Small Rooms with Gods by Angela Janda

“It’s good to be with Angela Janda in Small Rooms with Gods. ‘There is so much prayer here,’ she says, ‘that a person hardly knows what to do. / But give away parts of themselves, / in pieces, or as a whole thing’— which is exactly what she does in this marvelous collection. She writes from both then and now partly Antigone and always herself. What is especially wonderful is the way Angela lives through Antigone just as she can ‘see through lonely to the wide / open.’ One of the many strengths of this collection is the absolute sparseness and beauty of the language.”

–Joyce Sutphen, Poet Laureate of Minnesota, Author, Naming the Stars

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

“In Small Rooms with Gods, Angela Janda makes us stand on the bloody ground of Thebes, and demonstrates once again that come what may ‘there will always be some who will have to die.’ They are all here, Antigone, Creon, Ismene, Eurydice, Haemon, Teiresias, and even Oedipus, and we see them all from a new perspective and from a new light with profound effect. When reading these poems, there were moments when I too lost my hold on the world and rushed on to assure myself that it wasn’t the last one I had. This is a wonderful collection.”

–Douglas Huff, Playwright, Author of Ophelia and Emil’s Enemies

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

“In poems simultaneously contemporary and timeless, this collection imaginatively probes the existential crises underlying the Antigone story. The poems less directly about Antigone somehow become mythic by association. The analysis is thoughtful; the language is taut, meditative, and resonant; the imagery and music are subtly insistent. These poems grab both mind and heart.”

–Mark Z. Muggli, Luther College Professor Emeritus of English

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

“Angela Janda’s poems are beautifully written and deftly arranged. Any reader familiar with the tales of Antigone and Oedipus will recognize these ancient figures in this collection. Their tragic resoluteness is there and keenly exposed, yet Ms. Janda’s creative use of language and imagery holds the reader in the contemporary world of swimming pools, candy jars, and wedding bells. Her skillful compositions link the present to the past and the reader feels closer than ever to these figures and their poignant stories.”

–Kerri J. Hame, Ph.D., University of Mississippi Instructional Assistant Professor of Classics

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]

“The poems of Angela Janda’s Small Rooms With Gods, provoked by an adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone, take the ancient Greek story into new territory, beyond the direct clash of state authority and social duty, and into the subtler terrain of ambiguous relationships and emotional compromises. Janda escorts us through the various characters’ motives, actions, and reflection—beginning with a spare announcement of the death of Oedipus, through an investigation, to social and familial upheaval. From report to work-in-progress, to scripted drama, to full production, to what an audience takes away, and what an actor re-embodies—it culminates in a retrospective interpolation of Antigone’s growth—as character, as archetype, as focus of a society’s moral understanding. These poems powerfully synthesize tense drama and deep examination of the struggle for ethical maturity, in a brilliant range of voices.”

–John C. Rezmerski, Poet, Gustavus Adolphus College Professor Emeritus of English

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]