A Day in Boyland by Jessy Randall (cover)

Attentive readers of this blog will be familiar with the name Jessy Randall. Jessy is my friend and colleague, and the curator of Special Collections at Tutt Library.

As I may or may not have mentioned up to now, Jessy is also a poet. Her first book, A Day in Boyland, was published earlier this year by Ghost Road Press. It’s a wonderful book. She writes about love and heartbreak and all that great stuff in a way that is personal and contemporary, honest but not sappy. You don’t have to take my word for it, as several of the poems from the book are online: A Day in Boyland, Boys on Bikes, and The Revenge.

She read from the book last week as part of the Colorado College Visiting Writers Series. On the poster for that series (which also included Salman Rushdie this year), Jessy was described as “delightful” and “edgy.” I told her that I thought it was a neat trick to be both delightful and edgy, and she replied that “delightful” = “female” and “edgy” = “funny.”

There were more adjectives flying around at the reading when CC poet and faculty member David Mason finished introducing Jessy by saying “After the reading, we’ll leave time for question so you will have a chance to ask Jessy what it is like to be a wacky, sexy, librarian poet.”

I, of course, didn’t ask that question as I already know what it is like (except for the poet part).

Anyway, the point is, you may not get the chance to hear her read, but you need to buy the book, for yourself or for your library. You can buy it from the publisher or the usual online mega-store