Jane Zwart (she/her)

Thank you, Roger--both for listening & for this generous note.

So excited to meet you! 🩵

Thank you, Haley. 💚

Bad news finds you where it finds you, Sarah says. She is not wrong. Every day diagnoses steal through routine's transoms. Every day people weep unwillingly in elevated trains, in classrooms, in a surfeit of natural light. My grandma died, and my phone rang in an arcade. I made my mom repeat herself. I made my son loose, on his birthday, my hand. Once, bad news had to strive more. It used a solemn buddy system and landlines; it had to find us home. Not anymore. It finds us wherever it finds us, Sarah says. She is not appalled. She knows: it wouldn't do a lick of good for us, subpoenaed by grief, to juke its messenger. She knows chances are we'll run, unsuspecting, toward the ones who tell us it's now: the end of the world. And how could it be otherwise? Bad news, our dear ones will say, in the same voices that have said See you and Remember. Bad news, giving the words to the only air there is, ambered by kisses and smudged by fire and reserved, in equal measure, for first and last breaths.

"subpoenaed by grief"

@janezwart.bsky.social
from Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Best
Orison Books, 2026

Darby, thank you for this borrowed bit of flight. 🩵

Oh! I will look!
And look forward to saying hello in person!

Events for Jane Zwart and Haley Hodges at AWP. JANE: off-site reading, Friday at 7pm, Max's Taphouse, 737 S. Broadway. "Poet of the Hour," Saturday at 2pm, Only Poems, booth 446 HALEY: signing, Thursday 2 to 4, Whitworth University, booth 515 "One Poet, One Poem" reading and open mic, Vino, 1636 Thames St

Hey writing kin, if you're going to be in Baltimore, I'd love to say hello. I'm also up for signing books if you're into that kind of thing. But mostly I'd love to say hello.

For a more accessible version: The Importance of Being Earnest - Zone 3 https://share.google/pVVedNulgNtXXJFu8

For a more accessible version: The Importance of Being Earnest - Zone 3 https://share.google/pVVedNulgNtXXJFu8

A poem with a repurposed title, with gratitude to Oscar Wilde & to Zone 3.

I'm feeling very lucky about to be part of a triptych like this. Congrats, Matt & Sarah. And thank you to the dear ones at South Carolina Review. 🧡

blogs.clemson.edu/southcarolin...

Lucky book!

I'm finally giving up my (perfect!) NAWP streak this year, but I think this is such a wonderful thing Mitch & Jared do, and if you can, you should join them.

Oh, Eric--what an honor to have my book in your hands & what generosity for you to give it your blessing here.

I’m reading @janezwart.bsky.social’s excellent new book, and finding wisdom and wit and beauty on every page—and I love the Cornell box cover!

Thank you for making time to join! 🩵

THERE IT IS! Sign up and register, and we'll see ya March 5th!

Excerpt from poem Vultures by Jane Zwart, from Variant issue 22: "When my favorite aunt died, her daughter went through her jewelry. It was not precious as rubies are precious. It was precious as strangeness is precious. Or time."

From issue 22, "Vultures," a new poem by @janezwart.bsky.social on grief, precious finds, and what we inherit or borrow

variantlit.com/vultures/

Thank you, dear ones, for making space for this one. 🩵

Going for Broke - A Poetry Class with Jane Zwart | Orison Books In this workshop, we’ll look at poems crammed with comparative language. We’ll talk about metaphor, simile, and associative thinking, as well as considering how we can tell how much comparison a poem ...

www.orisonbooks.com/product-page...

Ad for workshop on metaphor and simile with Jane Zwart--all info available through registration link in first comment.

Hey, poetry kin.
If you want to work on your metaphor & simile game, you're invited to this workshop. Grateful to Orison Books for dreaming it up. Registration link in the first comment.

ODDEST & OLDEST & SADDEST & BEST by Jane Zwart @janezwart.bsky.social
www.orisonbooks.com/product-page...

Thank you, dear ones, for the shout-out. 💚

Such a strange thing. I hope you feel close to her when you wear her jewelry. 💚

Beautifully said. ❤️💔❤️

For a more accessible version: Vultures | Variant Literature https://share.google/7GMg9iQrSkNorWTCy

With gratitude to @variantlit.bsky.social, a poem about one act of my grief for my aunt.
You would have loved her.

xo

Feeling so lucky to get to read with these beauties. 🧡

xo & thank you

Today's poem, by @janezwart.bsky.social from Oddest & Oldest & Saddest & Best, Orison Books.

So honored, Darby, imagining you writing these words down in your personal anthology. 💚
Thank you.

Happy Wednesday! The Dodge's poetry and fiction submissions are open until the end of the month! Check our submittable to submit.