Hope College Press Releases

THIS PAGE HAS MOVED. THE NEW ADDRESS IS -
http://www.hope.edu/pr/pressreleases/

Book of Poetry by Jackie Bartley Published

Posted May 24, 2002

HOLLAND -- Jackie Bartley of the Hope College English faculty is the author of "Bloodroot," a book of poetry published in April by the Edwin Mellen Press.

The poems in "Bloodroot" are divided into three general thematic sections. The first section focuses on Bartley's mother and childhood; the second reflects on work in science, particularly medical science; the third explores societal issues and culture, ranging from racism and teen school shootings to travel in Bolivia.

The hardcover book includes new poems as well as works previously published in journals and chapbooks. "Bloodroot" costs $14.95, and is available in the college's Hope-Geneva Bookstore, located on the ground level of the DeWitt Center.

Bartley wrote some of the poems in "Bloodroot" during residencies at the Ragdale Foundation and the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, as well as through support from the Arts Foundation of Michigan in partnership with the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. She has been awarded an additional residency from the Ragdale Foundation for the current summer.

Located on the grounds of architect Howard Van Doren Shaw's Arts and Crafts style home in Lake Forest, Ill., the Ragdale Foundation was established in 1976 to provide peaceful, uninterrupted time for working artists. Acceptance is highly competitive, and recipients are chosen through an application process with primary emphasis placed on evaluation of a work sample. Each year, more than 175 artists, writers and composers receive Ragdale residencies that last between two and eight weeks.

Bartley is an adjunct assistant professor of English and director of IDS 101 at Hope. She has been a member of the faculty since 1989.

She did her undergraduate work at Clarion University in Pennsylvania, where she received a B.S. degree in biology and a B.S. in medical technology, and subsequently worked for 16 years as a medical technologist. She began her work in poetry with Jack Ridl of the Hope English faculty, and in 1988 earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Western Michigan University.

Bartley is the author of two chapbooks of poetry: "The Terrible Boundaries of the Body," published as the winner of the Fall 1996 Poetry Chapbook Contest sponsored by White Eagle Coffee Store Press, and "When Prayer Is Far from Our Lips," published in 1994 by the Franciscan University Press. Her poems have appeared in a number of journals, including "Artful Dodge," "Hayden's Ferry Review," "Tar River Poetry," "West Branch" and "Whetstone."

-30-