Coördinates of Yes by Janée Baugher

Written during a six-week trip through Europe, Coördinates of Yes marries nuances of travel (loneliness, restlessness, adventure, reverie, risk, discovery) with ekphrasis (poems influenced by the visual arts). This collection of poems addresses different ways of seeing: The experience of travel and art-viewing can enlighten as well as confuse, while the literal eye that travels is undifferentiated from the eye of the imagination. At the core of Coördinates of Yes lies dualism: "Coördinates" refers to place and transience of travel, and "Yes" suggests the mind-set required of both traveler and viewer of art.

Praise

"Janée knows how to snap a moment into focus ... I was enchanted reading Coördinates of Yes. It's honest and intimate ... There's an unusual, and refreshing, sincerity in these poems, from a poet who has stripped herself of cynicism." — David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars

"Though they traverse European landscape, these dense, rich poems are voyages as Baudelaire inscribed the term: journeys to the interior. Baugher conducts us through a paradis artificiel where art is the window to journeys within. A stunning début collection." — Peter Cooley, author of The Van Gogh Notebook and Divine Margins

"If, as Wallace Stevens said, 'the greatest poverty is not to live in the physical world,' Janée Baugher is, indeed, a rich woman... Baugher is keenly observant, almost 'walking on eyes,' while simultaneously aware that 'It is only with one's heart that one can see.'" — Grace Bauer, author of Beholding Eye and Retreats & Recognitions

"May you have the great fortune to read Coördinates of Yes ... an exquisite poetic guide through cemeteries and village spires, 2 a.m. city streets, sunflower fields, derelict hotels, young loves, sea cliffs, and work after work of articulate art, an old world made new by Baugher's insightful gaze, deftness of phrasing, and companionable spirit." — Jonathan Johnson, author of In the Land We Imagined Ourselves

"The Swiss painter Paul Klee famously said in his notebooks, 'One eye sees, the other feels.' These lapidary ekphrastic renderings by Janée Baugher take Klee to heart. Braiding sensory pleasures with meticulous observation, she fully succeeds in transporting us to places previously un-sensed and unseen. Here is a garden of depths and delights." — Jeffrey Levine, Publisher, Tupelo Press, and author of Rumor of Cortez and Mortal, Everlasting

About the Author

Originally from Renton, Washington, Janée J. Baugher studied physiology at Boston University and received her MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a Bread Loaf Conference participant, Janée J. Baugher has collaborated with numerous visual artists and had her poetry both adapted for the stage and set to music. She has received grants from Richard Hugo House, Jack Straw Foundation, and The Lerman Trust. Baugher, former poetry editor of Willow Springs and Switched-on Gutenberg, has taught poetry at Highline Community College, UW-Experimental College, Richard Hugo House, The Bush School, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and elsewhere.

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