Pandora's Kitchen - by Ron Koertge

About the Book

"The subjects in Ron Koertge's poems include Hades' unhappy wife Persephone, Nancy Drew, and Dracula's Wives. He has located Jane Austen at the mall, comforted the sun itself, and celebrated a winning day at the races. In an early poem, he extols his chosen vocation by saying this: "It's so great to be a poet. I'm basically self-employed with nobody to please but myself." Yet pleasing his many fans is at the top of his Things-To-Do list. That is why poets from Billy Collins to B. H. Fairchild have called his poems masterful, quirky, deliciously sly, inventive and surprisingly sweet"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

NATIONALLY-HONORED POET - POET LAUREATE OF SOUTH PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - PUSHCART PRIZE WINNER

Ron Koertge explores human fragility throughout history in his poetry collection, PANDORA'S KITCHEN

"Moral certainties and stereotypes vanish in these sly/subversive, satiric/tender, achingly funny/humane poems."-Amy Gerstler - "They are poetry at its best, causing his readers to laugh, think, and feel anew."-Billy Collins, former US poet laureate.

The subjects in Ron Koertge's poems include Hades' unhappy wife Persephone, Nancy Drew, and Dracula's Wives.

The subjects in Ron Koertge's poems include Hades' unhappy wife Persephone, Nancy Drew, and Dracula's Wives. He has located Jane Austen at the mall, comforted the sun itself, and celebrated a winning day at the races. In an early poem, he extols his chosen vocation by saying this: "It's so great to be a poet. I'm basically self-employed with nobody to please but myself." Yet pleasing his many fans is at the top of his Things-To-Do list. That is why poets from Billy Collins to B. H. Fairchild have called his poems masterful, quirky, deliciously sly, inventive and surprisingly sweet.

Review Quotes

"It appears that Ron Koertge will not rest until he has toppled every icon in Western civilization. Here it's Pandora, Ishmael aboard the "Peapod," and even Fanny Brawn who get flipped on their heads. If only his poems were not so witty, gently sarcastic, and deeply warm-hearted, they would be mere shenanigans. Instead, they are poetry at its best, causing his readers to laugh, think, and feel anew."
--Billy Collins, former US poet laureate

"Yes, Ron Koertge is a bit of a magician. He transforms master narratives (fairy tales, Bible stories, Greek myths, horror movies, and more) into poems rich with contradictions, role reversals, juicy ambiguities, and as Emily Dickinson put it, "truth's superb surprise." Moral certainties and stereotypes vanish in these sly/subversive, satiric/tender, achingly funny/humane poems. Koertge creates brilliant mashups of ancient and contemporary human frailties (spoiler alert: they remain the same across history) reminding us that the gods, monsters, aliens, and heroes whose stories we thirst for inhabit us all."
--Amy Gerstler, author of Scattered at Sea

About the Author

Ron Koertge, taught at Pasadena City College for thirty-seven years. A prolific writer, he has published more than thirty books of poetry and prose. Some of his most recent books are Fever (Red Hen Press 2006), Indigo (Red Hen Press 2009), The Ogre's Wife (Red Hen Press 2013), and Vampire Planet (Red Hen Press 2015). He is the recipient of grants from the NEA and the California Arts Council and has poems in two volumes of Best American Poetry (1999 and 2005). A recent Pushcart Prize winner, he is also the author of "Negative Space," the prose poem upon which the stop-motion film by the same name was based and was shortlisted for an Oscar in Animated Short Films in 2018. He resides in South Pasadena, California.