{"title":"Janice N. Harrington","description":"\u003cp data-start=\"149\" data-end=\"752\"\u003eJanice N. Harrington’s writing explores cultural history, the natural world, visual arts, and African American life in the South and Midwest. Her latest poetry collection, \u003cem data-start=\"325\" data-end=\"336\"\u003eYard Show\u003c\/em\u003e, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, was a finalist for the PEN\/Voelcker Award, and was longlisted (top 10) for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It follows her earlier collections: \u003cem data-start=\"536\" data-end=\"574\"\u003eEven the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem data-start=\"576\" data-end=\"600\" data-is-only-node=\"\"\u003eThe Hands of Strangers\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem data-start=\"606\" data-end=\"655\"\u003ePrimitive: The Art and Life of Horace H. Pippin\u003c\/em\u003e. Her first book won the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Harrington is also an award-winning children’s author. Her first picture book, \u003cem data-start=\"833\" data-end=\"846\"\u003eGoing North\u003c\/em\u003e, received the Ezra Jack Keats Award, and she has since published numerous picture books, including biographies and a verse novel. A Cave Canem fellow, she is the Clayton and Thelma Kirkpatrick Professor of English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She lives in Champaign, Illinois, where she regularly visits prairies, Black history sites, and spaces that celebrate books.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1370\" data-end=\"1619\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eFor more information about Janice N. Harrington, visit \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/janiceharrington.com\/\" style=\"font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003ewww.janiceharrington.com\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"even-the-hollow-my-body-made-is-gone","title":"Even the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone","description":"\u003ch5\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSigned copies available in limited quantities\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the 5th Annual A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e Winner of the 2008 Kate Tufts Discovery Award  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\"Like a stringed instrument that continues to vibrate after the musician has ceased playing, Harrington's poems resonate. Without in any way simplifying or ignoring the darker side of life—pain, loss, death, injustice—Harrington is a celebratory poet who sees with the fresh, wondering eye of a child, but knows with the mind and heart of an adult.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Elizabeth Spires, from the Foreword\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\"Her rich, colloquial poems draw on both folklore and science, and are tributes to her weary but tenacious family in their journey North.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eThe Tartan\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e    \u003c\/em\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Early in the manuscript, Harrington introduces her readers to the constructed world we are to inhabit.  She proclaims in the last line of the first poem, ‘I build a house for us.  Rejoice.’ And what follows is her brilliant foundation, and many reasons for praise.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003ePost No Ills Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2007\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":null,"offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":8418401221,"sku":"9781929918898","price":15.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback (Signed)","offer_id":38546903881,"sku":"9781929918898","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/EVEN_THE_HOLLOW_MY_BODY.jpg?v=1527683252"},{"product_id":"the-hands-of-strangers","title":"The Hands of Strangers: Poems from the Nursing Home","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\" color=\"#000000\"\u003eJanice N. Harrington's debut collection, \u003cem\u003eEven the Hollow My Body Made Is Gone\u003c\/em\u003e, won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize Contest and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Now she returns with a tightly focused collection that never veers away from its subject matter: the inner-workings of a nursing home.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\" color=\"#000000\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Hands of Strangers\u003c\/em\u003e portrays the tensions and moments of grace between aged nursing home residents and their healthcare workers.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eWhat does it mean to be a nurses’ aide in a nursing home, the lowest of the low, the typically-female worker who provides physical care for the devalued bodies of the elderly? What is it to live one’s remaining life on a county ward as an indigent elder?\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThe poems show women in motion: they lift bodies, push wheelchairs, give treatments, and\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eperform the myriad tasks of caretaking.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThe poems show aides as anonymous figures laboring under routines, time clocks, and a distant medical hierarchy.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eThey tell also tell the stories of how the nursing home industry reshapes lives, bodies, and identities of both aides and the aged.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\" color=\"#000000\"\u003eJanice N. Harrington's first job was working as a nurses’ aide while still in high school in the seventies.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eShe says, \"Like many of the 'girls' I worked with, I was young and inexperienced in a workplace that demanded empathy, skill, and compassion for the needs and stories of the elderly. I worked my way through college as a nurses’ aide.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI wrote \u003cem\u003eThe Hands of Strangers\u003c\/em\u003e because I cannot forget the 'girls' I worked with or the 'residents' under my care.