OEUVRE

Click on any of the writings and the writing will appear in a new window.
The links to the translations choices at the bottom of this listing appear at the bottom of this web page.

They Won’t Stay Dead, Book Reviews
(on “Hope Chest in the Attic”)
    Janet rules. Period. Generally, “Poetry” bores me, but more often than not, “ignores” me, but not Janet’s. There’s so many feelings and emotional heartache in her works, that many of her pieces can still moisten my eyes and heave my chest even after umpteenth readings. Sometimes raw, sometimes polished, sometimes shocking in its honesty, and always moving, Janet’s writing continually manages to wring some sort of reaction from the reader. One can almost see the tears dripped on the manuscripts, nakedly displayed for all who care to see, be it her tears, or yours. It’s packed with human feelings, much of which concerns feminist issues, but don’t let that put you off. This is not Riot Girl ranting, but rather the fears and feelings of a highly intelligent, articulate and talented modern woman. Very emotional, very readable and very recommended. An absolute must for poetry/prose enthusiasts.

Dorrance Publishing Co., Pittsburgh, PA
(on “Hope Chest in the Attic”)
    “Hope Chest in the Attic” captures the complexity of human nature and reveals startling yet profound discernments about the travesties that surge through the course of life. This collection of poetry, prose and artwork reflects sensitivity toward feminist issues concerning abuse, sexism and equality. It also probes the emotional torrent that people may experience as a reaction to the delicate topics of death, love and family.
    “Chain Smoking” depicts the emotional distress that afflicted a friend while he struggled to clarify his sexual ambiguity. Not only does this thought-provoking profile address the plight that homosexuals face in a homophobic society, it also characterizes the essence of friendship.
    “The room of the rape” is a passionate representation of the suffering rape victims experience. Vivid descriptions, rich symbolism, and candid expressions paint a shocking portrait of victory over the gripping fear that consumes the soul after a painful exploitation.

BAST Media (on “Hope Chest in the Attic”)
    Cool look... in an alternative style and voice. Reads like a labor of love, most meaningful to those close to the author yet reaches any reader with observations and comments on various situations. Definitely worth reading.

Bob Z, Panic Button Press, Sacramento CA
    I don’t usually like poetry. But I found (Ms. Kuypers’) style interesting, liked the images in “wedding lost” and the believability of “farmer” - I get the feeling she knows her subjects well, and has a lot to say. I don’t mind use of words like “and” and “the” because they seem to be important anyway. She writes with strong feeling and passion, inspired dropper of verbal bombs.

C Ra McGuirt, Editor, Penny Dreadful Press
    I really like (“Writing Your Name”). It’s one of those kind of things where your eye isn’t exactly pulled along, but falls effortlessly down the poem.
    I liked “knowledge” for its mix of disgust and acceptance. Janet Kuypers does good little movies, by which I mean her stuff provokes moving imagery for me. Color, no dialogue; the voice of the poem is the narrator over the film.

Carlton Press, New York, NY
    HOPE CHEST IN THE ATTIC is a collection of well-fashioned, often elegant poems and short prose that deals in many instances, with the most mysterious and awesome of human experiences: love... Janet Kuypers draws from a vast range of experiences and transforms thoughts into lyrical and succinct verse... Recommended as poetic fare that will titillate the palate in its imagery and imaginative creations.

Donnie R. Strickland
    I took a little time and visited some of the writing. I like “the burning” very much. I like the narrative feel of the piece. I like one-sided conversational pieces in poetry ... like you don’t care what the reader thinks; you’re just reporting your rhetorical thoughts and observations.

Ernest Slyman, editor, Reverie
    I write to say I enjoyed (Kuypers’) poem Father’s Tears. Very nice. And thanks for writing the poem. It shines bright, lovely. You write sentences that mean business. You write what you understand. I admire your work. I commend you. No extrovert are you. Rather you go about tidying up the world. This and that applied with much charm grace.

Fithian Press, Santa Barbara, CA
(on “Hope Chest in the Attic”)
    Indeed, there’s a healthy balance here between wit and dark vision, romance and reality, just as there’s a good balance between words and graphics. The work shows brave self-exploration, and serves as a reminder of mortality and the fragile beauty of friendship.

Gerard Kusiolek
(on “Right There By Your Heart”)
    Just read “right there by your heart”. Real power there. Don’t know what she was feeling when she wrote it, but by the time I was done I was twisted in a knot.

John Sweet, writer
    Some excellent writing in “Hope Chest in the Attic.” I thought “Children, Churches and Daddies” and “The Room of the Rape” were particularly powerful pieces.

