Renée Olander’s Book Reading

Submitted by princebooks on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 2:41pm

Start: 12/01/2010 6:00 pm

End: 12/01/2010 7:00 pm

On December 1st, 2010 from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, Renée Olander will be in the store for a reading of her newest work A Few Spells.

About the Book:

A Few Spells, Renée Olander’s collection of poems, tells a number of secrets and stories, in voices including that of Grace Sherwood, the condemned Witch of Pungo, Princess Anne County, Virginia, while examining the values of human relationships and natural connections globally. Several poems place readers in Hampton Roads – on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, at the regional landfill, and in the Washington Canal of the Great Dismal Swamp – while others are set in México, New York City, or Hawai’i, where Olander spent her early childhood.

Reviews:

Poet Baron Wormser observes that, “the poems of Renée Olander passionately scrutinize impulses and prevarications alike. She is mindful about mindlessness, about how nothing that is discarded ever disappears. She knows the workaday, murderous attitudes yet her candor shines through, something playful and fierce, tender and near indomitable.”

"Renée Olander's poems are distinctly female, which is to say fertile, passionate, powerful, sorrowful, sexy, stunning, and strong. Sit with them, spend time with them, hold them close, embrace them. You'll be glad you did. Reading A FEW SPELLS is akin to being in the company of a wise and treasured friend," writes poet Lesléa Newman.

Renée Olander's poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Verse and Universe – Poems About Science and Mathematics, The Café Review, Best of the Decade – Hawai’i Pacific Review 1997-2007, Margie-The American Journal of Poetry, and many others.

Awards:

Ms. Olander is also recipient of a Pushcart Prize nomination from Sistersong-Women Across Cultures, and the Kate Smith Award for Poetry from Amelia Magazine. She has taught English at Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, Virginia, for 24 years, and she currently directs the university’s Virginia Beach Higher Education Center.

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