{"id":1405,"date":"2016-04-16T09:22:27","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T13:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crafttheshow.com\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2016-04-16T09:22:27","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T13:22:27","slug":"jill-bialosky-the-players-in-our-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/?p=1405","title":{"rendered":"Jill Bialosky: The Players in our lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jill<\/a><\/p>\n

-Andy Ross<\/p>\n

Home-runs and stadium chants do not typically fill the pages of a poetry collection, but then again, Jill Bialosky<\/a> is not your typical poet. The Ohio native\u2019s latest collection, The Players<\/em>, uses the baseball diamond as a landscape for thoughts on motherhood, gender roles, and the legacies of family. Jill Bialosky will be a featured guest at the Ohioana Book Festival<\/a>\u00a0on Saturday April 23rd. Check out the full interview<\/a> for information about The Players<\/em>, the Ohioana Book Festival, and more.<\/p>\n

The Players<\/em>, released in early 2015, is Bialosky\u2019s fourth poetry collection. The first section, \u201cManhood,\u201d finds itself in the middle of a baseball field. Chanting fans and baseball jargon frame the narrative of family relationships. The title itself is a bit of a play on words; it refers to the players on a team, as well as the central characters of a family dynamic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Players is very much about the legacy of generations. It explores the nature of attachment within these generations,\u201d Bialosky said. \u201cI also see it very much of a story on motherhood. So the players are really the players in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bialosky saw the impact of the sport on her family firsthand. Her son played baseball competitively throughout his childhood and was recruited to play at the college level. A self-described \u201cbaseball mother,\u201d Bialosky saw the sport as much more than a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really came to appreciate the game in a way I had never appreciated before,\u201d Bialosky said. \u201cThe skill, concentration, and commitment involved is, in some ways, very similar to the art of writing poetry.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while much of the collection uses baseball to carry its message, the collection does have three distinct movements: \u201cManhood,\u201d \u201cInterlude,\u201d and \u201cThe Players.\u201d The middle section, \u201cInterlude,\u201d forgoes the focus on direct family relationships in favor of one of Bialosky\u2019s more personal passions: literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are three poems in that section and they really deal with my love of literature,\u201d Bialosky continued. \u201cI was using that interlude as a way of writing about how the characters in novels can become players in our own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also released in 2015 is The Prize<\/em>, the most recent of three novels by Bialosky. Set in the bustling New York City arts scene, it intersects passion with commerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn The Players<\/em>, I use the baseball diamond as a way of reflecting on relationships,\u201d Bialosky said. \u201cIn The Prize<\/em>, I\u2019ve chosen the fascinating world of how art is made and sold.”<\/p>\n

Catch Jill Bialosky at Ohioana Book Festival on Saturday, April 23rd, where you can talk to her about her\u00a0four poetry collections, three novels, and a memoir: History of a Suicide.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/crafttheshow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Craft_2016-4-16_Bialosky.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-Andy Ross Home-runs and stadium chants do not typically fill the pages of a poetry collection, but then again, Jill Bialosky is not your typical poet. The Ohio native\u2019s latest collection, The Players, uses the baseball diamond as a landscape … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,110,14,12],"tags":[340,339,342,341],"class_list":["post-1405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creativity","category-ohioana","category-original-craft-productions","category-writing-advice","tag-history-of-a-suicide","tag-jill-bialosky","tag-the-players","tag-the-prize"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1405"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1413,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1405\/revisions\/1413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crafttheshow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}