Stefani P., Head Editor , Dark Rooms
(on “Motorcycle”,”They called it Trust” and “A Life Goes By”)
    Another wonderful batch of work!! I truly do think (Kuypers has) talent. This was an excellent assortment.

Tony Saunders
    I like the poem entitled “The Room of the Rape”. She has a lot of poems and I hope I can find time to read the rest of them. Good job and keep up the good work.

Chuck Taylor, Writer
    I liked the one about the broken shouldered dad shoot the squirrel (“My Father, Shooting an Animal”). She did it right, and avoided too much politically correct moralizing.

Elwargo
    I read your poem regarding your first brush with death, and it happened to be Lennon’s, one which, no matter how many times we have faced it, was horrible. I like the way you wrote about it. The way it effected you. Your ending was on the whole superb...it put it all together...wonderful job !!
    I thought Lennon’s was your first until I read the next poem, how intense, how masked the death of that woman was, no one spoke of it! As if it was unspeakable, so sad is the way of the world in respect to what we feel and what we say we feel, or don’t say....

Dan Landrum, Editor, Taggerzine
(on “Rape Education” poems)
    Those pieces for me have a personal-social realism that is very poignant, very powerful (and unfortunately, seemingly timeless).

John Freudeman, editor, Georgian Blue Poetry Society
    Just read “Childhood Memories six” on the Poetry Exchange. It struck a very responsive chord. Well put together - congratulations!

Dan Landrum, Editor, Taggerzine
    I feel I’m going to be swallowed up in (her) openness... Her honesty wakes me. I’ll stop claiming, stop possessing my pain as real - I’ll share it with her. (She makes) me examine my humility, the humiliation of being raped and I will no longer feel alone.
I will thank her for rekindling the reminders of the mysteries of this paradoxical adventure we call day-to-day living. I will thank her for sharing her hopes, dreams, and joys along with the pain and confusion. I admire her courage, her self-honesty, her integrity in putting so much of herself into her work, into her art.
    My sense is that Kuypers has a strong, articulate voice and makes insightful observations into the human/huwoman conditions.

David Gold, editor, Probable Cause
    I really like (Kuypers’ work). Usually, poetry depresses me so much my other editors grab them from me before I can read them or I will be miserable the rest of the day. But... I enjoyed her work.

Deckard Kinder, writer
    read (Kuypers’) stuff in the Poetry Exchange... nice... Best i’ve seen on the Poetry Exchange ... Some of it reminded me of how I felt/what I wrote when my 2nd ex split... Congrats, anyone who can elicit feelings thru writing is doing the job...

Open Mic Showcase: Janet Kuypers
& Jason Pettus, by Michael G. Spitz
    An outstanding example of open mic mastery was Janet Kuypers and Jason Pettus’ series of alternating readings at the Aloha Cafe, right off Lincoln near Montrose. Covering all the bases from Janet intercepting a call from the Founding Fathers to a lavish tale of beads and striptease in New Orleans. Sure, Janet’s got four books published and a literary magazine up and running, but the whole point is that such evenings create an opportunity for anyone to go up there and strut their stuff.

Ellen Shull, Editor, Palo Alto Review
    I forwarded (poem “everything was alive and dying”) to all of the readers. They all say it has power and persuasion.

Ryan Malone, Writer
(on “Sulphur and Sawdust”)
    I’m enjoying the copy of Suphur and Sawdust, which came in the mail yesterday. The design is phenomenal. Stark, sleek, brilliant, impressive. Very refreshing. The small lines of text running sideways down the pages? Very cool. This is really, well-done, classy looking anthology.

Nick DiSpoldo, Small Press Review
(on “Close Cover Before Striking”)
    Sinclair Lewis was fond of saying that college professors liked their literature “cold and dead.” That seems like a safe generalization when i consider the cargoloads of vacuous vomit that spews from most university presses.
    Sinclair Lewis would read Janet Kuypers. “Striking” is a collection of poetry, essays, letters and diary entries. Like Sylvia Plath, Kuypers has a sense of existential rage but, unlike Plath, her rage is more incisive and focused. She is concerned with problems, whether societal or internal, and “...the violence that often stems from them.” Pablo Neruda claims “literature must have a duty toward life” and Kuypers undoubtedly believes this. “Violence” - aside from the obvious forms that fill our streets, homes, movies and television - may even be subtle.
    Isolation and loneliness are recurrent Kuypers themes and, again like Plath, she is both appalled and preoccupied with suicide: suicide as the ultimate antidote for the diseases of modern society. She creates marvelous if gruesome imagery in her “Hancock Suicide, Chicago, 1994.” A handicapped woman throws herself out of a fiftieth floor window of the Hancock building in Chicago and lands near a construction worker who is on a break.
    Kuypers is clever and clear and her book is indeed a bargain.

