Foraging for Light by Jan Zlotnik Schmidt

In FORAGING FOR LIGHT, Jan Zlotnik Schmidt traces, with a precise yet tender lyricism, the complex arc of a woman’s perceptions, losses, new and enduring attachments.

–Mary Gordon, Author of There Your Heart Lies

“In this powerful collection, Jan Schmidt ‘treks through paths of memory’ to imagine the ‘words and worlds’ of the witness. Whether a daughter caring for an aging parent, a mother yearning for her son, or a woman foraging for relief, these poems transport us into the quiet rooms of longing. ‘Do you hear my words as a whisper?’ Indeed we hear the stillness of the fierce whisper and the sudden tremble of a life opening into song.”

–Thomas Dooley, Author of Trespass

“This collection draws us into a maelstrom of memory (the poet’s, our own, the world’s) within the seas of our souls. In “this place where treasures were lost / where treasures were found” we evaluate all that’s transpired over time as fragments of the forsaken swirl past, and we discover something of beauty even amidst the losses and challenges of life. Generations of women connect through blood, art, place, history, and nature. Jan Zlotnik Schmidt is a true artist of the blue depths capable of stirring innermost emotions and yet, though we are moved by the weight of the waves, we readers are reminded to look up to the surface to find the sun. In the end, with all our dreams and sorrows, regardless of age, gender, or time period, we are still simply “children foraging for light.”

–Nicole M. Bouchard, Editor and founder of The Write Place at the Write Time literary journal