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News and Updates
Sep 7, 2010
Suburban to Surreal, Review by Bill Robertson
Category: General
Posted by: Admin
"Conn's poems, then, have something of the travelogue to them, but also wild shifts in perspective, dreamscapes where we feel our feet leaving the ground."
[read more...]
Sep 7, 2010
"Space is a Temporal Concept" in Best Canadian Poems in English anthology
Category: General
Posted by: Admin
Conn's poem "Space is a Temporal Concept" was selected to be published in Best Canadian Poems in English Anthology, 2009, Tightrope Book.
Sep 7, 2010
Poet Lorette C. Luzajic comments on "Botero's Beautiful Horses"
Category: General
Posted by: Admin
"It is Jan's biography, I believe, that makes her work completely different from anyone else's, that gives layers to her words that we can unravel."
[read more...]

Publications

 

Jaguar Rain Botero's Beautiful Horses Brick Books, London, ON. 2009. ISBN: 978-1-894078-71-9
The latest book by Jan Conn, that includes many lyrical poems written in Latin America, and one set on Mars.

The magic theatre of Botero’s Beautiful Horses is chiefly Latin America, both literal and fantastic, seen through the eyes of a deeply intuitive poet who is also a scientist by trade. What is impossible to describe, and must be experienced, is the leap of these transformational poems: a flexible, down-to-earth voice naturalizes the wild, subterranean non-sense of fantasy and dream. “Every drawer in every chest overflows with illogic and passion.”

“Do we want love/each and every day of our lives?” Conn asks in one poem.

“Jan Conn is a Dalí with a scalpel of words, with colourwheels for eyes.”
– Marilyn Bowering

“[Amazonia] owes its flavour and some of its magic to an exotic vocabulary, but the poet's voice is a sensuous dream voice. It flows like the tropical river waters. Its effect, synaesthetic.” – P. K. Page

“In Botero's Beautiful Horses, her seventh volume, Jan Conn writes at the top of her powers, image after image materializing in the evanescent light of mental play. Here Conn proves with her sensuously scientific inner soliloquies that description itself is a form of imagining.” – Molly Peacock



Jaguar Rain Jaguar Rain: The Margaret Mee Poems was published by Brick Books in 2006, ISBN 13:978-1-894078-48-1. It was inspired by the journals, sketches and paintings of Amazonian flowers and their habitats by the remarkable illustrator, naturalist and explorer Margaret Mee (1909-1988).

"Conn's jungle-lush language recalls the Michael Ondaatje of Running in the Family but her deliberate diction also echoes Nova Scotia's own Elizabeth Bishop." - George Elliot Clarke, The Chronicle Herald, Halifax

"Here is the book ecocritics committed to interdisciplinary rigour have been waiting for, written by a poet who can "do" the science because she's also a scientist." - Travis Mason, the Goose 2.1, www.alecc.ca

"Jaguar Rain…is a sensual feast for the image-starved reader." - Jenna Butler, www.poetryreviews.ca



Beauties on Mad RiverBeauties on Mad River: Selected and New Poems, 2000, ISBN 1-55065-140-4 by Jan Conn collects together fifteen years of poetry that has appeared in three Signal Editions: The Fabulous Disguise of Ourselves , South of the Tudo Bem Café (1990), and What Dante Did With Loss (1994). This is poetry that, in the words of George Elliot Clarke, "maps not so much the world as the soul."

"What Dante Did With Loss is beautiful both for its simplicity of expression and emotional complexity." - Rob McLennan

"South of the Tudo Bem Café radiates warmth and light." - George Elliot Clarke, BOOKS IN CANADA

"I am partial to Jan Conn's society and landscapes." - Joe Rosenblatt

Links to reviews of Beauties on Mad River:

Links to read recently published poems:
http://www.massreview.org/
Volume 43, Number 3: Autumn 2002 and Volume 41, Number 4: Winter 2001



What Dante did with LossWhat Dante Did With Loss, 1994. ISBN 1-55065-052-1.This is Jan Conn's fourth book of poems. Central to this powerful new collection is a suite of poems charting the explosive emotions surrounding her mother's suicide. Other poems range from meditations on South American flora and fauna to postmodern encounters with immortality & co.

To find out more about Jan Conn and her publications, visit
http://www.brickbooks.ca.

 

 

 

 

DETAILS & OTHER PUBLICATIONS::

Botero’s Beautiful Horses. Brick Books, London, ON. 2009. ISBN: 978-1-894078-71-9

Jaguar Rain. The Margaret Mee Poems. Brick Books, London, ON. 2006. ISBN: 13: 978-1-894078-48-1

Beauties on Mad River. Selected and New Poems, Véhicule Press, Montréal, QU. 2000. ISBN 1-55065-140-4

What Dante Did With Loss, Véhicule Press, Montréal, QU. 1994.

