DESCRIPTION

In this, her second collection of poems, Tania Pryputniewicz evokes the harsh realities of a childhood in a Midwestern commune, coming of age in a small town on the Russian River in California, finding herself as a poet, navigating the difficult years of marriage and motherhood, and the heartbreaking loss of her own mother.

The image of the Tarot Fool, wise innocent and eternal adventurer, weaves throughout the book.

REVIEWS

"'Look!’ implores Tania Pryputniewicz's artfully orchestrated memoir in poems. Remember and re-imagine intone these stunning narratives. In lush imagery and exacting detail; with vulnerability, wit and wisdom; one woman's life unfolds. From confused communal girlhood, to questioning an unpredictable father, to wrestling with parents' divorce, to maturing as poet, wife and mother, to the heartbreaking chronicle of a dying mother's journey, the riveting thread of The Fool in the Corn, is the growing resonance of a woman's voice: tentative, tender, fierce and emboldened. In such company, the reader, fellow traveler, is inspired to bring back, without apology, all that you dare." —Barbara Rockman, author of to cleave, and Sting and Nest

“From childhood in a commune, through the complexities of adulthood, marriage, and motherhood, to parental death, these poems travel from Illinois to California to Iowa and back to California, highlighting the mysteries of the natural world, the struggle in relationship, the sorrow in loss, the search for ‘answers that can only be lived.’ The poet explores the ‘dark harp of the human heart,’ at times the leader and caretaker, at times the ‘outlier in a field of corn.’ These poems invite us to look, remember, forgive, and keep faith with The Fool as the poet does, finding beauty in the ordinary and comfort in imagination.” —Sandy Coomer, author of The Broken Places

“The Fool in the Corn wows me with its exquisite detail: these poems help us hear the snow melt and sense the musky aftertaste of goat milk ice cream. In this memoir-in-poems, Tania Pryputniewicz explores family relationships, moving from her own childhood in a commune through her parents’ divorce to her own marriage, parenting, and loss of her mother. She has woven corn fields and autobiography with tarot cards and mythology, and the results are riveting. ‘This life I’ve earned and shaped reopens with every page I risk writing,’ Tania says in her author’s note. The rest of us are so fortunate that she keeps taking the risk.” —Katie Manning, author of Tasty Other and 28,065 Nights