 |  |
| Photo: Gail Stanton |
|
In Shadow Sounds, her first poetry collection, Joan Kantor presents poems dealing with childhood, family (both private and public), the natural world, and the world of art. She faces personal and public demons with great honesty and relishes beauty of all kinds with uninhibited zest. Love and loss, hope and despair do battle here, and the victory (won with courage and determination) goes to the stronger impulse: love and hope. They prevail in verse that is clear and direct, yet resonant. You will find underlying surprises here and much reward for multiple readings. Early readers have been enthusiastic about this work that has surprised the poet herself, so sudden and peremptory has its onslaught been. Steve Straight has commented as follows: “The deceptively simple poems of Shadow Sounds often carry a great weight lightly. In her deeply felt impressions of the natural world, in her honest explorations of the challenges and nuances of family relationships, and in her piercing snapshots of civilization’s darker sides, Joan Kantor removes the veil from her soul and shares it with us, in one striking phrase after another.”
|
 |
| |
Photo collage “Glorious Marshlands”
by Lori Barker and Joan Kantor |
And this from David Leff: “In words which are few but carry delicious weight, Joan Kantor invites us to focus our senses. Haunting metaphors and juxtaposed thoughts energize our imagination. Kantor probes the very axis of relationships, as when she asks, ‘Will we still be friends / when her words / have outgrown mine?’ She awakens our awareness with images that turn the mundane to magic: ‘cowlick-spiked’ marsh grass, ‘a shiver of waves...’ A deep read will be well rewarded.”
Joan B. Kantor was born and raised in New York City, whose cultural richness has been a great source of inspiration. She graduated from Queens College with a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Education and then went on to live and teach in Europe for seven years, where she traveled extensively. After receiving her Master’s Degree from Antioch University, Joan became a learning disability specialist and counselor at Manchester Community College, where she continues to work. Married to her high school sweetheart, she has three grown children and a granddaughter. She currently lives on the Farmington River in Collinsville, Connecticut. Joan’s passions for people, nature, traveling and the arts merge in the poetry that she has been writing for most of her life. She has been published in ByLine, Chadder, and Namaste.
Click here to read a sample from Shadow Sounds
and here for a half-hour
reading by Joan Kantor.
Click here to view upcoming events.
Click here to read ancillary material
in the Seminar Room.
|