ISBN 1-55065-052-1

South of the Tudo Bem Café, Véhicule Press, Montréal, QU. 1990.

ISBN 1-55065-008-4

The Fabulous Disguise of Ourselves, Véhicule Press, Montréal, QU. 1986.

ISBN 0-919890-75-X

Red Shoes in the Rain, Fiddlehead Press, Fredericton, NB. 1984.

ISBN 0-86492-025-3

 

 

Anthologies:

  • “Monsoon, Early June,” “Animated Plants,” Regreen: New Canadian Ecological Poetry, ed. M. Anand and A. Dickinson, Your Scrivener Press, Sudbury, ON, 2009.
  • "Space is a Temporal Concept," in The Best Canadian Poetry in English, ed. A.F. Moritz, Tightrope Books, Toronto ON, 2009.
  • “The Tigers of Paramaribo,” Penned - Zoos Poems, ed. S. Bolster, K. Grubisic,  and S. Reader, Signal/Vehicule Press, Montreal, 2009.
  • “In Bolivia Once,” “The Clipped Language of Mathematics,” “Fragrance of the Moon,” “Spanish Insane Asylum, 1941,” “The Hydraulics of Rabbit, “ “Tower Song (A Poem in Celebration of Charles Darwin’s Birthday),” “Eros,” “Cametá, “ “Rumour of Silk”, in How the Light Gets In, An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry from Canada, ed. J. Innis, Waterford, Ireland: Waterford Institute of Technology, 2009
  • “Iconographic,” Common Magic: The Book of the New, ed. E. Greene and D. Gugler, Artful Codger Press, Ontario, 2008.
  • “Two Paintings of Lily Pads,” Compañeros, An Anthology of Writings about Latin America, ed. H. Hazelton, G. Geddes. Cormorant Books, pp. 122-123.
  • “Alien,” “Learning to be my Father’s Daughter,” “Turning Back to the Green,” “The Fifth Inhabitant of Mexico,” “The Side Effects of Marriage + Malaria,” “Immortality & Co,” The Signal Editions Anthology, ed. M. Harris, Véhicule Press, Montreal, 1993, pp. 69-76.
  • “Letter Home After Living Six Months in Caracas,” The Fourth Morningside Papers, P. Gzowski, McClelland & Stewart Inc. Toronto, 1991, pp. 89-90.
  • “Red Sequins or Stars,” Celebrating Canadian Women, ed. G. Hofmann Nemiroff, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1989, pp. 67-68.
  • “All Women Dream of Snakes,” “While I was Looking at the Background You Walked out of the Picture,” “Two Paintings of Lily Pads,” Poetry by Canadian Women, ed. R. Sullivan, Oxford University Press, 1989, pp. 255-257.
  • “A Tapestry,” The Dry Wells of India, ed. G. McWhirter, 1988, pp. 8-9.
  • “Double Vision,” And Other Travels, An Anthology of Poems, Moonstone Press, St. Catherine’s ON, 1988, pp. 38-39.
  • “Blue Forks of Lightning,” Women & Words The Anthology/Les femmes et les Mots Une Anthologie, ed. West Coast Editorial Collective, Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd. 1984, pp. 124-125.
  • “South,” “In a Black Wind,” “Fifteen,” “First Lines,” “While I was Looking at the Background You Walked out of the Picture,” “Footfalls in the Dusk,” “Orange Light in April,” “Choices,” “Cardinal,” “Red Shoes in the Rain,” “Instructions to a Daughter,” “When we Begin to Burn,” Anything is Possible, ed. M. di Michele, Mosaic Press, 1984, pp. 49-61.
  • “Woodbine,” The Decade Dreams On,” “The End of October,” The Toronto Collection, An Anthology of the New Toronto Poets, ed. L. Nutting, Manoeuvres Press, 1983, pp. 15-17.
  • “Juarez,” The Birthday Book The Literary Storefront, Vancouver, 1980, p. 3.

 

 

Journals (since 1998):

