Now Available here! O Body of Bliss, winner of The Longleaf Press Book Prize
HOME ALTAR
Winner of the Keystone Chapbook Prize
Seven Kitchens Press, 2023
Buy Here: Seven Kitchens Press
"It's hard to read poems that reference our Covid crisis--by that I mean, it's hard to read *the same poems*--but Certo’s are exceptional, and the collection overall has a surefootedness and depth that I admire."–Ron Mohring, editor, Seven Kitchens Press
ELIXIR
Winner, New American Poetry Prize
Winner, Lauria/Frasca Poetry Prize
Buy Here: Small Press Distribution
“In Janine Certo’s Elixir, the vivacity of the sensuous world serves also as a constant memento mori; like the Renaissance vanitas still lifes, such worldly pleasures shuttle us from the material to the spiritual. These are poems of luxury and joy—fried artichokes and art galleries. Limoncello and La bohème. But Certo is too smart for such comforts to exist unexamined. For glinting from the underbelly of ease is its constant endangerment. Death lurks behind each poem, so that the same mind that gives us hand-dipped ricotta reveals to us, as well, tender portraits of a father’s agonizing decline. ‘I believe in new edges,’ Certo writes. And it’s true—there are constant transformations at work throughout Elixir. On the one hand, beauty masks decay: ‘Write until the sage & fir candle kills the smell / of the wall’s rotting mouse.’ On the other, though, is the more difficult, the wiser, conversion: ‘The vacuum’s defective, so it sings.’ Thankfully, Certo has recorded for us such stunning songs.”
—Corey Van Landingham
“Janine Certo is a poet of grief and joy who searches inward and outward to find the transcendent meaning of ‘house and universe.’ Hers is a rare achievement: a philosopher's intelligence at work in poems of the domestic and natural worlds. In the deeply moving pantoum ‘Elixir for My Father,’ she weaves together her book's motifs: Italian American roots and family, love, life, and loss. Like idiosyncratic objects on a home altar, these poems are offerings of longing and hope. Through odes and elegies, her keen powers of observation and elegant language shine. Always, she holds onto beauty: ‘this sweet/bright life full of heartbeat/ & memory.’”
—Maria Terrone
IN THE CORNER OF THE LIVING
Runner-Up, Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award
Main Street Rag Publishing Company, 2017
Buy Here: Main Street Rag Online Bookstore
"One of the most sacred duties of the poet is to shine a light on what’s important in our fleeting, momentary lives—because what’s important is most often hiding in the margins, in the corners. Janine Certo is there to give us that help, to show us what matters before it’s too late." —Dan Albergotti
“In Janine Certo's In the Corner of the Living, there's no bombast, no hyperbole—only intelligence, craft, economy and compassion ranging from her father's disease to a fallen bird. Here are spare incisive poems that deserve our attention."—Marge Piercy
“Janine Certo asks, ‘What is it like to live your one life burning?’ These poems ache with longing and loss, yet resonate with a resilience rooted in love, empathy, and awe. Like the laughter in ‘The Whip-O-Whirl’ or the last tomato in ‘Heirloom,’ you’ll want to savor each sensation, each connection these poems offer.”—Wendy DeGroat
CHILDREN WRITING POEMS: POETIC VOICES IN AND OUT OF SCHOOL
Funded by The Spencer Foundation
Routledge Research in Education Series, 2018
Buy Here: Routledge, Barnes and Noble, & Amazon
"Bringing to bear the newest methodologies, Certo analyzes and offers new ideas for how to most productively teach poetry to younger students in order to create interested and capable lifelong writers and readers of poetry. Certo’s voice is one all who are interested in giving children voice need to hear."–Michael Theune, Illinois Wesleyan University, USA, author of Structure and Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns