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All My Grandmothers Could Sing
Copyright © 1984
by Judith Sornberger
Free Rein P
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Judith Sornberger, who teaches English at the
University of Nebraska — Lincoln, is a lover of poetry. As she read
the writings of Nebraska poets, she became deeply impressed by the number
of talented women poets in the state. Wanting to make
their works more accessible, Sornberger solicited poems from
poets throughout the state
and also selected some of her personal favorites that had appeared in
poetry magazines. The result is an anthology of poetry by
twenty-six Nebraska women poets. While the poems have many different
settings, when locales such as
Kearney, Alma, Milligan, and others catch the reader's eye, it does not
take long to realize that
this is a collection of Nebraksa poets. It is also interesting to note
the number of poems that
use a mother or grandmother as an image or theme. This makes the volume
all the more
entertaining to the reader, who can compare how different poets treat
similar
themes. Judith Sornberger is to be commended for making available in one
book the
writings of so many excellent poets. 3 James Gulick, Nebraska
Library Association Quarterly, Summer 1984
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Open Heart
Copyright © 1993
by Judith Mickel Sornberger
Calyx Books
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This collection, which takes its title from a poem about surgery undergone
by the author's grandmother, deals largely with relationships within a
close-knit Nebraska plains family, especially among its women.
"Visiting Our Nation's Capitol" brings together the nurturing aspects of
motherhood and the mothering of our
nation and planet; images of hands — those of madonnas, of mothers and
daughters, of congressmen — persist
throughout this fine, sensitive poem, which closes by asking us to "control
the careless flailing/ of our arms,
to use the hands of mothers/ when our hands touch anything." At her best,
Sornberger uses words with fine sensitivity. ... this warmly loving book is hard to put
down and hard to forget. Sornberger is a poet to watch. — Library Journal
Judith Sornberger's marvelous first collection, Open Heart, is ... an
extended examination of female experience, particularly as it is informed
by the details of daily existence. ... Whatever her topic, Sornberger
rubs hard against the grain of it, questioning, asserting, reinterpreting
in a voice that is always clear, accessible and distilled. ... {This is}
wise, compassionate and beautifully articulated work. —
Women's Review of Books
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What the Critics Say
Bibliography
