Read more
Originally published: Princeton, NJ: Ontario Review Press, 2003.
About the author
Jana Harris teaches creative writing at the University of Washington and at the Writer’s Workshop in Seattle. She is an editor of Switched-on Gutenberg: A Global Poetry Journal, and the author of the memoir Horses Never Lie About Love and the poetry collection You Haven’t Asked About My Wedding or What I Wore: Poems of Courtship on the American Frontier.
Summary
This series of interconnected dramatic monologues illustrates the true stories of frontier women and children who were stranded on and settled along the trails to the West. Spanning the school year 1889–90, we follow the intimate day-to-day lives of a school teacher, her students, and their parents in the mythical town of Cottonwood.
Additional text
In Praise of Jana Harris
“The voice of Jana Harris is unique in American poetry.” —Alicia Ostriker, poet and author of Stealing the Language
“Harris has a singular, compassionate clarity, tells a story the only way it’ll ever make sense, and knows where and who she is always. Her poems are all hers.” —Robert Creeley, Robert Frost Medal–winning poet
“Harris had combined the resources of the poet and the scholar into something new.” —Marge Percy, author of Gone to Soldiers
