Drama. The four plays of GUARDS OF THE HEART—"A Choice of History," "Seeing a Land," "Sojourn So Night," and "Guards of the Heart"—represent this author's writing from 1982-1986, writing that is song and poetry, yet is dramatically epic as Ibsen's Peer Gynt (which echoes in "Sojourn So Night") and Sophocles' Antigone (which reverberates in "Guards of the Heart"). Yet Ross's work is not imitative in the least. The young thinker-poets of Ross's dramas struggle with issues of life and death, but with 20th century post-Vietnam scepticism. Ross's truth is not a shared cultural perspective—although he and his characters search hard for that—but evolves from a wisdom that "guards the heart." The battles of Ross's dramas resound beyond the voicings of his beautiful language into the pure hope of bodily contact, of cadaver against cadaver shivering out their fever into the remainder of their lives.
Author City: PARIS FRA
Author of twelve books of poetry, Joe Ross was born in Pennsylvania and graduated magna cum laude from the Honors Program at Temple University in Philadelphia. He soon moved thereafter to Washington, D.C. where he wrote his first book, GUARDS OF THE HEART, consisting of four plays written in poetic form. In Washington, D.C., he worked at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and was extraordinarily active in the cultural scene of that city. He served as the President of the Board of the Poetry Committee at The Folger Shakespeare Library from 1994-1997 and as the Literary Editor of the arts bimonthly The Washington Review from 1991-1997. He also co-founded and directed the In Your Ear poetry reading series at the District of Columbia Arts Center. In 1997 he moved to San Diego, where he worked for the City of San Diego Commission's for Arts and Culture. In 1999, he left that position to put his poetics into practice, and to work directly in politics. He served as the Senior Chief of Policy for several elected officials. He also continued to be very active in the San Diego cultural scene, serving as a board member of the San Diego Art Institute and co-founding and curating the Beyond the Page reading series in that city. In 1997 he received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Award for his poetry. He currently resides in Paris.
Reviews and Other Links
author site