Jane-in-the-box

We present today a poetry chapbook by Rita María Martínez quite inspired by Jane Eyre: Jane-in-the-box:

March Street Press is proud to announce
the publication of Rita María Martínez’s
First Chapbook Of Poetry, Jane-in-the-box

Rita Maria Martinez’s first poetry chapbook, Jane-in-the-Box, has just been released by March Street Press. In Jane-in-Box, the literary Jane Eyre is updated and unleashed into the twenty-first century. Lured by designer clothing and cosmetics, Jane’s consumerism is driven by the need to heal emotional wounds in poems like “Fashion Remedy” and “Jane Eyre: Heiress, Avon Lady, Plastic Surgery Junkie.” “Each poem is a smartly annotated, hauntingly revisionist homage to Jane Eyre. Martinez’s astounding poems are literary, conversational, personal, fun, as she confidently transports her Janes from the Moors to Macy’s, from Thornfield Manor to the world of tattoos,” says Florida International University Creative Writing Professor Denise Duhamel.

A fan of high- and lowbrow art, Martinez molds a series of sexually charged images from the vast storehouse of popular culture. Poems such as “Cross-Dressing” and “At the British Museum” attempt to reconcile conflicting depictions of female sexuality. Smitten with Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic tour de force, Jane Eyre, since she was a teenager, Martinez resurrects familiar characters in “Mortification Tryptich,” “Rochester Triptych,” and “Vintage Bertha,” while brewing her own blend of Gothic romance.

Rita Maria Martinez’s poetry has appeared in MiPOesias, Diagram, Mangrove, Gulf Stream Magazine, Ploughshares, Gargoyle, and Tigertail: A South Florida Poetry Anthology, among many others. Her poetry is also featured in the eighth edition of Stephen Minot’s Three Genres: The Writing of Fiction/Literary Nonfiction, Poetry, and Drama (published by Prentice Hall) and in the anthology Burnt Sugar, Caña Quemada: Contemporary Cuban Poetry in English and Spanish (published by Simon and Schuster). Martinez lives in Fort Lauderdale with her husband and is an Academic Services Writing Consultant at Nova Southeastern University’s Kendall Campus. Martinez double-majored in English and Women’s Studies and earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Florida International University.

March Street Press can be reached by email at rbixby@earthlink.net (for orders, review copies, or background).

Read some samples here.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Poetry