the book thinks mothers are fools of Jenn’s poem, Monica Youn says, “The hypnotic rhythms of the poem create a spell in which guilt and fear and love and sorrow cast moving shadows across the imagination. As a tribute to a murdered boy playing in a park, it weaves together rage and tenderness into an […]
More“The maternal instinct is a complicated emotional experience for a Latina in an interracial marriage and raising an adopted black son. Givhan’s heartfelt poems don’t come across as sentimental because her angst is expressed through the unsettling truths about the racism in today’s America that her partner faces and that her son will undoubtedly encounter. […]
MoreCheck it out at Glass Poetry Press ♥
MoreAmid Uncertain Times, 11 New and Necessary Latino Books to Read Mil gracias al maestro, Rigoberto González for including my debut poetry book LANDSCAPE WITH HEADLESS MAMA on this list from NBC News Latino!! González writes: “This list of recently published books features fiction, poetry and nonfiction by writers whose personal journeys as women, men, […]
MoreAvailable from Pleiades Press. Also available from Amazon. Contact Jenn for a signed copy. Landscape with Headless Mama is a poetry collection by Jennifer Givhan that explores the experiences of becoming and being a mother through the lens of dark fairy tales. Givhan describes the book as “a surreal survival guide.” A poet with strong […]
MoreI’m so excited to share this conversation with fierce Latina poet/playwright/actor/activist extraordinaire Michelle Otero, who discusses her experiences as a writer and stepmother of two. But I wish someone would have handed me The House on Mango Street or Bless Me, Última and said, “Your people write books too.” … We hold mothers to very high […]
MoreThe mother spreads her arms and waits — hoping at the top of a hill — for a mend in the empty break of sky. –from “Sewing Feathers” (read the full poem in Waxwing). We lived our first existence as if on an island — the waving flag of a companionship always sinking. –from “After […]
MoreThen I remembered: Mama wasn’t gone but safe, in her bed, turning in sleep. It was I who went away—from Chopin in the bones, palms heavy with dates like dark purple fingers reaching toward sand… Read (and listen to) both poems at Four Way Review.
MoreSacagawea emerges from the hedgehog cacti in the lot behind our crumpling house heavy with cradleboard & mistaken for a token of peace… from “Bird Woman” The boys next door are ignoring my son. It’s playground politics, the fragile and shifting power dynamics of these early friendships… from “Bloom” Read both poems at […]
MoreI unwrap a bar of amaranth soap and wash my own mouth the way Mama used to do when I’d been profane… –Jenn Givhan (Read full poem at The Collagist)
More“Time Capsule” and “Junkyard Halflight” up at Superstition Review. “Small things come back in pieces. That time of day I wasn’t afraid to close my eyes. The white flies weren’t yet lured by streetlamps; the air still held its damp menudo. On one side of the house, the cemetery where I buried a stillborn and […]
MoreDaughter, I won’t make milk for you anymore. The body retreats. It reclaims miracles. Published in Glint Literary Journal.
MoreMy poem published at Tupelo Quarterly. “the skate-floor-turned-dance- for-your-life-floor, just beginning to understand I was the reason for her dizziness and egglonging” –Jenn Givhan
MoreJennifer Givhan Miscarriage In a field where a hot air balloon waits tethered, children balancing umbrellas and wearing party hats plant birthday bouquets; where they grow the swollen bulbs push open the soil smelling of clay and fingerpaint. Even the sky celebrates in reverse, hanging like pigtails from a jungle gym. Not many daffodils or […]
More2. Looking Glass The image in the mirror appears whole though I swear I am a fragment. Columnar self, I am my own grotesque other body. I fell asleep inside my pod and woke to red, where oceans are dry as salt flats, where red means lost and lost means dead. (Read the […]
More