Dr. Jane Beal is the author of The Poetry Place. She was born and raised in Northern California. She received her BA (Sonoma State University), MA (Sonoma State University), and PhD (UC Davis) in English literature with specializations in medieval literature, classical mythology, and the literature of the Bible. She has enjoyed being a carpenter’s assistant, optician, and childbirth doula as well as professor and poet. She taught in the English Department of Wheaton College in Illinois for five years before joining Colorado Christian University to teach creative writing. She lives in Lakewood in the big-sky-mile-high-beautiful country near Denver, CO.
Jane writes poetry, fiction, young adult fantasy, creative non-fiction and literary criticism. Her work appears in The Avocet Review, BirthWorks, The Illinois Audobon Society Magazine, Main Street Rag, Midwifery Today, Nota Bene, The Oklahoma Review, Orbit du Novo, The Penwood Review, A Prairie Journal, The Pub, Qasida, Ruminate, shufPoetry, Squat: A Birth Journal, and anthologies such as Closer to God, Call: A Celebration of Black Literature and The Live Poets of Alexandria Anthology. Her academic articles appear in Studies in Philology, Quidditas: The Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval Association, and The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature.
She is the author of more than a dozen poetry collections. These include SANCTUARY (Finishing Line Press, 2008) and books published by Lulu Press, MADE IN THE IMAGE, TIDEPOOLS, LOVE-SONG, BUTTERFLIES, EPIPHANY: BIRTH POEMS, A PURE HEART, SUNFLOWER SONGS and THE ROOTS OF APPLES as well as her Birdwatcher’s Trilogy, THE BIRD-WATCHER’S DIARY ENTRIES, WILD BIRDSONG and JAZZ BIRDING. She has also recorded SONGS FROM THE SECRET LIFE, a CD of her poems read aloud, and is currently working on a new CD, THE JAZZ BIRD, with her brother, saxophonist and composer, Andrew Beal.
Her works of fantasy for young adult readers include MAGICAL POEMS FOR GIRLS, MAGICAL POEMS ILLUSTRATED, and EIGHT STORIES FROM UNDISCOVERED COUNTRIES. Her writing also includes literary criticism: JOHN TREVISA AND THE ENGLISH POLYCHRONICON (ACMRS and Brepols, 2012), TRANSLATING THE PAST: ESSAYS ON MEDIEVAL LITERATURE (ACMRS, 2012) and ILLUMINATING MOSES: A HISTORY OF RECEPTION FROM EXODUS TO THE RENAISSANCE (Brill, forthcoming in 2013).
Jane values a well-balanced life that includes times of rest and renewal. She loves spending time with her families, friends, and seven godchildren as well as her beloved, miniature dachshund, Joyful. She travels around the world, and she enjoys reading, writing, walking, dancing, cycling, swimming, bird-watching, singing, and playing music, especially the flute, everywhere she goes.
To learn more about Jane and her writing, visit her homepage: sanctuarypoet.net.
Bird-watchers and poetry lovers, check out: birdwatchersdiary.wordpress.com.
“I must have poetry in my life!”
~Gwenyth Paltrow playing in “Shakespeare in Love”
p.s. Want to see an animoto slideshow of Jane? Check out: “Working Writer 2008-2009″!
or an ImageLoop slideshow? Jane … around the world?
This page has the following sub pages.
I love Jane! Hi Jane, I just wanted to let you know that I visited your site and miss you! You are so insprirational! I will comment more later but just wanted to let you know… Miss you much, Vivian
Hello Jane…Your blog pages are so beautiful and full of emotion.
I wanted you to know that you are among the top blogs i read.
You can try reading my selection of poetry too,in :
http://www.panosx.blogspot.com.
Gree-ce-tings…
Like your PAD Caliope. Very much.
Thanks so much, BriarCat! I appreciate that. For readers of thepoetryplace, here it is:
CALLIOPE GETS PISSED
All I want is inspiration!
Orpheus was my son, and Dante was my servant,
but poets just don’t listen to me anymore.
My mother Memory is always chiding me
as if I don’t do my job – as if I should just work harder!
Meanwhile my sisters all sit around on their laurels,
primping and preening like Aphrodite’s peacocks.
If ambrosia, that most holy nectar of the gods, did
not drip from my fingers, where would we all be?
But everyone wants to taste me, everyone wants
Immortality! No one realizes what it costs to live forever.
How many times have I told the story of Tithonus
chirping as Dawn leaves him, shriveled and ancient, alone in her bed?
Or the sufferings of Hercules? Do his twelve mighty labors
really mean nothing in this day and age? He wrestled with death!
Alcestis, Aeneas, even my own dear Orpheus!
I’ve heard a thousand prayers uttered with tears at my altar,
yet how few have been willing to play the harp in Hades.
Come, let us go down, and I will show you the lost souls
sighing on the banks of the Acheron, endlessly waiting.
Behold the black river! Behold the half-light in the dark!
Behold the souls of the dead whose bodies are not properly buried.
You could sing them back to life, you could put flesh on their bones,
if only you would come down and witness them in their misery.
I am not the goddess whose chariot is drawn by wingèd doves!
I am not here to bring stone statues to bed like Galatea!
Your grapes made of wax and your desperation could be
beautiful to me if you would open the ear of your soul to truth.
Do you not hear how I love you? In my hands, I hold your gift,
like the ram of Colchis, golden with promise, shining with hope.
And it is I who have slain the Hydra!
Jane Beal
sanctuarypoet.net
Hi Jane!
I like your poetry very much and your web page looks cool!
Hi, Tel referred me to your blog, and I found it to be very nice. My oldest daughter is eight and she reads young adult fantasy stories. I hope she never loses that aspect of her personality as I find it refreshing.
I’m happy I found your blog. I will add you to my blogroll.
Look forward to reading more!
Hello Jane .
Hi, Eirini! Wishing you joy …
Jane,
I just opened your Poetry Place website (for the first time in a year) and thought, “How beautiful.”
And, then, I saw your name; and thought “Of course”–how could I forget you created this lovely spot…
…With so many lovely poems.
Thanks.
Linda Roberts-Baca