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A Country Rag A Country Rag Rural Review

Checking out releases in literature, movies and music

photo by Charles Dyer

"Gwendoline Y. Fortune has written a chapbook of twenty-four poems: Dancing as Fast as We can and Inner Scan. You will enjoy reading these lovely, evocative poems, written by an African American woman whose work you should know about. She writes from her own experience growing up in the South, with her own unique voice, which is not stereotypical of what we have come to assume is "the African American experience." Dr. Fortune also has two novels finished which are as yet unpublished. The first fourteen poems, Dancing..., are drawn primarily from childhood experience. The final ten poems, Inner Scan, are reflective of the child all "grown up." I am convinced that her work deserves an audience. Dr. Fortune is an amazingly engaging personality. She is witty, learned, articulate, but never predictable." -- Judith Ernst

Graphic: photo by Charles Dyer


There is a Heaven, and maybe its Counterpart

Review by Gwendoline Y. Fortune

Jan Maher is a writer whose experiences in her brief life, she's early thirties, have given her a clear eye, an acute hearing and a compassionate spirit. I was called back to the stories I enjoyed as a child, but the telling is not dated in any way. Her first novel, Heaven, Indiana, begins in 1954, the year three infant girls are born in the town. Two of the children remain in Heaven, growing into the fabric of the town in their own unique ways. Ellie Denison becomes a waitress. Ellen Sue Tipton is the town's hairdresser.

These two occupations are the heart and spirit of American small towns for generations. A pity the "system" is rapidly disappearing.

Meanwhile, the third baby, Nadja, becomes a confidant of a different kind. She disappears from Heaven the day of her birth and becomes a fortune teller with a traveling carnival.

Heaven, Indiana is both its obvious, local life and the layers of setting of wider history where Jan Maher beautifully interweaves a rich telling of individual and communal secrets.

Seldom do I care to read a novel a second time. This is not the case with Heaven, Indiana. It is a small book, but not a "fast" read. The reader will be willing to savor the subtle depths the author presents. I've bought copies for gifts, because I love this book.

Heaven, Indiana ISBN-0-9703993-0-8 is published by Dog Hollow Press. It is available at amazon.com for $14.00.


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THINKING FEELING Three, digital imagery
by Harold Janzen

 

 the work of words 

 divining mystery

 the moon on black sky

 half into its slot

     deeply touching

 to think everything

 forward

 

 a leaf on a dark river

 playing thru the

 flowing galaxy

 teasing in and out of time

 and space

 

 this leafboat

 absorber of states

 suspending temperature

 and heartbeat

 to feel it

 to eliminate the density of  the

 particular 

 and the concrete

 

 becoming more aware

 changing  this way

 listening inside

 

 setting sail







"There is a Heaven..." © Gwendoline Y. Fortune, "Thinking Feeling" © Harold Janzen, February 2001.
Graphics © Jeannette Harris, Jonesborough TN, April, 1996, 2000. All rights reserved.
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(Through the Looking Glass)