About this item
The Keys to the Jail asks the question of who is to blame for all we’ve lost, calling us to reexamine the harsh words of failed love, the aging of a once-beautiful body, even our own voracious desires. Keetje Kuipers is a poet of daring leaps and unflinching observations, whose richly textured lyrics travel from Montana’s great wildernesses to the ocean-fogged streets of San Francisco as they search out the heart that’s lost its way.Dolores ParkIn the flattening California dusk,women gather under palms with their bagsof bottles and cans. The grass is featheredwith the trash of the day, paper napkinsblowing across the legs of those who stilldrown on a patchwork of blankets. Shirtlessin the phosphorescent gloom of streetlamps,they lie suspended.
About the Author
Keetje Kuipers is a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford as well as a former Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Resident. She is also the author of the book, Beautiful in the Mouth (BOA Editions, A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, 2010) and The Keys to the Jail (BOA Editions, 2014) . Her work has appeared widely, in APR, Jubilat, the Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, West Branch, Willow Springs, AGNI, and elsewhere. She's received grants, awards, and scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and Oregon Literary Arts, among others. Keetje recently served as the Emerging Writer Lecturer at Gettysburg College and is currently an Assistant Professor at Auburn University where she lives with her family and their dog, Bishop (named after Elizabeth, of course) .
