Hope College | English

Jackie Bartley

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BARTLEY, JACKIE, Adjunct Assistant Professor (1989).

Education: B.S. Clarion University (1973, 1974); M.F.A., Western Michigan University (1988).

Interests: Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, including Science Writing.

Selected Works: Ordinary Time (2007); Women Fresh From Water (2005); Hobo Signs (2004); Bloodroot (2002); The Terrible Boundaries of the Body (1996, White Eagle Coffee Store Press Award); When Prayer Is Far from Our Lips (1994); More than 250 poems in more than 150 literary magazines and anthologies.

Distinctions: Six-time Pushcart Prize nominee; currently circulating manuscript was given "meritorious merit" by the National Federation of Poetry Societies of America; Residency Fellow, Ragdale Foundation (2000-03, 2005-06); Finalist, BkMk Press's John Ciardi Prize for Poetry (2005); Finalist, University of Arkansas Press Poetry Series (2005); Finalist, Sow's Ear Poetry Review Contest (2004); Second Runner-up, New Letters Poetry Contest (2003); Many other awards for poetry.

Publications:

Ordinary Time (New York: Spire Press, 2007).
"Winner of the Spire Poetry Prize. Jackie Bartley's Ordinary Time is a collection of extraordinary poems: each one shimmering in metaphoric richness; each one unwavering in its quiet sense of truth. There are no casual observations in Bartley's universe where every single event is infused with wonder and grace--whether it occurs in an exotic village in Bolivia or the familiar landscape of a Midwest plain. She creates a haunting sense of mythology to understand our broken and modern world, and, in so doing, redeems it, makes it whole, and gives it brilliance. Bartley weaves pure poetry, an amazing gift." --- Linda Nemec Foster

Women Fresh From Water (Finishing Line Press, Georgetown, Kentucky, 2005).
"In lyrical, wise, deeply connected poems, populated by daughters, new mothers, and elderly women, Women Fresh from Water invites the reader into the world of swimming pools and locker rooms, where a woman comes to shed her earth-self, for a time, to be borne to new, other selves through the medium of water, a condition where, to paraphrase the poet's words, 'she can join others, while losing herself, longing for something to hold her . . . that she might remember who she was." --Priscilla Atkins

Hobo Signs (Thirdstone Press, Saugatuck, Michigan, 2004).
Migrant workers and vagrants who hitch from town to town by rail have been called hoboes since the late 19th century. Over the years, these transients, like other marginalized or ostracized people, developed a system of symbols to communicate with one another. They scrawled these signs on fence posts, trees, sheds, boulders, anywhere those who followed might see them and recognize their meaning. These poems are based on a dozen of those symbols. Includes woodcut illustrations by Nels Oestreich.

Bloodroot (Lewiston: Mellen Poetry Press, 2002).
"In Bloodroot, Jackie Bartley explores the subtle marriage between spirit and imagination. Restless yet patient, inquisitive yet accepting, these poems take a long careful look at the past and the ways it can survive in us. Cumulatively , they reveal a stubborn optimism and a deep reverence for human life." —-Chase Twichell (author of The Snow Watcher, The Ghost of Eden, Perdido, The Odds, Northern Spy).

Threading the Bobbin (2001).
I spent a good deal of time watching my mother sew. Later, I learned to sew myself, but, by then, my attitudes about sewing as well as about my life had already been patterned by hers. In our culture, sewing has been perceived as women's domain. That is one of the pieces in identity's garment that young girls have accepted in the past. It is one of many pieces-fashion's dictates, our desire to conform, our need to be considered attractive, the right height, the right weight-in a myriad of external pressures that establish boundaries for the ways we act, dress and think about ourselves.

The Terrible Boundaries of the Body (1997).
This collection of poems is the winner of the 1996 White Eagle Coffee Store Press Award.