Americana Collection: Poems of War and Peace, John Jiambalvo's second book of poetry, explores topics such as politics, religion, love, and family. Together, these poems create a quilt of everyday American life, stitched together by the poet's often sardonic, always insightful language.
The collection begins with the first of five sections, "In Tempore Belli," which translates to "In Time of War." A weighty beginning, this first assemblage of poems addresses current wars that seem far away and even nonexistent, as well as earlier wars that most people now view abstractly or nostalgically. Jiambalvo's poems will open the eyes of readers who have taken current political realities for granted. He then moves readers through everyday life with middle sections entitled "Americana," "Essential Gaudiness" (a phrase that nods to poet Wallace Stevens), and "You." The book wraps up with the final section, "Toward a More Abundant Life," and offers hope despite all that the book has represented before.
Formal without being ponderous, Jiambalvo's poems are accessible to those who rarely read poetry while remaining interesting to those who are experts in contemporary American poetry.
About the Author: John Jiambalvo, a fiction writer as well as a poet, holds a BA and an MA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He did doctoral work at the University of Chicago, where he received both a Whiting and a Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowship. Jiambalvo has worked throughout the Midwest in several sales and marketing positions and has also taught at a number of universities, served at Cook County Jail as a social welfare worker, and experienced the life of a novice in the Dominican order. Americana Collection: Poems of War and Peace is Jiambalvo's third book. His previous two publications include Shadows Walking Among Questions, also a book of poetry, and Smirk: A Novel, a political satire that Kirkus Reviews called "a triumphant retelling of a troubling time."
