About

The late poet Joan Yeagley’s wry Midwestern voice engages Ovid’s legacy as well as life in Missouri, Kansas, and the wider world in this selected volume that celebrates one of the earliest poets of 55-year-old BkMk Press.

Author

Joan Yeagley’s work appeared widely in such publications as Saturday Review, Kansas City Star, Midwest Quarterly, and elsewhere. In addition, she was a pioneering figure in developing arts and poetry-related programming for libraries and schools in Kansas and Missouri in the 1960s and 70s, nurturing the cultural milieu in which BkMk and other small presses of the time emerged. She taught at Missouri Southern State College and Crowder College and was a longtime visiting poet in the schools and instructor at numerous writing conferences. She studied at Kansas State University, University of New Mexico, Universidad de Costa Rica, El Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca, and elsewhere.

Praise

“Leave it to Joan Yeagley to bring Ovid, Kyoto, Hank Williams, and wood ticks together in the same book. To paraphrase Ovid, offered a heaven with no Joan Yeagley, I’d say, ‘No, thank you.'”
—Frank Higgins, author of on earth as it is

“Yeagley depicts southwestern Missouri in spare, laconic rhythms reminiscent of Gary Snyder….Yeagley chastens the surface of Midwestern life with a biblical understanding that life is emblematic of supernal forces…Yeagley is too in touch with elemental realities to be wooed into mere celebration of homespun virtue.”
―American Book Review