survey of Reanimation, Resurrection, and Necromancy in Fiction since Frankenstein” for ICFA, her reviews include Stephen Dunn’s The Not Yet Fallen World for Heavy Feather Review, and her first volume of poetry, published by Broadstone Books in 2021, is entitled Postcard Poems. Her poems have appeared in the Mid-Atlantic Review, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, The Inquisitive Eater, One Art: A Journal of Poetry, Thimble Literary Review, Calliope, and Autumn Sky Poetry Daily. Jeanne reviews poetry and fiction at NecromancyNeverPays.com

Reviews

[N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Postcard Poems by Jeanne, earlier this year, and loved it. Jeanne (a friend from book blogging) was happy with my review and asked me if I'd like a copy of After Kenyon and I was thrilled. I love her poetry; it's very accessible. In After Kenyon, she tells the story of her time as a literature professor and Director of the Writing Center at Kenyon College in Ohio. It's a bit like reading a memoir through poetry as you get to know the places she walked and worked, the buildings and their hidden passages or rooms and how they've changed over the years, the beauty and frustration of the seasons, the roles she played as instructor and her feelings about them, and the people she interacted with.

Some of the poems are written "after" another poem and I didn't know what that meant exactly — whether they were written to be stylistically or thematically similar or something else. Fortunately, while I'd looked up the meaning of a poem written "after" another midway through the book, she actually dedicates a couple of pages at the end to explaining this concept. Very cool. I chose to just read the poetry and not go in search of the poems she referenced, the first time through (except for a couple, to try to get a grip on the "after" concept), but I do plan to reread specifically to go back and compare both poem and reference, where there is an "after". A lovely read, recommended to poetry and memoir readers.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely and elegiac, and occasionally heart stabbing: "I have wasted my life".

Griggs taught at Kenyon for a long time and has captured the high hopes and dashed dreams of a college campus, with tenderness and precision.

[Marion · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun and nostalgic (and sometimes melancholy or bittersweet) to revisit Kenyon through Jeanne’s eyes! So many memories and so much history in a place that means so many things to so many different people.

[Care · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection with a true sense of place, but also of mood, a bit of cheerfulness and humor, balanced with a touch of melancholy. I always learn something about Poetry in discussion with this author; she makes poetry inspiring, accessible, and fun.