Queen of Jacks
Bombshelter Press, 2019 276pp
ISBN: 9780941017329
The Author
- Stellasue Lee
- Stellasue Lee was a founding editor of RATTLE, a poetry journal, and is now editor emerita. She is a host of WordStream on WDVX, Knoxville, TN with Linda Parsons. Two of her books have been entrants for the Pulitzer Prize: Firecracker Red and Crossing the Double Yellow Line. Her new & selected Poems, Queen of Jacks, was released mid-summer, 2019. Dr. Lee was winner of the grand prize of Poetry To Aid in 2013 by Humanity Al Falah in Malaysia. She now teaches privately. Dr. Lee received her Ph.D. from Honolulu University. She was born in the year of the dragon.
Review
In Queen of Jacks, Stellasue Lee has composed a riveting and seamless page turner—a quality infrequently found in volumes of poetry—particularly in one of such wide and deeply ranging scope. Poem after poem I found myself in eager anticipation of the next. Her words are clear and compelling, embracing virtually every element of the human pathos. These poems hold the reader—tightly or gently—but never at arm's length. She comes to remind us that, as human beings, we are connected not so much by our strengths, as by our woundedness. Her candor, honesty and authenticity are way, way beyond rare. No false moves here. Dr. Lee is among the most admired and respected figures in poetry. Queen of Jacks shows us precisely why. Such a life.
Robert Nazarene, founding editor, The American Journal of Poetry
