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throughsmoke
Literary Nonfiction. "There are many ways I might describe Jehanne Dubrow's riveting new project, 'a capacious lyric essay that distills many voices into one' (true!), or 'a stirring meditation on the olfactory sensibility' (yes!), or even 'a remarkable compendium of facts about perfume' (indeed!). But THROUGHSMOKE is also an elegantly braided exploration of what fragrance opens up in us--a haunting and ephemeral guide, as the finest fragrances are, to memory, obsession, grief, and desire. 'Perhaps, it was inevitable that I love these things,' Dubrow's speaker muses at one point. It seems likewise inevitable that I would love this book."--Julie Marie Wade
- GenresNonfictionPoetryEssays
108 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2019
About the author
Jehanne Dubrow
22 books37 followersJehanne Dubrow is the author of nine books of poetry, including most recently, Wild Kingdom (Louisiana State University Press, 2021) and a book of creative nonfiction, throughsmoke: an essay in notes (New Rivers Press, 2019). Her previous poetry collections are American Samizdat, Dots & Dashes, The Arranged Marriage, Red Army Red, Stateside, From the Fever-World, and The Hardship Post. She has co-edited two anthologies, The Book of Scented Things: 100 Contemporary Poems about Perfume and Still Life with Poem: Contemporary Natures Mortes in Verse.
Jehanne's poems, essays, and book reviews have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Poetry, Southern Review, Pleiades, Colorado Review, and The New England Review. Her work has been featured by American Life in Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, The Slowdown, Fresh Air, The Academy of American Poets, as well as on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. She is the founding editor of the literary journal, Cherry Tree.
Jehanne earned a B.A. in the "Great Books" from St. John's College, an MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland, and a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In her free time, she is currently earning another MFA—this time in creative nonfiction—from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
She has been a recipient of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry from Beloit Poetry Journal, the Crab Orchard Series Open Competition Award, the Diode Editions Book Contest, the Editors' Prize in Prose from Bat City Review, the Firecracker Award in Prose from CLMP, the Mississippi Review Prize in Poetry, the Towson University Prize for Literature, an Individual Artist's Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship and a Howard Nemerov from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and a Sosland Foundation Fellowship from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The daughter of American diplomats, Jehanne was born in Vicenza, Italy and grew up in Yugoslavia, Zaire, Poland, Belgium, Austria, and the United States. She lives in Denton with her two Bedlington Terriers, Lola and Bandit, and with her husband, Jeremy, who recently retired from a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy. Jehanne is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Texas.
Jehanne's poems, essays, and book reviews have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Poetry, Southern Review, Pleiades, Colorado Review, and The New England Review. Her work has been featured by American Life in Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, The Slowdown, Fresh Air, The Academy of American Poets, as well as on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. She is the founding editor of the literary journal, Cherry Tree.
Jehanne earned a B.A. in the "Great Books" from St. John's College, an MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland, and a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In her free time, she is currently earning another MFA—this time in creative nonfiction—from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
She has been a recipient of the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry from Beloit Poetry Journal, the Crab Orchard Series Open Competition Award, the Diode Editions Book Contest, the Editors' Prize in Prose from Bat City Review, the Firecracker Award in Prose from CLMP, the Mississippi Review Prize in Poetry, the Towson University Prize for Literature, an Individual Artist's Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship and a Howard Nemerov from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and a Sosland Foundation Fellowship from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The daughter of American diplomats, Jehanne was born in Vicenza, Italy and grew up in Yugoslavia, Zaire, Poland, Belgium, Austria, and the United States. She lives in Denton with her two Bedlington Terriers, Lola and Bandit, and with her husband, Jeremy, who recently retired from a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy. Jehanne is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 19, 2020
Throughsmoke is an essay written through small notes that take place throughout the Author’s life. Each is unique and always brings into mind her fascination of perfume and the senses as she takes the reader along for a journey through her memories and the scents mingled throughout them.
There are many themes and topics addressed throughout the journey of the perfume collecting author, everything from the primitive nature of humans, the memory, and pushing through life changing events. As the reader, you get to follow her as she expresses how in a dark time, she finds refuge in scent. The description she takes to express her reasons for loving her collection of perfumes each comes with a sensual touch that can make anyone pause and truly think about what she’s expressing. Scent can capture snapshots of the memory that can’t be compared with by the other senses that humans possess.
This book is almost like poetry with the way the author goes into detail about the differences and intricate details about scent, wither it be natural, perfume, cologne, or any number of other fresheners. Her topic brings attention to a subject that isn’t commonly addressed and brings an appreciation for the sense of smell even if one isn’t attracted to retail scents. She brings create emphasis to the idea of capturing the memory in how it smells and how it can bring the mind back to its place of origin, whether that be a place, person, creature or thing. Throughsmoke is a very interesting and thought-provoking read though it isn’t a book for those who enjoy a good plot or a thrill. This is certainly a book for those who like an artistic and new approach to perceiving the world around them.
There are many themes and topics addressed throughout the journey of the perfume collecting author, everything from the primitive nature of humans, the memory, and pushing through life changing events. As the reader, you get to follow her as she expresses how in a dark time, she finds refuge in scent. The description she takes to express her reasons for loving her collection of perfumes each comes with a sensual touch that can make anyone pause and truly think about what she’s expressing. Scent can capture snapshots of the memory that can’t be compared with by the other senses that humans possess.
This book is almost like poetry with the way the author goes into detail about the differences and intricate details about scent, wither it be natural, perfume, cologne, or any number of other fresheners. Her topic brings attention to a subject that isn’t commonly addressed and brings an appreciation for the sense of smell even if one isn’t attracted to retail scents. She brings create emphasis to the idea of capturing the memory in how it smells and how it can bring the mind back to its place of origin, whether that be a place, person, creature or thing. Throughsmoke is a very interesting and thought-provoking read though it isn’t a book for those who enjoy a good plot or a thrill. This is certainly a book for those who like an artistic and new approach to perceiving the world around them.
September 18, 2019
This lyric essay is one of my favorite books I've read this year. As the title indicates, this is an essay in notes, and I love how the short, varied sections are braided together to create a layered, sensory-rich, and thought-provoking experience for the reader. I am not a perfume collector, but I absolutely loved the contemplation of fragrance.
July 20, 2019
My body cannot tolerate perfume but this lyric essay in notes was charming and made me wish I could enjoy perfume and find even a sliver of the love the author has for it in my heart. Extremely quotable and less about the history/background of perfume than the emotional experience of perfume though there are many lovely olfactory descriptions.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews