"Reading Janice Fitzpatrick-Simmons' Settler I am reminded in more than one way of Paul Valery's remark that "It is my life that is surprised." For in these poems which chart the course of a tireless inward journey, we are made to feel how the fates still blow their inexorable winds, and our lives are driven toward terrors and joys, losses and restorations, that are beyond our powers to forestall or foretell..."
...
"Reading Janice Fitzpatrick-Simmons' Settler I am reminded in more than one way of Paul Valery's remark that "It is my life that is surprised." For in these poems which chart the course of a tireless inward journey, we are made to feel how the fates still blow their inexorable winds, and our lives are driven toward terrors and joys, losses and restorations, that are beyond our powers to forestall or foretell..."
Sherod Santos
'Joyous celebration is the keynote in this triumphal homage to nature, fertility, love, human tolerance, and Ireland. Without rejecting New England values this warm, wide-ranging journey back to origins enriches our sense of home, our appreciation of the Ulster land and sea-scape and our understanding of women. One cannot imagine, now, the barren poetic life of this island if the Settler had not chosen to stay.'
Medbh McGuckian
Janice Fitzpatrick Simmons took
an MA from the University of New Hampshire. Her four collections of
poetry have been reviewed in the USA, Ireland and Great Britain. Widely
published in literary journals in Ireland, England and America,
Janice's work has appeared in major anthologies such as A Rage for
Order, The Backyards of Heaven, The Blackbird's Nest, Salmon: A Journey
in Poetry 1981-2007 and Irish American Poets since 1800. After a period
as assistant director of the Frost Place in New Hampshire, Janice
founded the Poets' House in Portmuck in 1990, moved it to Falcarragh in
1996 and relocated its teaching function to Waterford in September
2005. The Poets' House was the first cultural and educational
institution in Ireland to offer an MA in creative writing.
