Jane Kenyon: A Literary Life

Luci Shaw
"Jane Kenyon is a redemptive poet. The raw materials of her living -- the landscapes, the garden, the paradoxes of faith, depression, and illness -- form the stuff of her profound creative work. Using examples from her writings, both prose and poetry, John Timmerman perceptively describes the unfolding of Kenyon's life as a poet and shows how many of her poems happened -- their drafting and revision -- as well as how the details of her life in New Hampshire prove to be the hooks on which her marvelous poems hang."

Choice
"An appreciative reading of a poet who worked her craft so well and died so young. . . [Timmerman] makes good use of Kenyon's letters, journals, unpublished prose, and most important, drafts of poems. . . Highly recommended."

New York Times Book Review
"Timmerman's minute textual analysis of [Kenyon's] poetry and his detailed demonstration of how 'the language changes, how the poem grows and comes into focus, ' as Kenyon described her creative process, is informed and enlightening."

Billy Collins
"John H. Timmerman has written one of those exceptional critical biographies that always bear in mind the processes by which life and art are intimately braided together. With one eye on the dramatic journey of Jane Kenyon's life and the other on the fine details of her craft, he gives us a new perspective on the poetry and the spirit of this remarkable, too-soon-departed poet."