Hamilton Stone Editions announces the publication in January 2009 of Some Place Quite Unknown. In her latest novel, Jane Lazarre explores memory and imagination-the intersection between what we have experienced and what we envisage- through a multi-layered telling of the main character’s lived, interior and literary story. The writer Jaime Manrique (Our Lives Are the Rivers, Twilight at the Equator) describes Some Place Quite Unknown as “intimate and as urgent as a poem” and says Lazarre’s “enraptured and lyrical prose probes, with vigor and startling artistry, the deepest places of a women’s heart.”
Jane Lazarre is the author of many works. American Book Review describes her novel, The Powers of Charlotte, as “a beautifully written tour de force of a novel.” Sara Ruddick writes that Worlds Beyond My Control is…a wonderful novel – generous, wise, brave and enthralling.” Lazarre’s memoirs (The Mother Knot, Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness: Memoir of a White Mother of Black Sons, and Wet Earth and Dreams, A Narrative of Grief and Recovery) have been praised for their honest, clear and resonant writing:
For Wet Earth and Dreams
“Lazarre’s severe honesty is served by a perfected literary style of classical clarity and restraint.” – Phillip Lopate
For Beyond the Whiteness of Whiteness
“An important affirmation of a white woman’s love of her black sons. Jane Lazarre, warrior mom, has crossed over.” – Alice Walker
“Lazarre’s voice is artful and measured … substantial food for thought on the murky issue of race in America.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“A beautifully written, deeply thoughtful journey….” – Kirkus Reviews
“Through its luminous beauty, passionate authority, truth and power – we see, feel, understand what we never have before, the ways of the Whiteness of Whiteness.” – Tillie Olsen
For The Mother Knot
“A wholly original and important book … I can’t imagine a woman who would not be moved, or a man who would not be enlightened.” – Adrienne Rich
Lazarre’s works have been translated into many languages, and her short fiction and essays have been widely anthologized. With John Edgar Wideman, she was a featured writer, discussing autobiography and race, in the PBS series, Matters of Race directed by the filmmaker Orlando Bagwell (Eyes On the Prize, Africans in America). Formerly on the faculty and a director of the Writing Program at Eugene Lang College/The New School, Lazarre has received awards for both writing and teaching. Lazarre recently completed a novel, Inheritance, and a book of poems, Bodies of Water. Of Inheritance, Nan Gefen (Publisher, Persimmon Tree) says it is “… beautifully written — shows how the themes of race play out in the most personal ways.” Lazarre is currently working on a memoir about writing and teaching.