Bitterroot - (New Women's Voices) by Jessica Jones (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Traversing the sparse and sometimes rugged territory from Stevensville, Montana to the Flathead Indian Reservation, Bitterroot poignantly witnesses the complex intersections of Native and non-Native culture in Montana. A testament to the spirit of the land and those shaped by it, this collection reveals the ways in which the West remains both fraught with tension and modeled by beauty. Narrated by a young teacher with unexpected ties to the children in her classroom, each poem unfolds another layer of mountain life-- from hauling wood and making fire to navigating a blizzard and grieving the loss of a student. Page by page, life presses closely against that which is raw and wild, lending individual moments a sense of urgency: "What I remember/ from Ovando, though, is stars. Stars and ice/ and the shock of our short inward breath."

Attentive to a long tradition of tough Montana poets, Jessica Jones pays homage to giants such as Richard Hugo and James Welch while befriending contemporary writers like Jennifer Finley Greene and Robert Lee. A runner-up with Open Country Press and honorable mention with Cutbank at University of Montana, Bitterroot is essential for any avid reader of Western literature.

Review Quotes

Bitterroot is a collection of poems written by a young teacher who is herself still learning. The best teachers are the ones who don't offer easy answers for hard questions, and Jessica Jones' poems raise a galaxy of hard questions. Bitterroot asks the reader to consider the complexities of Native and non-Native co-inhabitation in northwest Montana, valleys and vistas of triumph and hardship. In "Hauling Wood," a neighbor loans the teacher his ex-wife's snow pants and boots, which causes the teacher to feel "small and important at the same time." In reading these verses, I feel small and important, and you will too. The spirit of Bitterroot is this: Let's learn together and never stop. And let's be grateful to those who teach us, everyone, everywhere.

Lowell Jaeger, Poet Laureate of Montana, Founder, Many Voices Press

Drawing from years of teaching on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Jessica Jones offers us powerful poems of witness and advocacy informed by her loving participation in the lives of her students. She weaves her present-day teaching with historical records of government policies and mistreatment of Native peoples, making her homeroom a site of truth and reconciliation, a place where she is alternately teacher, ally, or "once again the student." "Ask--We urge from the chalkboard--keep asking--Whose voice is missing? Who flutters on the margin of the page, the schoolyard, the city limits waiting--to interject?" Bitterroot is a stunning collection of essential poems, each one "a small act, this affirmation of life."

David Hassler, Director, Wick Poetry Center, 2006 Ohio Poet of the Year

Bitterroot captures the enchanting intricacies of loving a particular place. Jones speaks to tender moments of living and life with rare wisdom and insight. I felt secreted away, young again, in a classroom with a passionate teacher who sees all the world has to offer.

Debra Magpie Earling, Professor of Fiction & Native Studies, University of Montana, 2007 Guggenheim Fellow