Unlikely Stories Presents

JANE BUTKIN ROTH is a living palindrome

To the Unlikely Stories home page"We write to taste life twice."
--Anais Nin

With poetry that seems to snort with derision, Jane Butkin Roth explores society, men, and relationships in a unique, intellectual manner. Her symbolism is satirical and accessible, and her work, while serious, is filled with natural humor. We are pleased to present three of her pieces here.

Jane Butkin Roth's works of fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in over sixty journals in the U.S., Australia, England, Finland and Canada. These include The Houston Chronicle Newspaper, Pearl, Rattle, Jewish Women's Literary Annual, Poets Market 1999, Lilliput Review, Maelstrom, Suddenly, Pleiades, The Old Red Kimono, Spillway, ArtWord Quarterly, Redoubt (Australia), Psychopoetica (England), Sivullinen (Finland),Writing For Our Lives, Earth's Daughters, Journal of Poetry Therapy, Owen Wister Review, Cold Mountain Review, Cotyledon, and Illya's Honey. Publication is forthcoming in Windsor Review (Canada), Bottomfish Literary Journal, Limestone Circle, A Writer's Choice Literary Journal, The Horsethief's Journal, Apples and Oranges, Zuzu's Petals, Essential Love (an anthology on the parent/child bond) and an anthology of photography and poetry entitled Childhood.

She had a first place winning poem in the Blue Mountain Arts Poetry Card contest 1999. She was a finalist for a poem in the Masters Poetry Series 1998 Contest (judged by Lynn Emanuel) and she won an honorable mention from ARTWORD QUARTERLY for a poetry chapbook. She won an honorable mention in the Poetic Voices Poetry and Art Contest 1999 and won third place in the Great Blue Beacon Poetry Contest 1999. She won an honorable mention for her chapbook, Turn and Breakpoints, from the Sarasota Theater Festival Poetry Chapbook Contest 1999.

She has recently completed an anthology of poetry and prose (entitled WE USED TO BE WIVES) on the divorce experience. She is currently seeking a publisher through her agent.

A native of Oklahoma City, Jane Butkin Roth writes from her Houston home which she shares with her three children. You can reach her at IMJane@aol.com. Check out her book at the Unlikely Stories bookstore.

Jane says, "The process of writing poetry often feels like a current which I ride just beneath the surface of my consciousness and imagination. Sometimes I have something to do with where it takes me and I may agonize for days until the poem feels right; at other times, I feel pulled by something quite outside me, which guides my hands and pen until the poem appears like a gift, almost instantly, effortlessly, and in more or less its final form. No matter the journey the poem takes, the art of poetry and the obligation of poetry is one and the same, one which can't help itself. Poets have a peculiar nature. They can't stop observing, listening and telling. When the interplay of words, rhythm, meaning and sound strikes a chord within the reader, riches unexpectedly spill from the telling, and...aahhh...the wonder of poetry."

Jane's works here at Unlikely Stories are:

July 1999 - July 2000:
Honk If You're My Daddy
Bull
Fine Lines

"Honk If You're My Daddy" was first published in Buffalo Bones and "Bull" was first published in Illya's Honey.