A Writer's Life

When I was in New Zealand, caught up in some of the numerous quakes on South Island, I wrote a poem called Earthquake Weather, exploring whether it was true that there was such a thing and whether animals could sense the imminent earthquake.  More recently, putting some poems together for a pamphlet submission, I thought it would make a good title with its hint of the rocky and uncertain times we find ourselves in.  But, when I googled it - as I always do - up jumped a collection of poetry by an American poet called Janice Gould. I was thoroughly intrigued by what I read about her and sent off for the collection straight away.


Janice was brought up in San Diego and Berkeley, California, and is of indigenous Koyangk'auwi Maidu heritage. Her grandfather had a homestead on Little Indian Creek and her mother was the youngest of fourteen children, orphaned at the age of five and brought up by three honorary 'aunts' in Berkeley.  Earthquake Weather  is a gripping exploration of…