Cautionary Tales
with guest writer Jennifer Jabaily-Blackburn
“All cautionary tales are sisters.”
How can we build an episodic structure that connects seemingly unrelated elements in a poem? How might the “cautionary tale” act as an anchor for such a poem?
This week’s guest writer is Jennifer Blackburn.
From Joan: One of the things that I absolutely love about running this Substack is sharing work by writers whose style and/or voice are so different from mine! I am learning right along with all of you who subscribe! Enjoy Jen’s poem & prompts as you consider how to incorporate cautionary tales & episodic structures in your own writing.
From Jen: "Cautionary Tales" is a poem of seemingly unrelated elements held together by an episodic structure. The literal tale at its center was a 19th-century retelling of Bluebeard. I can't remember who wrote it, or where I read it. I remember having read it and being intrigued by its minutiae (those odd walnut shells). It is entirely possible to make connections between seemingly disparate elements in a poem, and to make them in ways that would feel implausible in more linear conversation or storytelling. When did Sister— the last bear to be killed by rangers at Brooks Camp, Katmai National Park, Alaska— arrive in this poem? I can't remember, but once she did, it was clear she belonged.
About the author: Jen Jabaily-Blackburn is the author of the full-length collection Girl in a Bear Suit (Elixir Press, 2024) and the e-chapbook Disambiguation (Salamander/Suffolk University, 2024) She is the winner of the Louisa Solano Memorial Emerging Poet Award from Salamander, selected by Stephanie Burt. Her recent work has appeared in or is coming soon from On the Seawall, The Common, SIR, Arkansas International, Palette Poetry, Salamander, Fugue, and Banshee, and her poems have twice been selected for Best New Poets. In 2024, she joined the advisory board of Perugia Press, and she is an associate editor of Nine Syllables Press, housed at Smith College, where she is the Program & Outreach coordinator for the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center. Find her here: Website / IG & Bluesky @ jenjblackburn Email jenjblackburn@gmail.com to order her book.
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