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Nevada poet gets book deal
Local wordsmith Janet Reed is excited to announce that her first book of poetry, entitled “Blue Exhaust,” is scheduled for publication by Finishing Line Press in early 2019. While the exact date is not yet known, it is expected sometime around early March.
“Blue exhaust is a metaphor for a malfunctioning engine,” Reed explained, “and by extension wrong-headed ideas. My dad’s 1964 red Corvair, a car Ralph Nader said was ‘unsafe at any speed,’ figures prominently in several of the pieces.”
Originally a lover of fiction, Reeds says she started to get serious about poetry around the year 2000. “I didn’t start getting serious about craft and submitting work until 2015. Since then I’ve had 89 pieces accepted in more than 20 different journals.” She also enjoys writing reviews and essays.
“My first love was fiction,” Reed continued. “I started writing knock-off Nancy Drew books on wide-lined notebook paper when I was eleven. My character’s name was Laura Drake. Like me, she was a brunette. Unlike Nancy Drew, she didn’t need a boyfriend, and she drove a purple VW Beetle.” Reed regrets that Drake’s adventures “disappeared in a closet purging when I was about 16.”
When asked why she writes poetry, Reed answered, “William Wordsworth said that poetry is the ‘spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,’ and this book explores a lot of a complicated past. Poetry crystallizes a truth or a value in bite-sized pieces. Frankly, I think of poetry as prayer.”
“It’s a meaningful and spiritual way to approach my values and my relationship to them, both failures and accomplishments, desires and expectations. Some people write to entertain, and I’m fine with that and even enjoy reading it, but my work is more about living my best life. Something about good metaphors and images open up experiences to new understanding, and I love that about poetry.”
Currently teaching writing and literature at Crowder College, Reed plans to retire in order to pursue writing full time. She is also administrator of the Moss Trust and plans to continue in that position.
A crash course in small press publishing also comes with the deal. “I’m just learning about this publishing stuff as I go,” she said. “The introvert in me wants to be Emily Dickinson and let someone else do this part.”
According to Reed, Finishing Line Press launched in 1998 and specializes in emerging talent. “They produce the marketing materials and send out the first round,” she explained, “but then, it’s up to me to set up the launch and subsequent readings.”
Once there are 50 pre-orders, a distributor will make the book available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers. “Otherwise, a buyer would have to get the book from me or Finishing Line’s website.”