The poems in this book send intense probes into the depth of emotion, and at the same time play out an elliptical music of perceptions. Kalendek combines abstractions with a solid groundedness in the body and seems to compress untold tales into lines of energy.

Julie Kalendek was born in Baltimore. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University and is production manager for a nursery in northern Maryland that specializes in ornamental grasses, ferns and bamboo.

She has published a chapbook, The Fundamental Difference (Burning Deck, 1991), and a superb translation of the book-length poem, A Lesson in Music, by the French avantgarde poet Jean Daive (Burning Deck: Série d’Ecriture, 1992). Her poems have appeared in magazines like o.blek, Avec, Chain, and lingo.

Our Fortunes is her first full book.