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI haven’t forgotten what I saw, heard, felt, or learned. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\" color=\"#000000\"\u003eHuman stories hide behind the walls, the national statistics, and the isolations of institutionalized aging.\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003eI wanted to share some of those stories.\"\u003cspan style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN: 9781934414545\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2011\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":8420140165,"sku":"9781934414545","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/THE_HANDS_OF_STRANGERS.jpg?v=1527683373"},{"product_id":"primitive-the-art-and-life-of-horace-h-pippin","title":"Primitive: The Art and Life of Horace H. Pippin","description":"\u003cp\u003eA lyrical and biographical reflection on the art and life of Horace H. Pippin—the best-known African American artist of his time—\u003cem\u003ePrimitive\u003c\/em\u003e offers a searching critique of the condescension to African American folk art as supposedly “primitive,” and it also critiques the underestimation of African American life and imagination in the broader American consciousness. Award-winning poet Janice N. Harrington connects readers to this fascinating, odds-defying artist, all while underscoring the human craving for artistic expression.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eThe Speller\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWriting with your rigid shoulder, with the weaker\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHand, two years after the Great War, you try\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eto shape words that you could not spell, sounding\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThem out—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eraineing, playen, bob wir, infinze\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e—rolling\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ethem on your tongue like Demonsthenes’ stones,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eleaden shot spat out at shying targets. In a notebook\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eyou bend the language:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ehell place, nomansland\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e—and make in ink\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eUncertain places—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eLeeon, Oregon, Caintenerzair,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMoperycort.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e But words are poor gazetteers,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCompasses for the lost. We stumble\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eover consonants and vowels. We are strugglers\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ein our own language. What to call the ripped earth\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhere boys wait in ditches beneath bursting shells?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eYou called it \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eterribell grond of sarro,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e spelled\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eso that we hear the voices ringing with terror,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe howl of the o, and the deeper o of sorrow.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003ePrimitive\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In her innovative and incisive third book of poems,\u003cem\u003e Primitive\u003c\/em\u003e, Janice N. Harrington shows us the great revelations possible in the intersections of history and poetry. These elegantly-crafted poems explore the aftermath of war, Jim Crow America, and American visual art through the life and art of the painter Horace H. Pippin. This collection is both a historical reflection and an ekphrastic object, masterfully rendered from found texts, paintings, notebooks, and the ephemera surrounding the painter and his work. It is through Pippin’s pictures and pigments, both paint and skin, that we see the complex beauty of the artist—a beauty that announces itself in bold colors in spite of the bigger machines of oppression that so often worked in opposition to his artistry.”—\u003cstrong\u003eAdrian Matejka\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In \u003cem\u003ePrimitive\u003c\/em\u003e, the artist Horace H. Pippin is less a lens and more a prism through which Janice N. Harrington watches humanity with a careful eye. Harrington’s skill with image is undeniable, and her ability to intertwine ekphrasis, biography, history, and interior landscape results in a text that is much more than a book of poems without ever ceasing to be a moving and radiant example of one.”—\u003cstrong\u003eJamaal May\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6 style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2016\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":17215774981,"sku":"9781942683209","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/Primitive_FinalFront.jpg?v=1527683321"},{"product_id":"yard-show","title":"Yard Show","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBlack history, cultural expression, and the natural world fuse in Janice N. Harrington’s \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eYard Show\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e to investigate how Black Americans have shaped a sense of belonging and place within the Midwestern United States.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e As seen through the documentation of objects found within yard shows, this collection of descriptive, lyrical, and experimental poems speaks to the Black American Imagination in all its multiplicity.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHarrington’s speaker is a chronicler of yesterdays, using the events of the past to center and advocate for a future that celebrates pleasure and self-fulfillment within Black communities.