Jason Pettus, freelance writer
(on “Close Cover Before Striking”)
    I am 64 pages into “Close Cover...” right now (just finished the “Knowing Your Neighbors” essay). The things I like the best so far in the book are the little stories, the things about day-to-day life that don’t seem to have any neat wrap-up at the end. My two favorite pieces so far are pieces like these -- “Phone Calls from Brian Tolle” and “Seeing Things Differently.”
    I can’t tell which pieces (Kuypers is) writing in her own voice from her own experiences, and which ones are fictional accounts but written in first-person. I usually am a big fan of this (I write a lot of stuff that way, too); for some reason her stuff makes me feel really uncomfortable (I mean, in a good way). I think it’s that she writes a lot about these loose edges in behavior, these weird shades of grey that otherwise upstanding, decent, try-to-do-the-right-thing people have.
    It’s the strange result of reading confessional work of someone you don’t know and who isn’t famous enough to have all their skeletons hanging in full public view (i.e. Anne Sexton). I should reiterate, I LIKE that. The effect is a very engaging one.

Ben Ohmart, writer
    I’m currently reading the great book (“Close Cover Before Striking”). It’s fantastic. Best $10 I’ve ever spent.

Brian Selerski (on the poem “I Want Love”)
    I read (Kuypers’) poem “i want love” and found that I could relate to the feelings that she expressed. She made the poem so simple, but complex in text meaning that it is simply worded but it has a lot of meaning and feeling behind it.

Jim Maddocks, GLASGOW
(on the poem “Chicago, West Side”)
    When I first read CHICAGO, WEST SIDE I wasn’t that crazy about it. It was only on closer investigation that it began to grow on me. It is evocative. Actually it was one word that changed my mind about the whole piece: this! as in “this time, when she heard the sirens...” So, did she kill her abusive husband? Whatever she did, it seems she was still able to make a cup of coffee after, such a domesticated thing to do. In fact, the whole opening image is quite excellent, very well constructed. So how many times have the neighbours called the cops?

Evan Adams
(on “Hancock Suicide, Chicago, December 1994”)
    Wow, this poem is very good. I like how vivid you made the scene and graphic too.

Guy, Editor, Hipnosis Magazine
    I loved (Kuypers’) work.....Its so refreshing....so many pieces I receive to look at are so formatted and such, and hers is so rich and from the soul.... I especially loved the one (some people want to believe) about being vegetarian (I’m an ovo-lacto also) - this is a conversation I had with someone as well.....very enlightening to know that others suffer my fate.... I really loved them all....

Richard David Houff, Editor,
Pariah Press/Heeltap Review
    (Kuypers’) poem “taking out the brain” rings true... The homeless are often viewed as mentally ill, lazy, etc. The government hype and media have done a good job impregnating the collective mindset of amerika. At any rate, that’s one fine poem - send it and others of a similar nature across the planet.

Aron Trauring
    (Kuypers’ work is) very nice. Being a frequent flyer, I especially appreciated the toilet on airplane story (on an airplane with a frequent flyer). And I liked her veggie story (some people want to believe) too (being a veggie, and hating people who can’t face the truth).

“raf” (on the poem “On An Airplane With A Frequent Flyer”)
    i found (Kuypers’) poem hilarious...... in a good way. very observant of her.

Nick DiSpoldo, Small Press Review
    Kuypers is a true feminist in that she demands political, economic and social equality with men. She wishes dignity, not a pedestal, and she is not one of Margaret Mitchell’s blushing belles who is vulnerable to the romance of roses and rainbows.
    Furthermore, she is that rare female poet who doesn’t believe that poetry initially came from Hallmark cards.
    I like Kuypers because she is clear, unequivocal and cleverly calculating.

Cheryl A. Townsend, editor, Impetus
    Janet takes hold of everyday stereotypes, shakes them up, and throws them at your feet. She makes you look at the vile mess we have all helped to create and exist. “This is not a pretty picture” is quite intent in describing (woman.). Broken into appropriate chapters...for men & for women, Janet pokes your own pointing finger in your own eye. Blink again and look at the absurd labeling and phrases taken to task. She gives voice to a woman convicted of killing her boyfriend during a rape, chopping his body up and then being sentenced to an asylum. This story belongs in “WOMEN OF THE ASYLUM” as it is every bit as intensifying as those within that book’s pages. (woman.) is poetry relating to date rape, domestic violence, emotional abuse and recovery. I applaud Janet her stand and I will gladly stand beside her.