Little Wanderer

by Jennifer Horne

Poem as lyric travelogue, poet as "little wanderer" - this is the basis for Jennifer Horne's new book of poems set in Greece, Italy, Romania, England, Ireland, and the southern U.S. As connections grow, what responsibilities does that traveler have to the people she meets, the places she stays, their histories? The poems acknowledge both the aesthetic highs and mundane lows of moving about in the world. Yet, despite the vagaries of travel, Horne finds kinship wherever she goes. Sending a series of postcards from destinations as varied as Athens, Bucharest, Prague, Oxford, Sligo, and Tuscaloosa.

114 pages, Paperback

Published February 16, 2017

About the author

Jennifer Horne is a writer, editor, and teacher who grew up in Arkansas and has lived for many years in Alabama. Her book Working the Dirt: An Anthology of Southern Poets (2003) brought together over 100 poems about farming and gardening in the South. Her two co-edited books (with Wendy Reed), All Out of Faith: Southern Women on Spirituality (2006) and Circling Faith: Southern Women on Spirituality (2012), have received acclaim for the high quality of the essays and their contribution to discussions about religion and spirituality in the American South. Her most recent book, Tell the World You’re a Wildflower (2014) is a collection of loosely interwoven stories in the voices of southern women and girls of different ages and backgrounds. Bottle Tree (2010) is a book of poems focusing on Horne’s experiences as a southern woman; her second collection of poems, Little Wanderer, a collection of road and travel poems, will be published this summer by the Irish publisher Salmon Poetry. She is currently working on a poetry chapbook, a new collection of short stories, and a memoir-influenced book about Scott and Zelda biographer Sara Mayfield.

Reviews

[Carolyn Breckinridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Wanderer is a delightful and thought-provoking book of poems focusing not only on the realities of travel and specific points of travel, but also on our larger journeys through life as human beings. Ms. Horne has once again tapped universal experiences and emotions while describing at times very specific tourist destinations. It's fun to travel segments of the globe with her, but even more satisfying to enjoy her beautiful way with both words and emotions.