Writing by Diane Jarvenpa

In addition to writing her own song lyrics, Diane has published her poetry in numerous journals and has been a New Rivers Press winner of the Minnesota Voices Project for–Divining The Landscape and the Many Voices Project winner for–The Tender Wild Things. Her poem sequence Ancient Wonders, the Modern World was published by Red Dragonfly Press. She has received a writing fellowship and an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. The Tender Wild Things received first prize in poetry from the Midwest Independent Publishers Assocation Book Awards.

Celebrating Urban Birds

Two Poems by Diane Jarvi, published at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology. For me birds are symbols of how to cheat gravity and ride with angels. They are symbols of our simplest desires to be giddy and find love, to possess power, but also symbols of adaptability, delicacy and rebirth. In life and in death, [...]

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The Tender, Wild Things

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The Tender, Wild Things, winner of The Many Voices Project at New Rivers Press. “This is a wonderful book and a gorgeous journey not to be missed.” -Lee Ann Roripaugh, author of Year of the Snake

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Ancient Wonders: The Modern World

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A sequence of six poems by Diane Jarvenpa that brings us to the crossroads where the mysteries of the past and the simple awe of the day-to-day meet. Sheralyn Barnes provided six images to accompany each section. The images were printed from magnesium engravings made from the scratch-board originals.

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Divining the Landscape

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“Diane Jarvenpa tells us there are things we cannot see: how flowers grow, what the prairie dreams, how summers come, where muskrats go. She honors too the complexities of the people closest to her, like her immigrant grandparents and her parents. She knows there are some things that can only be explained with poetry. That is why these poems begin with words but always end in music.” -Jim Johnson, author of Wolves

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