Mermaid Songs - Sonnet Trilogies of Jan Dawkins



	MERMAID SONGS: The Sonnet Trilogies of Jan Dawkins, is a collection of sixty-nine modern Shakespearean sonnets, arranged thematically into twenty-three trilogies. In a melange of subjects and styles, both earthy and ethereal, sensual and spiritual, the imagination soars, exploring blissful fantasy and visceral reality, in intimate nuance and operatic grandeur. From desert oases to tropical waterfalls, from medieval castles to sand castles, from steaming jungle to crashing Big Sur surf, the murky depths of the hidden self are illuminated, like a coral reef glistening beneath the listening moon. John Waterhouse's evocative 1901 Pre-Raphaelite oil painting, A Mermaid, adorns the cover of the book, enticing us with its haunting sensuality. The introduction presents an historical and poetical overview of the sonnet, and delves into the mystery of its allure that has endured since the Renaissance.


	Jan Dawkins was a classical English literature teacher for nineteen years, including two years in England. She now lives on the southern California coast where she enjoys making jewelry; reading biographies; all the arts; and the glamour of the Golden Age of Hollywood with its Cattleya orchids, palm trees, and ocean sunsets.
	Publications and Awards: "Medieval Night" was the Winner of the Sir Philip Sidney Award in the 2007 International Poetry Competition of the World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets. "Guitar Solo" was the Runner-Up in the 2005 William Faulkner Poetry Competition. "Tropical Sunset" was published in Summer 2004 issue of The Lyric. "New Year's Eve," "Janus Look," "January," "February," and "March" were published in the 2004 Summer Issue of Pivot 57. Sonnets won five awards in the 2003 International Poetry Competition of the World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets. MERMAID SONGS was the Runner-Up in the 2002 San Diego Book Awards for Published Poetry Books. "Evening Star" and "Jungle Heat" were published in the Spring 2001 issue of The Lyric, America's oldest magazine for traditional poetry.
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