Living off the grid in small-town middle America, capturing scenes of survival and reckoning, and examining family and personal histories are recurring themes in Jan Chronister’s full-length poetry collection “CAUGHT BETWEEN COASTS.” The “coasts” map birth and death, brother and sister, child and parent, along the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior where Chronister has lived. Poems address being a daughter, mother, and woman while inviting readers to consider honestly how these roles shape our lives. Called a “memorable collection” by Peggy Trojan, author of “Essence, Homefront: Childhood Memories of WWII” and “Free Range Kids,” and endorsed as “a poetic kaleidoscope,” this volume of short poems, spoken in pure language, is a multicolored story of the poet’s life… Warm, honest, often humorous, solid.
