Tuesday, September 16
1:30 pm – 2:15 pm
Ashe County Public Library
This event is free and open to the public, no registration required.
Join us for a reading with Jane Hicks with time for audience Q&A.
A native of Upper East Tennessee, Jane Hicks is an award-winning poet and quilter. Her debut poetry collection, Blood and Bone Remember: Poems from Appalachia, won the Appalachian Writers Association Poetry Book of the Year and was nominated for the Weatherford Award. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Shenandoah, Appalachian Journal, and the Southern Poetry Anthology series. Her literary quilts have illustrated the works of Jo Carson, Sharyn McCrumb, and Silas House, and were featured in Blue Ridge Country Magazine. A retired teacher, Jane’s later poetry books—Driving with the Dead and The Safety of Small Things—also received critical acclaim, with the former winning the AWA Book of the Year (2015) and the latter published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2024.
About Jane’s Latest Book
The Safety of Small Things meditates on mortality from a revealing perspective. Images of stark examination rooms, the ravages of chemotherapy, biopsies, and gel-soaked towels entwine with remembrance to reveal grace and even beauty where they are least expected. Jane Hicks captures contemporary Appalachia in all of its complexities: the world she presents constantly demonstrates how the past and the present (and even the future) mingle unexpectedly. The poems in this powerful collection juxtapose the splendor and revelation of nature and science, the circle of life, how family and memory give honor to those we’ve lost, and how they can all fit together. This lyrical and contemplative yet provocative collection sings a song of lucidity, redemption, and celebration.
