Burning of the Three Fires

Burning of the Three Fires shows Jeanne Marie Beaumont using her characteristic variety of techniques: dramatic monologues, lists, prose poems, nonce forms, object poems, and ekphrasis, to which she has added an exploration of biography, elegy, and rites. Among its layered themes, this book takes a multifaceted look at womanhood: there are dolls, historic and modern girlhoods, mythic re-tellings of characters from Goldilocks to the Bride of Frankenstein, emotionally charged domestic trinkets, and even a conversation with Sylvia Plath conducted via an 8-Ball.

Burning of the Three Fires is the third collection by the National Poetry Series award-winning author of Placebo Effects and Curious Conduct. Several of the poems in this collection have been recognized by anthologists and appeared in such volumes as The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, When She Named Fire: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by American Women, and Don’t Leave Hungry: 50 Years of Southern Poetry Review.

PRAISE FOR BURNING OF THE THREE FIRES

"Something charming, something sacred, and something wickedly fun collide and collaborate in Jeanne Marie Beaumont’s book. In poetry that is both art and performance, 'no circumstance is ordinary': Beaumont disrobes words to reveal their true skins—embarrassing stretch marks and all, she reconfigures phrases to construct surprising new angles from familiar lines, and, medium-like, she invites the spirits of other poets to the inventive dance between writer and muse. Enter Burning of the Three Fires and keep a close watch for the magic that is neither trick nor gimmick but pure, 'otherwordly' mystery."

—Rigoberto González


© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2010