A Book Launch for "But She Is Also Jane"

A book launch, poetry reading, and musical event to celebrate Laura Read’s award-winning new poetry collection, But She Is Also Jane.

Revered local poet and SFCC professor Laura Read will read from her thrilling new poetry collection, But She Is Also Jane, winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry. Musicians Caridwen Irvine-Spatz and Greg Spatz will perform, as well as poets Kathryn Smith and Maya Jewell Zeller. Kathryn Smith will also present her artwork and poetry broadsides. Auntie’s Books will be on hand to sell copies of the poetry collection.

Book Description:

Conversational, irreverent, and disarmingly honest, the poems of But She Is Also Jane follow the everyday contours of women’s lives and the expectations they grapple with. As our speaker approaches middle age, she copes with the loss of loved ones, the realities of an emptying nest, the routine indignities of sexism, and nostalgia for the past. Laura Read’s third poetry collection balances discussions of Degas, Vermeer, and Marie Curie with reflections on Sammy Hagar, a troubling outing to a male revue, and memories of watching Mork and Mindy on the night of her mother’s hysterectomy. 

Author Biography:

LAURA READ is author of Dresses from the Old Country, Instructions for My Mother’s Funeral, and the chapbook, The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You. She served as poet laureate for Spokane, Washington, from 2015 to 2017 and teaches at Spokane Falls Community College and the Eastern Washington University MFA program in creative writing.