Strong roots, strong heart, strong voice-Jennifer Schomburg Kanke has it all, and she shares her poetic gifts generously in this rich and accomplished book about the life and marriage of her beloved Granny. Generous with anecdote and story, formally inventive, and ringing with insight and music,
The Swellest Wife Anyone Ever Had will touch and teach readers for generations to come.
-Annie Finch, author of Spells: New and Selected Poems
Jennifer Schomburg Kanke has written an ode to what often goes unnoticed, and to vanishing:
ways of life, land, people. She implores, "Let me understand the creeks and hills though concrete
raised me." Enid, the "swellest wife" of the title and the author's grandmother, faced her life
with spirit and determination. This book is a gift, like the basket woven of kudzu vines that Enid
made to hold apples. When Enid is gone, what's left is "an empty skin in the shape of a poem"-in this case, these lovely poems that will resonate long after you've closed the book.
-Wendy McVicker, author of Alone in the Burning and Athens, Ohio, Poet Laureate 2020-2022
JSK has crafted a full life story from coming of age to widowhood with care that only comes from a deep sense of pride in people and place. The collection presents an Appalachian domestic life made epic, made universal, with love and language. It is funny. It is touching. At times, it is infuriating, as only family can be.
-Amanda Page, editor, The Columbus Anthology and Lost Portsmouth and co-director, Peerless City