  • "Bloodroot," "Hiding the Erotic Inclination," "Swim Trunks," "The Sources of the Self," PRISM international, 48:4, Summer 2010, pp. 63-66.
  • "Modigliani," Dream Catcher 23, UK, pp. 33-36.
  • “Storm-Damaged Alphabet,” Canadian Literature Vol. 201, Summer 2009, p. 130.
  • “Harmonium,” “Fable of Pink,” Prairie Fire, Vol. 30, No. 2, Summer 2009, pp. 110-113.
  • "Flying Lessons," "Ventriloquist," CV2, Vol. 21, Issue 4, Spring 2009, pp. 71-72.
  • “Boating Event,” “Installation One (Venice),” “Teatro Amazonas,” The Antigonish Review, Vol. 39, No. 156, Winter 2009, pp. 16-20.
  • “Not as it is Perceived in the Phenomenal World,” The Malahat Review, The Green Imagination, No. 165, Winter 2008, p. 98.
  • “Primitive,” “In the City of Iguanas,” blue skies poetry, Sept. 8, 2008,
  • http://blueskiespoetry.ca/2008/09/11/primitive/
  • http://blueskiespoetry.ca/2008/09/08/in-the-city-of-iguanas/
  • “Space is a Temporal Concept,” The Literary Review of Canada, Vol. 16, No. 5, June 2008, p. 15.
  • “Michoacán,” “ In a Dry Place,” The Fiddlehead, No. 234, Winter 2008, pp. 66-68.
  • “Trop de Vert,” “Mountain of Mist and Cloud,” “Serra do Curicuriari,” “Small Pink Nebulae,” “Urospatha sagittifolia,” “Amazonian Whites,” “The Clipped Language of Mathematics,” CV2, Vol. 30, No. 2, Winter 2008, pp. 40-47.
  • “Ruined City,” “Three Rain Gods,” Barrow Street, Winter 2007, pp. 26-28.
  • “Minotaur,” The Literary Review of Canada, Vol. 15, No. 1, January/February 2007, p. 16.
  • “January Dreams with Tamayo,” “Lip-Reading Jean Cocteau,” PRISM International, Vol. 46, No. 1, Fall 2007, pp. 13-15.
  • “Absolute Love,” “Dressmaker,” CV2, Vol. 30, No. 1, Summer 2007, pp. 140-141.
  • “I Can’t Identify to Species,” Bei Mei Feng (North American Maple), No. 3, 2007, p. 19.
  • “Dalí D’Hiver,” Vallum, Wonder 4:2\5:1, 2007, p. 45.
  • “Maria Sibylla Merian,” Queen’s Feminist Review, Vol. 15, 2007, p. 33.
  • “Orinoco,” “Golden,” The Malahat Review, No. 155, Summer 2006, pp. 74-77.
  • “Zapotecs,” CV2, Vol. 29, No. 2, Fall 2006, p. 48.
  • “Campeche,” “Cosmological,” “Our Monkey Gods,” “Cuicuilco,” The Antigonish Review, No. 146, Summer 2006, pp. 64-67.
  • “Ahora,” Arc, Summer 2006, pp. 9-14.
  • “In a Foreign Country,” “Falling Stars,” Room of One’s Own, Vol. 29.4, 2006, pp. 75-76.
  • “Just Another Story About Billy the Kid,” The Fieldstone Review, Issue # 1, 2006, http://www.fieldstonereview.usask.ca/article.php?article=15.
  • “On the Rio Trombetas,” “In Bolivia Once,” The Malahat Review, No. 151, Summer 2005, pp. 30-32.
  • “Wildlife,” Arc, Summer 2005, pp. 31-32.
  • “The Suriname Frog,” “Signs of Water,” “The Persistent Demise of Flame Trees,” The Antigonish Review, No. 141/142, Spring/Summer 2005, pp. 37-39.
  • “Blue Without Yellow,” Vallum, 3:1, Fall-Winter 2005, p. 27.
  • “Comma Comma She Said (Prelude to Mother’s Day),” ”Lethal Green,” The Fiddlehead, No. 225, Autumn 2005, pp. 23-26.
  • “Fountains of Water Blown Skyward,” “AKA Heaven,” Prairie Fire, Vol. 26, No. 2, Summer 2005, pp. 130-131.
  • “Ladies of Tlatilco,” Queen’s Feminist Review, Vol. 13, 2005, p. 22.
  • “Wasps,” American Entomologist, Vol. 51, No. 3, Fall 2005, p. 141.
  • “Margaret Considers Von Humboldt,” Queen’s Feminist Review, Vol. 12, 2004, p. 27.
  • “Cametá,” The Massachusetts Review, Vol. XLV, No. 2, Summer 2004, p. 354.
  • “The Monkey Skin Bracelet and I,” “Casa de Pedra,” “Fish Pictographs: The Antigonish Review, No. 137, Spring 2004, pp. 46-48.
  • “The Rainy Season,” The Fiddlehead, No. 219, Spring 2004, p. 67.
  • “Angel Falls,” “Mistaken for Thieves,” “Translating Yellows,” Event, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2004, pp. 21-26.
  • “Belem,” “At Ilha da Fazenda,” “Three Poems for the Rio Xingú,” “Yellow Dog,” EnRoute Magazine, August 2004, pp. 59-62.
  • “Orchid and Sandpiper,” “Clusia palmicida,” “Galeandra,” Descant, Vol. 35, No. 4, Winter 2004, pp. 27-29.
  • “Notes from the Hotel Paris, Manaus,” Queen’s Feminist Review, Vol. 11, 2003, p. 50.
  • “Mountain of Mist and Cloud,” The Malahat Review, No. 145, Winter 2003, pp. 40-41.
  • “Lago Surubim,” “Lizard,” “To be Sung to Villa Lobos’ The Amazon Forest,” “Encounters,” “Amazonian Whites,” the Antigonish Review, No. 133, Spring 2003, pp. 29-34.
  • “Queen of the Night,” Queen’s Feminist Review, Vol. 10, 2002, p. 100.
  • “The Rain Holds its Breath,” “Alto Juruena,” Room of One’s Own, Vol.25: 4, 2002, pp. 72-73.
  • “Glory,” The Malahat Review, No. 139, Summer 2002, pp. 108-109.
  • “Near the Solimoes River, 1880,” “Bowl and Spear,” Poetry Ireland Review 75, Winter 2002, p. 13.
  • “The Flower Carriers,” The Massachusetts Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 3, 2002, pp. 382-383.
  • “Biographies,” PRISM International, No, 40:2, Winter 2002, pp. 42-44.
  • “Sienna,” “Silk,” “Eve,” The Antigonish Review, No. 126, Summer 2001, pp. 80-82.
  • “Aripuana,” “King of the Amazon,” “The Curious Waistcoat of the Armadillo,” The Malahat Review, No. 135, Summer 2001, pp. 78-80.
  • “When the South Wind Comes Singing,” Arc, No. 45, Winter 2000, p. 69.
  • “Leaving San Salvador,” “Rio Guamá,” “Fragrance of the Moon,” “The Clipped Language of Mathematics,” PRISM International, No. 39:1, Fall 2000, pp. 15-19.
  • “Beauties on Mad River,” The Malahat Review, No. 131, Summer 2000, p. 82.
  • “Yellow Room,” “Francis Bacon’s Roses,” “In the Red Hills,” The New Quarterly, Vol. XX, No. 2, Summer 2000, pp. 170-172.
  • “Travelling with my Father,” The Malahat Review, No. 122, Spring 1998, p. 9.
  • “Into the Gathering Dark,” We All Begin in a Little Magazine, ed. J. Barton, R. Donovan, M. Feuerstack, S. Hawkins, H. Humphreys, C. Sutherland, Arc 40, Spring 1998, Carleton, Ottawa, pp. 79-80.

