Jane: A Murder by Maggie Nelson

In the spring of 1969, the body of Jane Mixer was found, fully clothed and beside her copy of Catch 22, in Denton Cemetary, Michigan. This was the third of seven brutal rape-murders, known as the Michigan Murders, to plague the area surrounding Michigan University.

This murder, that of her aunt, would haunt Meggie Nelson throughout her life. Her 2005 collection, Jane: A Murder, explores the murder and its implications, attempting to place it in personal, family,  and historical contexts as it does so.

Nelson's collection, called "inventive, delicate, searing" sources material from a wide range of texts-- Jane's own diary entries, Edgar Allen Poe quotes, photos of Jane, family stories, and Michigan news sources. Nelson expertly interweaves and collages these nonfiction sources-- which often appear as their own pieces-- with her own personal experiences, dreams, and imaginings.

The pieces are broken into unnumbered, thematic sections with titles such as "Figment," "How The Journey Was," "Order of Events," and "Some Questions."

Quoted text appears in quotation marks, italics, and header notations. Nelson notes that she has changed Jane's diary entries slightly to correct spelling and grammar, and, "although this is a 'true story,' [Nelson makes] no claim for the factual accuracy of its representation of events or individuals." Sources are also acknowledged in the Acknowledgements at the end of the collection.

Buy the book here:
https://softskull.com/dd-product/jane/
https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Murder-Maggie-Nelson/dp/1593766580

Read more of the poems here:
https://lithub.com/jane-a-murder/

Maggie Nelson's Website:
https://softskull.com/authors/maggie-nelson/

My Tarantella by Jennifer Martelli

Kitty Genovese was stabbed and murdered across the street from her apartment building in 1964. The poems of My Tarantella by Jennifer Martelli center around this event, the reporting surrounding it (there were 38 supposed witnesses, although this was later disputed and no evidence supported this claim), her own relationship to Kitty, and to the space she inhabits, both emotionally and physically. Kitty appears in photographs, stenciled on walls, in the theater.

In one poem, the narrator tells her friends "I've been writing about Kitty Genovese because she looks like everybody I'm related to," (14). In another, the narrator addresses Kitty directly, saying "I am breaking my own rule talking to the dead for the sake of the living. I want to imply a sense of intimacy between us. I want witnesses and eavesdroppers," (35) and a sense of intimacy is exactly what is achieved over the course of the collection.

The author's poem vary in style (letters, free verse, couplets, lists), but are very much rooted in specific locations. The author explores her relationships to those locations, much of them centering around Boston.

She draws from architecture, plays, documentaries, and overheard conversations throughout the collection. Jenn Givhan calls this collection "haunted and haunting," reinforced by gruesome details and startling imagery throughout.

Buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/Tarantella-VIA-Folios-Jennifer-Martelli/dp/1599541300

An interview with the author: https://therumpus.net/2018/12/the-rumpus-interview-with-jennifer-martelli-2/

A review: https://ovunquesiamoweb.wordpress.com/archive/current-issue-vol-2-issue-2/review-of-jennifer-martellis-my-tarantella/