Revenant

Literature & Fiction

Bedell, Jack B.

Poetry

Blue Horse Press

Over the past few decades, the gulf coast of Louisiana has suffered its share of natural disasters. From hurricanes, to floods, to the gradual destruction caused by coastal erosion, the poems in NO BROTHER, THIS STORM serve as archives of the hope and resilience found throughout the region.
For much of his career, Jack Bedell has paid tribute to the people, landscapes, and traditions of his native South Louisiana. His poems give voice to personal and cultural histories that make up the fabric of life in his home state. NO BROTHER, THIS STORM continues this tradition, containing lyrics and narratives of hope and beauty in the face of storms, floods, and personal loss.
Poem by poem, NO BROTHER, THIS STORM explores loss, reinvention, and rebirth on personal, natural, and regional levels. More than simple inventory, though, these poems try to recognize strength and hope with every line.
Bedell's work honors South Louisiana as it gives voice to its people, places, and ways of life. His poems do their best to find the good in the day, even in the aftermaths of storm and loss.

No Brother This Storm

Mercer University Press

In his thirteenth collection of poetry, Jack B. Bedell examines moments of reparation and continuance in the face of loss. A grandmother's beignet recipe passed on to her granddaughter, a lost lake restored by heavy rain, a dead father's wisdom returned in dreams--over and again, the poems in Color All Maps New offer revision and restoration, light and hope. By turns personal, ecological, cultural, and fantastic, these poems promise new maps to navigate damaged territories. The rituals of family and South Louisiana culture share space with folklore and history here. From his home state's wetlands to its prairies and into the recesses of his own dreamscapes, Bedell draws maps toward recovery and reinvention in these poems, filling all space left empty by death, or storm, or slow erosion with colors of possibility and the hope of new growth.

Color All Maps New

Mercer Univ Pr

The poems in Against the Woods' Dark Trunks stare deep into the shadows of Jack Bedell's native South Louisiana swamp to find ghosts, monsters, death, and flood waters. These poems also look hard enough to find cypress trees reaching up for whatever sunlight is left in the sky, and they see the promise of new growth along the water's edge. Every folktale and campfire fright here has a family story, the sparkling magic of a daughter's dreams, open fields, and jazz melodies to tilt these poems' scales toward hope. Even in the darkest of memories, the most broken of hearts, and the longest of long days, there is grace to be found. Line by line, these poems dig for it.

Against the Woods Dark Trunks

Ghost Forest: Poems

Storytelling is integral to the culture of south Louisiana, particularly the Atchafalaya Basin, where Jack Bedell grew up. Raised, however, with a generation of south Louisianans taught to act Middle American rather than Acadian, Bedell attempts in his poetry to recapture a culture. The poems in At the Bonehouse record the successes and failures of his search to discover what shaped him.Through his narrative poetry, Bedell provides an accurate representation of the landscape of the region and makes sense of its culture and people. His poems reflect the images and experiences common to Acadiana-saltwater marshes and cypress swamps; cleaning redfish, hunting teal, listening to the broken tones in an old oil-field worker's voice-making the region and its inhabitants accessible to a wider audience and at the same time bringing him closer to understanding himself and his heritage.

At the Bonehouse: Poems (Volume 2) (The TRP Chapbook Series)

Trp: The University Press Of Shsu

Few things will bring people together in south Louisiana quicker than stories, food, and festivals that have both. The poems in Jack Bedell's What Passes for Love show all that and a little lagniappe. From a midnight chari vari, to the Fete de la Roulaison (the Grinding Festival), to newlyweds making love in the cane field and fishing tales galore, Bedell writes about the many sides of Louisiana's Acadian culture and its people. Poem by poem, this collection builds an honest, evocative, and sensitive world of stories told by a writer with an obvious love of place.

What Passes For Love: Poems (Volume 1) (The TRP Chapbook Series)

"High-spirited and unafraid, full of Louisiana Cajun zest, quick to anger and quick to forgive, and quick to offer unabashed praise for this world, Jack Bedell’s new poems take us through lived experiences, come rain or come shine. He tells his story and fixes his place in these remarkably examining lyrics that grab hold and won’t let go."—Heather Ross Miller "These poems are infused with a deep understanding of what it is to be human because Bedell has cored them from the heart. In Come Rain, Come Shine, Jack Bedell has the vision to realize where a significant story is, and in telling it, he leads his reader to such wisdom."—Vivian Shipley "Here is a mature voice, graceful and eloquent, that brings to life more than the memory of the place and its people. . . . it is amongst some of the best poetry I’ve read in a while."—Virgil Suarez "Come Rain, Come Shine dazzles with a quiet brilliance all its own, a luster born of simple things, with stirring poems of desire, familial love and fatherhood, and with real-life places and encounters, at once exotic and familiar."—Diane Thiel

Come Rain, Come Shine: Poems

History & Criticism

High-spirited and unafraid, full of Louisiana Cajun zest, quick to anger and quick to forgive, and quick to offer unabashed praise for this world, Jack Bedell's new poems take us through lived experiences, come rain or come shine. He tells his story and fixes his place in these remarkably examining lyrics that grab hold and won't let go.-Heather Ross MillerThese poems are infused with a deep understanding of what it is to be human because Bedell has cored them from the heart. In Come Rain, Come Shine, Jack Bedell has the vision to realize where a significant story is, and in telling it, he leads his reader to such wisdom.-Vivian Shipley

The poems in Call and Response are the record of a friendship, conversations in verse with topics as varied and diverse as fine art and the traditions of southern Louisiana. The poems created here are a drawing out of the love and respect they have for each other and for the things they share with the world. It is an exchange in the tradition of artists like Homer and Lady Murasaki, as well as in the common traditions of work songs sung by field workers throughout "This exquisite collaboration by two of our state’s finest poets is a gift of extraordinary spiritual dimension."--The Times-Picayune"Few collaborative books work as well as this one. Call and Response represents two poets at the height of their abilities. It also captures the contrast, harmony, and ultimate synthesis between two poetic voices, resulting in a book that succeeds as a strong collection of individual poems but also as a conversation in verse. The two poets, with their divergent sensibilities, have created a book in which the poems subtly and beautifully communicate with one another."--Kevin Meaux, author of Myths of Electricity

Call and Response: Conversations in Verse

Bourque, Darrell

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bedell, Jack B.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bedell, Jack B.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bedell, Jack B.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Revenant

No Brother This Storm

Color All Maps New

Against the Woods Dark Trunks

Ghost Forest: Poems

At the Bonehouse: Poems (Volume 2) (The TRP Chapbook Series)

What Passes For Love: Poems (Volume 1) (The TRP Chapbook Series)

Come Rain, Come Shine: Poems

Come Rain, Come Shine: Poems

Call and Response: Conversations in Verse