 

 

Online:

  • Amazonia, http://www.vehiculepress.com/chapbook/archive.html
  • Choices, http://www.niagarapoetry.ca/connjan.htm
  • Girl in Yellow, Maisonneuve Magazine Online (April 10, 2007)
  • Galaxies, Parliamentary Poets Website (www.parl.gc.ca/Information/about/people/poet/index.asp?lang=e), 2007-2009.

 

 

Miscellaneous:

  • "Wasps," "Under the River," The Tigers of Paramaribo" in NILAS Annual, Vol. 5, No. 1, Predators, 2009/2010
  • “The Fifth Inhabitant of Mexico” (from What Dante Did With Loss, Vehicule Press, 1994), in the Introduction to Extinction in Our Times: Global Amphibian Decline, by J. P. Collins, M. L. Crump, T. E. Lovejoy III, Oxford University Press, p. ix, 2009.

 

 

 

Radio & TV Broadcasts of Poetry, Interviews:

  • Poetry Radio, WGLT, Illinois State University, Normal, October 16, 2008.
  • The Toronto Star, Poet Bitten by Insect’s Intrigue, Lives of the poets, a continuing series, by Joe Fiorito, July 18, 2008.
  • http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/462606
  • rob mclennan’s blog spot 12 or 20 questions, Interview, May 13, 2008.
  • http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/2008/05/12-or-20-questions-with-jan-conn-jan.html
  • CV2, Winter Issue, Interview, 2008. http://www.contemporaryverse2.ca/vol30_iss3excerpts.html#int_conn
  • Uptown, Arts Section (Winnipeg, Manitoba), “The poetry of nature”, Interview, Oct. 5, 2006.
  • WAMC Radio (NPR), Albany, NY, 2006
  • Amherst Community TV, Channel 12, Jaguar Rain with Jan Conn, June 16, 17, 18 19 and 20, 2006. http://www.amherstbulletin.com/story/id/927202690020/
  • CBC Radio One Between the Covers, 2004; CBC All in a Weekend, 2004; CBC Art Talk, 2004
  • Queen’s Feminist Review interview, Queen’s University Radio, Kingston, ON, 2004
  • CBC, Montreal, 1995; Toronto, 1991
  • KGNU Radio, Boulder, Colorado, 1992, 1988
  • Radio Centreville, Montréal, Québec, 1989
  • Vancouver CO-OP Radio, 1987