On Thursday, April 15, 2021, Jean LeBlanc read multiple poems at a poetry reading over Zoom for Drew University students who attended the event. LeBlanc was invited to present to the university by Drew’s Poet’s Society.
LeBlanc, who resides in Newton, New Jersey, is an assistant English professor at Sussex Community College. According to the webpage dedicated to the event, LeBlanc is a published author, having released two anthologies — “A World Rediscovered” in 2012 and “Voices From Here” in 2009 — as well as multiple books. The poet’s most recent publication is a book called “Skating in Concord,” which was released in 2014 by the Anaphora Literary Press.
LeBlanc said, “I love how poetry tells us just so much and then the poet leaves it up to the reader to, to finish the poem really, so I thought I would make that literal and leave the brackets for you to fill in.”
According to LeBlanc, some of her inspiration for her poems comes from her teaching. She said that talking about Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, inspired one of her works which is entitled, “Penelope.” Another poem, which has a self-explanatory title, is clearly inspired by her work as a professor: “For My Student Who Said She Loved the Smell of the Cloisters but Couldn’t Describe It in the Essay She Wrote for English Comp.”
During the zoom poetry reading, LeBlanc read the aforementioned works and several other poems of hers. One of the included readings was “Skating in Concord.”
If you are interested in reading more of LeBlanc’s work, visit her website https://jeanleblancpoetry.blogspot.com/.
