Shadow Face - "on the dissolving margins of motherhood" - in Lithub1. All through the winter, spring, and summer of my twins’ first year, I think about what it means to be so porous as a mother. The state of care and openness I sometimes feel, letting my edges go, sensing beyond myself, can be a sort of bliss. I hold baby S or baby A and close my eyes, lean my mind toward the invisible of them. Their essence. I sit in the backyard and breathe in the bergamot, let a channel open to the heavy, slow bees. Merging can be full of pleasure.
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The Whole Singing Ocean (2020)
"Lush, clear-eyed, insightful - a luminous poem." - Eleanor Wachtel, host of CBC's Writers and Company
Sparked by the eye of a whale, The Whole Singing Ocean plunges us into memory, magic, ecological grief and the true story of a boat school.
Part long poem, part investigation, the book explores the affair of the École en bateau, a French countercultural school. The École was inspired by the ideals of ’68 and the theories of Foucault, promising adventure and freedom from the hierarchies of everyday life. One of the aims on board was to abolish the separation between adults and children. As more troubling details are uncovered, Moore’s poetic inquiry is nudged along by an irreverent voice, foil to the narrator’s lyricism, and ultimately leads her toward echoes and traces in her own life and family history.
Dreams and transgression, sailor slang and the sacred, binaries and song underscore this book. At the heart of The Whole Singing Ocean is the question, How is it possible to hold two very different things—rapture and pain—at once?
Everything, now
“Everything, now is a powerful journey through love and loss – serving, ultimately, to unsettle any notion of a boundary between them. A gripping, personal narrative marked by sharp poetic language and insight often of a startling beauty, this is no ordinary book. The honesty and bravery of Moore's voice will remain with you long after the last page is turned.” —Johanna Skibsrud
“Everything, now – part lyric, part memoir – confronts the brutality of loss and resurrects a life by means of deeply felt narrative and vividly rendered images. Jessica Moore has constructed a moving testament to a much-loved partner and, by extension, to all those who have died far too soon.”
—Jane Urquhart
"This is poetry at its most primal, spiritual and souled. Everything, now is just this. Everything. Now." — Shannon Webb-Campbell, The Telegraph-Journal
"The poems are outstanding feats of imagination, such as the view of a tree seen from below the earth [...] (“Seasons”). Brilliant images undercut the pessimistic chaos expected of such tragedy." -- Matrix, 2013
A top twelve poetry book of 2012 in Salty Ink.
“Everything, now – part lyric, part memoir – confronts the brutality of loss and resurrects a life by means of deeply felt narrative and vividly rendered images. Jessica Moore has constructed a moving testament to a much-loved partner and, by extension, to all those who have died far too soon.”
—Jane Urquhart
"This is poetry at its most primal, spiritual and souled. Everything, now is just this. Everything. Now." — Shannon Webb-Campbell, The Telegraph-Journal
"The poems are outstanding feats of imagination, such as the view of a tree seen from below the earth [...] (“Seasons”). Brilliant images undercut the pessimistic chaos expected of such tragedy." -- Matrix, 2013
A top twelve poetry book of 2012 in Salty Ink.
Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore
A New York Times Top Ten Books of 2023
On the New Yorker Best Books of 2023 List
A Vanity Fair Top Twenty Books of 2023
Finalist for the French-American Prize
In mysterious, winding sentences gorgeously translated by Jessica Moore, De Kerangal gives us the story of Aliocha, a young Russian conscript, and Hélène, a traveler from France, two unlikely souls entwined in a quest for freedom, in this gripping tale set entirely onboard the Trans-Siberian Train.
On the New Yorker Best Books of 2023 List
A Vanity Fair Top Twenty Books of 2023
Finalist for the French-American Prize
In mysterious, winding sentences gorgeously translated by Jessica Moore, De Kerangal gives us the story of Aliocha, a young Russian conscript, and Hélène, a traveler from France, two unlikely souls entwined in a quest for freedom, in this gripping tale set entirely onboard the Trans-Siberian Train.
Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore
WINNER OF THE 2017 WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE
NOMINATED FOR THE 2016 INTERNATIONAL MAN BOOKER PRIZE
“From its glorious 300-word first sentence to the stately canopic imagery of its climactic scenes, Mend the Living, beautifully translated from the French by Jessica Moore, mimics the rhythm of the processes it depicts – the troughs and peaks of grief and protocol, of skills utilised and acceptance finally achieved.”
– The Guardian
“Jessica Moore’s deft, exacting, and nuanced translation brilliantly writes de Kerangal’s magnificent prose into a new English. A deeply compelling and moving read.”
– Oana Avasilichioaei, author of Limbinal
NOMINATED FOR THE 2016 INTERNATIONAL MAN BOOKER PRIZE
“From its glorious 300-word first sentence to the stately canopic imagery of its climactic scenes, Mend the Living, beautifully translated from the French by Jessica Moore, mimics the rhythm of the processes it depicts – the troughs and peaks of grief and protocol, of skills utilised and acceptance finally achieved.”
– The Guardian
“Jessica Moore’s deft, exacting, and nuanced translation brilliantly writes de Kerangal’s magnificent prose into a new English. A deeply compelling and moving read.”
– Oana Avasilichioaei, author of Limbinal
The Greats by Sylvain Prudhomme, translated by Jessica Moore
“The chronicle of a success story, a story of love and friendship set against the backdrop of a coup d’état, The Greats is also a beautifully written book. Vibrant and smooth, each line pulls us into an avalanche of sensations…. A sumptuous stroll through an Africa on the verge of a rebirth” --Les Inrockuptibles
“A magnificent ode to music, love, and friendship…. This book will change you.” --Lire
“It’s a coup. A wild success.” --l’Express
“Jessica Moore’s splendid translation captures the rhythm of Prudhomme’s heart-felt homage to Guinea-Bissau, the vivid detail of his night stroll through the country’s shifting music scene, its ruthless, recurring, political upheavals and its ongoing fight for independence.” –Martha Baillie, author of If Clara and The Search for Heinrich Schlögel
Birth of a Bridge by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore
“Ms. de Kerangal’s writing is always exuberant (and boisterously translated by Jessica Moore) … This delightful book’s unabashed idealism, combined with those playfully literary proper names, marks it as a kind of aspirational fairy tale. … Ms. de Kerangal gives us a Tocquevillian picture of America from its most flattering angle: An enterprising, melting-pot democracy driven by dreams of progress and happy to get its hands dirty…”
– Wall Street Journal
“The whole narrative unfolds in a dreamlike manner, and Moore’s translation is elegant and sensitively attuned to the author’s wordplay and neologisms.”
– Kirkus Reviews
Turkana Boy (poetic novel) by Jean-François Beauchemin, translated by Jessica Moore
The story of a single character's wonderings and wanderings after the unexplained disappearance of his twelve-year-old son. This book is punctuated with surreal questions and images. Jessica's translation has been praised by the author as being "un très beau travail... plus beau en anglais qu'en français." ("very beautiful work... even more beautiful in English than in French").
Jessica's translation of Turkana Boy, among other life events, has also inspired her own collection of poetry Everything, now (2012).
Connect with Jessica on her Goodreads page.
