Sander Zulauf, Editor Emeritus, Journal of New Jersey Poets, & Poet Laureate, Diocese of Newark, says, “The poems… display [Karetnick’s] modern mastery of an ancient form, and some of her other experiments will take your breath away.” Guggenheim fellow Cynthia Huntington, author of Heavenly Bodies, writes, “These poems are quick bright things, which do not come to confusion. Karetnick’s rich glossary of symptoms, diagnoses and prescriptions yields an image of spirit at odds with the body on which it must depend. Sometimes angry, sometimes wickedly funny, her poems are unsparing, surprising, and always sharply intelligent.”

Jen Karetnick‘s poetry and prose pieces have recently appeared or are forthcoming in TheAtlantic.com, Guernica, Negative Capability, Prairie Schooner, and Spillway. She won the 2015 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Prize and was runner-up for the 2015 Atlantis Prize for Poetry and 2016 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize. She works as the Creative Writing Director for Miami Arts Charter School and as a freelance dining critic, lifestyle journalist and author. Her cookbooks have won prizes for excellence in culinary writing from Les Dames d’Escoffier and from the World Gourmand Awards.

Rita Maria Martinez’s The Jane and Bertha in Me is a Rubik’s CubeTM of Janes. Each poem is a smartly annotated, hauntingly revisionist homage to Jane Eyre. Martinez’s astounding poems are literary, conversational, personal, fun, as she confidently transports her Janes from the Moors to Macy’s, from Thornfield Hall to the world of tattoos.

—Denise Duhamel, author of Blowout
There is some kind of serious magic at work in this wonderful book. Reading it, I feel as if I am waking up in another world where Gothic sensibility of Jane Eyre joins the surreal of contemporary American culture. The experience is nothing short of intoxicating. I can’t wait to read more of Rita Maria Martinez’s work.
—Nin Andrews, author of Why God is a Woman
Rita Maria Martinez’s The Jane and Bertha in Me gives an unusual twist to the well-known characters from Jane Eyre, envisioning Jane at the guidance counselor, Bertha getting a makeover. These persona poems give us greater insight into the minds of madwoman and governess alike and even minor characters like Blanche and Alice, with beautiful, lush language and empathetic vision. Even casual fans of Brontë’s great book will enjoy this lively re-imagining.
—Jeannine Hall Gailey, author of The Robot Scientist’s Daughter

About the Author:

Rita Maria Martinez is a Cuban-American poet whose writing appears in journals including the Notre DameReview, Ploughshares, and 2River View. Her poetry also appears in the textbook Three Genres: The Writing of Fiction/Literary Nonfiction, Poetry and Drama; and in the anthology Burnt Sugar, Caña Quemada: Contemporary Cuban Poetry inEnglish and Spanish. Martinez has been a featured author at the Miami Book Fair; at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida; and at the Palabra Pura reading series in Chicago. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from FIU. Martinez is a Writing Consultant for NSU where she teaches writing workshops and tutors undergraduate and graduate students. She is also an independent reading and writing tutor. Her poetry collection, The Jane and Berthain Me, is published by Aldrich Press and celebrates Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel Jane Eyre—as well as the bicentenary of Brontë’s birth. Former Poet Laureate of Virginia, Jeannine Hall Gailey, says “The Jane and Bertha in Me gives an unusual twist to the well known characters from Jane Eyre. These persona poems give us greater insight into the minds of madwoman and governess alike, with beautiful, lush language and empathetic vision. Even casual fans of Brontë’s great book will enjoy this lively re-imagining.”