JYBS 6: Kate Baer's "Some Kind Of Woman"

Purchased: Copper Dog Books

Recommended By: The cover caught my eye, and I flipped through it, and liked everything I read.

Pages Of Poetry: 78

Recommended For: Readers looking for direct, bite-sized slices of life that neither attempt to hide behind murky language or metaphors, nor spell out their message as though you were in some Intro To Humanity 101 class. Baer's work reminds me of talking with the friend who makes any story about their day mesmerizing whether it's taking their kid to the bus stop or how they had an epiphany while trying to split a check during a night out with friends.

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The poetry section of the nearest bookstore where I worked was anemic. It wasn't terrible. The few books on the shelves were mostly things I enjoyed. There was just a lot of real estate in the bookstore devoted to YA books, romance, self-help, non-fiction, graphic novels, cookbooks, but not much devoted to poetry.

"I don't know that much about poetry," the owner said.

So we talked about poetry. Collections I liked. Books I thought would probably sell really well, even if they weren't for me.  Poets whose work every bookstore should stock up on. Which publishers' sites to peruse before going to the larger distributors.

"How do you decide which books to buy?" she asked, as I was flipping through books I was unfamiliar with.

"I start with the Acknowledgements. I look to see if they thank someone who I either know in real life or through their work. Do I enjoy the writers they thank? Does it look like namedropping? Take this one, for example," I said, opening up Kate Baer's book. "I don't know any of the poets she thanks but she thanks her editor and the cover artist, she makes a point to mention people who were specifically uplifting in her community, and she thanks an employee at the Panera where she writes. She sounds awesome. Then I flip through the poems in the book, and if I like more than I dislike/don't care about, I buy it. This one is going on the top of my pile."  

Prompts

1. Author's Note. Forgetting the obvious Author is from here, this is their marital status, they have this many pets, and enjoy this sport or hobby what do you want readers to take away from your book/chapbook/collection? Be as serious or as snarky as you wish. But give potential readers a direct insight to your work that you feel isn't necessarily overt in you actual manuscript.

2. Ego. Create a three sentence poem. The first sentence should be a basic description of something odd about a previous or current relationship. The second sentence should zoom in and make the behavior feel off-putting. The third sentence should explain why you think the person exhibited that behavior towards you.

3. It's Like This. Think of a word that an author that you like uses so often that you notice how frequently it appears in the text. It doesn't have to be a drippy academic word like ostentatious, it can be the word bird or mother. What word do you think you use that often? What would happen if you used the other author's repeated word in place of your own?

4. Etymology Of The Word Wife. Take a common word and find out its original root. You can either offer only that root as your poem, or you can then try and trace that word's evolution from its origin to the way you and your family/friends/community use it.

5. What Children Say. Is there someone in your life that asks a lot of you, or constantly gives you advice, or is a running faucet of daily complaints? Take a single page and just write down the questions/phrases you remember. Offer no context. You shouldn't appear anywhere in the poem. This is just a one-sided conversation that you are listening to.

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Where You Can Buy This Book: HarperCollinsPublishers

What You Should Read After:
​Mary Ruefle's Dunce
​Gregorz Wroblewski's Kopenhaga
Tracy K Smith's Life On Mars 
Hal Sirowitz's Mother Said
Rachel Long's My Darling From The Lions