Poetry. "The comic genius of Judy Wells takes a serious turn in CALL HOME. Ninety-two-year-old Irene announces to her children that she is dying, and so the wake begins with the waggish matriarch in full attendance. In thirty-two poetic vignettes, Judy Wells tells the story of an Irish-American mother who has endowed her clan with a sense of drama and high humor that will prepare them to negotiate the pitfalls of property inheritance and re-negotiate what it means to be a family after the funeral. CALL HOME tells a deeply touching tale with universal relevance."—Bridget Connelly

Author City: BERKELEY, CA USA

Judy Wells was born in San Francisco and raised in Martinez, California. She received her B.A. from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition to CALL HOME (Scarlet Tanager, 2005) and EVERYTHING IRISH (Scarlet Tanager, 1999), she has five books of poetry to her credit: I Have Berkeley; Albuquerque Winter; Jane, Jane; The Part-Time Teacher; and The Calling: Twentieth Century Women Artists. Judy is also co-editor, with Marsha Hudson, Bridget Connelly, Doris Earnshaw, and Olivia Eielson, of The Berkeley Literary Women's Revolution: Essays from Marsha's Salon (McFarland, 2005).