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAwards\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWinner of the 90th Anisfield-Wolf Book Award\u003cbr\u003eWinner of the 2025 PEN\/Voelcker Award\u003cbr\u003eFinalist for the Midland Authors Award (Poetry)\u003cbr\u003eLonglisted for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award\u003cbr\u003eNamed one of the top 25 Best New Poetry Books by the New York Public Library\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eYard Show\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\"The erudite latest from Harrington (\u003cem\u003ePrimitive\u003c\/em\u003e) celebrates the yard show—a personalized, and personally significant, display of objects in one’s yard—as a microcosm for Black American expressions of place and belonging. Harrington’s poems draw on a variety of sources—from roadside signs to the words of Martin Luther King Jr.—to create a delightful poetic mélange that showcases the ingenuity of Black Americans making space for themselves. The long title poem catalogs a specific yard show, moving fluidly between the voice of the speaker and a woman whose yard reflects her efforts to define her environment, incorporating 'a red-capped gnome,' 'two ponds, three fountains,' a hand-painted plastic cherub, and 'a cast-iron kettle pinked with sedum,' among other treasures. Harrington captures the (at times) mundane and oppressive Midwest: 'I am heading to Springfield,\/ through flatscapes, past variegated greens,\/ the Second Amendment Burma-shaved on fence posts\/ SHOOTING SPORTS\/ ARE SAFE AND FUN\/ THERE’S NO NEED\/ TO FEAR A GUN\/ while a voice on the radio predicts farm futures.' Yet possibility remains in '[a] woman’s backyard and garden.\/\/ What she’s made, with coins of sweat and constant work.' This generous volume is a memorable testament to Black creativity.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/files\/reviews-star-19b.png?v=1613152024\" width=\"18\" height=\"14\" style=\"font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb style=\"font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e, starred review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“In this splendid collection, Janice N. Harrington pays meticulous attention as she visits and travels and ‘makes place,’ and through place reads history, constructing her own gorgeous ‘yard show’ of observations, facts, fragments, quotations, memories, and stories. Moving from a single figure to a broad sweep of what was once Midwestern prairie, she illustrates and celebrates the resilience of Black people, through whom ‘broken things’ are ‘redeemed, reused, repurposed.’ Both testimony and praise song, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eYard Show\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is a bountiful offering.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Martha Collins, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCasualty Reports\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eYard Show\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, Janice N. Harrington proves once again why she is one of our great American writers. Regarding Black women gardeners in particular, in the poem ‘Yard Show 1’ Harrington notes, ‘No one studied her lived aesthetic.’ But Harrington in her courageous, nuanced portraits does. She gives such women all the room they need to grow, to flourish, to spill over trellises and rail in full sun. Are these women going along, trying to fit the fulsomeness and ache of their lives into prim, acceptable parcels? No. This kind of defiance isn't for those who prefer their flowers dried and pinned, trapped in a theory of life over life itself. It takes courage to reveal hidden or denied beauty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e No text reclaims and lauds that bounty of Black womanist work out of the 70's and 80's like this poetry does. Morrison of loam and prairie, Janice N. Harrington bids us to lose ourselves in the tall bluestem. To claim our place in this most American of landscapes, the grass and grain cradle. Harrington asks, \"Is this restoration?\" Yes it is. Righteously, unapologetically, unabashedly so.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Vievee Francis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Shared World \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“In an epigraph to \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eYard Show\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, Roxane Gay theorizes that ‘There aren’t a lot of black people writing about the Midwest,’ and any reader of this collection will be glad for it. Janice N. Harrington has rendered a sweepingly intimate landscape, taking in the detail of small things as does a bird crossing the plains. The skillful leaping in these lines is astonishing and deeply concerned with interruption\/disruption: ‘That shadow? It could be a spider. \/ It could be a brown recluse. \/ It could be my nappy hair.’ or ‘Scabs of linoleum atop a cement slab.’ This is the kind of poetry that teaches us to see and, in ‘If You Should Wake’ (what is certainly the most rewarding poem I have read in a decade), teaches the imagination how to renew itself.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Dante Micheaux, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCircus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, winner of the Four Quartets Prize \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003efrom the Poetry Society of America \u0026amp; The T. S. Eliot Foundation\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46519458922725,"sku":"","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46519458955493,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":46519458988261,"sku":"","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/files\/9781960145314_FC.jpg?v=1713292456"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/collections\/JHarrington_Credit__Rachel_Eliza_Griffith.jpg?v=1760038624","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/collections\/janice-n-harrington.oembed","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}